Longboard Size Archives - Longboarding Nation

Longboard Designs: How to Choose

Longboarding is one of the most fun things you can do standing up. There’s no better way to get around than by longboard. For many, it’s an alternative way of getting around short distances with less expense and impact on their local environment. Just like cycling, longboarding can also be rightly used as personal transportation, for regularly short commutes between home and work and other points in between. But the activity is also part of the culture of skateboarding from which it derives many of its basic designs and skillsets.

Longboarding and skateboarding emerged in the mid-1950s, around the same time the surfing scene exploded in Southern California. When the waves weren’t breaking, the surfers took to the streets on their homemade boards, carving up the pavement in a way that mimicked the turns of surfing. Pretty soon, “sidewalk surfing” became a sport in its own right, which ultimately led to the emergence of skateboarding in the 60s and 70s. Longboarding is a constantly evolving sport today which blends many styles and disciplines. In the recent years, sport good manufacturers have become increasingly more devoted to developing well-designed, high-performance boards for every type of rider.

How to Choose

However, there’s a lot more to longboards than meets the eye. Longboards come in different shapes, construction, and features, and they are designed for various riding styles and abilities. When selecting your longboard, keep in mind that there is a ton of crossover between each riding style and many decks are great options for multiple styles of riding. Remember, a complete longboard is assembled from all the same types of components that make up a typical skateboard. However, certain features are often modified or enlarged to reflect a longboarder’s need for stability, carvability, and vibration dampening.

Boards come in different shapes and designs for every style. Personal choice is a large factor in this as many shapes are right. So we’ve created this small guide to take the guesswork out of longboard selection and get you on the streets as fast as possible.

Cruising/Carving Boards

Cruising and carving are all about carving down gradually sloped streets, ripping through the quad on your way to class, and long distance pushes on flat or slightly sloped ground. When most people think of longboards, these are usually the first that come to mind. The classic pintail shape made its appearance in the early 90’s and is still one of the most common shapes seen on the streets, sidewalks, and boardwalks today. Longboard cruising and carving are a great alternative to jogging or biking for exercise. The spectrum of cruiser boards is about as vague as longboard styles get and you can find all the different types of super long cruisers, mini cruisers, old-school cruisers and everything in between.

Downhill Boards

The most extreme and exhilarating discipline of longboarding is referred to simply as downhill. This type of longboarding is all about bombing hills as fast as you can while maintaining control. Riders use protective slide gloves with plastic pucks so they can slide their hands across the surface of the road while performing technical drifts and tight cornering. Just like in freeriding, it’s not uncommon t break those wheels out in a slide to control your speed, so true downhill isn’t the best style of riding for brand new riders. Downhill boards are usually 35-45″ long, plus they are stiffer than a board used for casual riding because the rigidity enhances stability and lends more control to the rider at high speeds. In general, a longer wheelbase (25-32″) is used for faster riding.

Freeriding Boards

Freeride is a far more accessible form of downhill longboarding or skateboarding. Freeriding means that you are riding hills with a fair amount of speed while styling it up with slides and curb hops, as well as sliding to control your speed on bigger descents. This is a fun riding style that is a great way for beginners to get comfortable on their boards and learn how to control without using their hands. Stability and turnability is the key when freeriding. A 38-42″ length and 8.5-11″ width, stiffer deck works well to keep stable when going fast while keeping within a good wheelbase for turnability. A cut-out shape with deep wheel wells is most common to prevent wheel bite at high speeds and deep carves.

Freestyle Boards

Freestyle boarding is all about being creative, so you can pretty much ride whatever you want. It involves many technical skills such as sliding, board tricks, goofy riding, and dancing, just to name a few. This type of riding is ideal for beginners who wish to learn board control skills, but can also be enjoyed by expert riders alike. It incorporates dancing maneuvers with technical flat ground tricks and any other stylish elements that the rider wishes to mix in. Freestyle has many different varieties that fall under its general definition. Freestyle decks usually have medium length wheelbase options (20-28″) and a moderately flexible construction for more stability on technical trick riding. If you’d like to focus on your dancing moves, you might want to buy a board with a longer wheelbase (28-35″) and effective standing platform.

Slalom Boards

Slaloming is similar to the slalom associated to snow/water skiing. It is when you weave in and out of obstacles down a course or around whatever is facing you. Riders use a technique called ‘pumping’ to maintain the speed that is gyrating the body and maintaining continuous carve to propel themselves. A slalom board can come in many styles, the length generally sitting around 36-40″ keeping the wheelbase short enough to provide good turn radius and carving ability. A top-mount board will give you more leverage and carve for your lean. The decks or boards for slalom are generally longer than typical longboards and include materials such as carbon fiber and foam cores, to increase board responsiveness and strength.

Twin (Symmetrical) Boards

Twin kicktails and a symmetrical shape are best preferred for freestyle because you often find yourself riding the board both ways. Drop through mounting and micro-drops are often incorporated into these types of decks as well. A symmetrical board looks and feels the same regardless of which way it is facing. If you plan on doing any 180-degree slides – which is quite common in freeriding and freestyle – a symmetrical board is a way to go.

Unlike its counterpart, the skateboard, a longboard varies in shape and size and has more stability, traction, and durability due to larger wheel size and lower wheel durometers. Many longboards use trucks that contain different geometric parameters than a skateboard as well. These factors and their variation have given way to a variety of disciplines, functions, and purposes for a longboard. There’s actually a lot for you to take into consideration when selecting the right longboard design. The most important thing, however, is to have FUN!

Longboard Sizes

Longboards are not the same as skateboards. The claim may seem obvious, but the matter actually goes deeper than you might think. Although both types of boards were spawned as means to give surfers a way to enjoy the rolling motion when the surf is low or the weather too rough, skateboards are better suited for intense bursts of motion and performing tricks, whereas longboards come into play for longer distances and greater speeds.

Building upon this, skateboards are, while more maneuverable, also less stable, whereas longboards are more stable while being less maneuverable. Generally speaking, longboards are a subtype of skateboards, with the most striking difference being not size, as one might expect, but rather its build. As far as the size goes, skateboards are usually around 30 inches long, with the usual width of about 7 inches, while longboards can go anywhere from 22 to 45 plus inches, with an average width of about 9 inches.

How to Choose the Right Longboard Size

Speaking specifically of longboards, there are a few things you need to mull over if you’re planning to buy one (especially if it’s the baby’s first) – length, width, flex, style, shape and a couple of other features. Naturally, this will all depend on what you plan to use the board for. Remember, unlike skateboards, which are pretty much used for tricks and turns, longboards are perfectly suitable for a bunch of other activities, such as commuting, hill-bombing, street-carving, and, yes, even performing tricks.

In essence, there are four types of longboards, going by the style of longboarding they are used for and related specs – cruising (or carving), downhill, freeride and freestyle (although this is roughly speaking, and some longboarders may argue for a different division). Before going into detail and recommendation for each, let’s dwell upon the specs for the decks and how they affect the board’s performance.

First of all, the length; the rule of thumb says – the longer, the more stable the board. This goes vice versa – the shorter, the less stable the board, but it’s also more maneuverable and you can carve streets and turn corners much more efficiently.
Speaking of deck dimensions, the width of the board generally follows the same rule of thumb – the wider, the more stable. Seeing as longboard sizes go from 22 to 45+ inches, it stands to reason that the width should follow the trend, so the smaller ones are about 7 inches wide (like a skateboard), while larger ones can go up to 9 inches.

Longboard size is not the only thing you need to consider – there’s also the board flex, or the ability to absorb shocks and provide a spring-like feel when you ride it, which adds energy for pushes and carves. Naturally, the flex also affects the board’s overall stability. Roughly speaking, you have the soft, the medium, and the stiff type, the choice largely depending on your preferred style of longboarding.

Of course, you should also consider the style you want, meaning how low you want the deck to go. The choice is between top-mount, drop-through, drop deck and double drop, the order being indicative of the level of stability each style provides, from the least stable to the most.

Moreover, the lower the drop, the less energy you’ll have to expend for pushing or breaking. As you might’ve guessed, the top-mount style puts the deck above the trucks, while the drop-through features the trucks mounted through the board (plot twist!). On drop decks, the deck actually sits below the truck area, and you can guess what the double drop does.

The shape is also an important criterion, but not the crucial one. Basically, it will affect what you can (or can’t) do with your board, and there are only two ways to go – directional or symmetrical. The first type is great for carvers, cruisers and downhill longboarders, while the second (aka twin board) is better suited for freeriding and freestyle longboarding.
Sure enough, there are other features you need to take into account – if the board has a kick tail (good for tricks, but nonessential), or what’s the type of indent (enhances the grip your feet have on the board).

So, what are the recommended longboard sizes for the various types of longboarding? Let’s do this by the numbers.

Cruising

Whether you plan on carving down sloped streets, cruising through the campus on your way to lectures, or just traveling long, flat stretches visiting your significant other living one county over, you need stability and comfort.

As far as the length goes, anything between 28 and 46 inches is OK, with the shorter boards being better for quick turns and sharp angles, and longer ones for carving at higher speeds due to greater stability. Moreover, longboards between 28 and 32 inches are ideal if you’re looking for the baby’s first, or if you’re a short rider, but tall boarders can also opt for these if they’re seasoned and confident enough.

Speaking of beginners, the most recommended size would be between 32 and 42 inches, irrespective of your height. So, if you’re tired of borrowing your friend’s board for short cruises (or they are), you might want to go for something in this range. On the other hand, if you need something for a longer, more relaxed ride, don’t be afraid to go over 40 inches. Keep in mind, though, that the weight grows with the length.

Downhill

Downhill longboarding is the most competitive aspect of the whole activity, and counts as a sport in its own right, with boarders developing speeds of about 50mph. If you like bombing hills as fast as you can while maintaining some degree of control, then you need the right board to help you. What you need is a longer board, 36 inches and above, with a drop through the deck, w-concave and square-lip wheels. If you’re just getting started with downhill boarding, you might consider 40-inch long board or longer, just to be on the safe side. A word of warning, though – don’t begin longboarding with downhill; for your own safety, practice a good long while before even thinking of this.

Freeride

Freeriding implies riding hills at a decent speed, spicing it up with some slides and curbs, so it requires some skill and comfort with high speeds. Naturally, this also requires a stable board, so anything between 38 and 42 inches is ok. Don’t go below 38 inches, so you don’t compromise the stability, but also don’t go above 42, so you keep the maneuverability keep it from becoming too cumbersome.

Freestyle

Freestyle really doesn’t have any requirements, as the title might suggest. It’s open to both newbies and pros, the only limiting factor being your proficiency. Freestyle is all about creativity, so your board needs to be the right combo of stability and nimbleness, and the biggest decision would actually be choosing the design and color pattern.