need help ordering a deck!

[waker17]

Ok, so I'm a wakeboarder, but wakeboarding is a pretty seasonal sport, plus I want to be able to do a sport that I can do whenever I want. Plus, skating is fun. Anyway, I have an brand new element deck that someone gave me but judging from the advice on this forum, elements suck, haha. (weird because they used to be the shit i thought).
Anyway, it seems like a lot of people recommend blankdecks.com, and after checking them out I think i want to order a complete from them, but I need advice. As a beginner what board shape do I want? Seems like theres plenty to choose from. Also, would ordering blank trucks, blank wheels, etc.. be legit? Or should i get brand name stuff for that. And finally, are these blank decks comparable quality to the bigger names in the skateboarding industry?

Thanks for the help, i wanna get skating.

[Le_MoNaDe]

Who cares man, skate that element, I've seen people ripping on them! just skate it till it breaks!

[Fenrisulfr]

Element WERE good a few years ago, but they switched distribution and are pretty terrible now.

I'd still skate it though, since you already have it.

[waker17]

yeah for sure. i will prolly end up just skating it.
However, my friend is also looking to get a blank off that website. He is a beginner too, so which board shape should he look at? Are the blank trucks good enough? What size wheel and what hardness?

Thanks guys.

[frontside_slapp]

As previously suggested, skate the Element deck until it's toast. I see lots of people gettin' gnarl on them. Blank wheels should be fine, IMO. You just need to decide what size and hardness you want. I would, however, suggest getting some name brand trucks of your liking, as your trucks are probably what's going to last you the longest of all the components on your skateboard. Ventures, Indy, Thunders, Krux, and many more to choose from. I happen to like Indys, but that's just me and not to say that any other name brand trucks available aren't cool.

Have fun

[strong_racing43]

Even how much I hate Element, I would skate it untill i broke it.

For your friend
California blank deck
Krux or Indy trucks
Blank wheels
Reds bearings
Jessup grip

[waker17]

hey thanks a lot guys.

any suggestions on wheel size or hardness? also, board width? I know these are mainly rider preference but I would like some input just to make sure i dont choose soemthing completely ridiculous.

[skizzate]

Well, generaly I like all my stuff alittle larger. My wheels at the moment are 55.5's soft wheels, my trucks are (4.0 krux) 8'', my deck is 8''. I only wear a size 10, im 5'10'' and im just a small guy. I skate mainly street too. Really you just got to get a feel for whatever.
If I skate anything under a 8 it feels like a twig to me. Just experiment.

[frontside_slapp]

hey thanks a lot guys.

any suggestions on wheel size or hardness? also, board width? I know these are mainly rider preference but I would like some input just to make sure i dont choose soemthing completely ridiculous.

Your board width, trucks and to some extent, wheel choice will go hand in hand. I suggest getting a truck that gets your wheels flush to the edge of the board. I skate a 9" wide deck and my trucks are Indy 169s, which are 9" width. Hence, my wheels are just about to the edge of the deck on the tail. IMO, if your wheels aren't flush with the edge of your deck (or VERY close to it), the skateboard will very "tipsy." But this may be desireable to you, though I wouldn't recommend it. This is just a rule of thumb from way back when, though YMMV

I don't street skate any longer, so I won't comment on size and hardness of the wheels or skateboard width. HOWEVER, I do believe that the above criteria is valid, even for street skaters today.

My $0.02

[Ramp]