What Size Skateboard Should I Get? A Beginner's Guide to Deck Sizing
Walk into skateboarding for the first time and the questions arrive quickly. Street or park? Push mongo or not? And, before any of that, the one nearly everyone asks: what size skateboard should I get? It sounds like it should have a tidy answer, yet a wall of decks marked 7.75, 8.0 and 8.25 can leave a beginner (or a parent buying for one) completely stumped.
The good news is that skateboard sizing is far simpler than the numbers suggest. Once you know what those figures mean and which one actually matters, choosing the right board takes about two minutes. Here is how to get it right first time.
Deck width is the number that matters
When skaters talk about skateboard sizes, they almost always mean the width of the deck, measured in inches across the middle. That is the figure printed on the grip or the box, and it is the one to focus on. Most street and park decks sit between 7.5in and 8.5in, and the difference between them changes how the board feels under your feet.
Narrower decks (roughly 7.5in to 8.0in) are lighter and flick around more easily, which suits technical street skating, flip tricks and smaller riders. Wider decks (8.25in and up) give you more surface area, more stability and a planted feel that riders tend to prefer for ramps, bowls and cruising. Nothing is set in stone here: plenty of pros ride a wide board on the street and plenty ride narrow in the park. Width is a preference, not a rule.
Deck length (usually 28in to 32in) and wheelbase get far less attention, and rightly so. For a beginner they make almost no practical difference, so you can safely ignore them and let width lead the decision.
What size skateboard should I get? A simple size chart
Age is a rough guide at best, because a tall nine year old and a small adult might happily ride the same board. Height and shoe size are more reliable. Use this as a starting point for a first all-round setup, then adjust to taste as you progress.
| Rider | Approx. UK shoe size | Deck width |
|---|---|---|
| Young child (about 5 and under) | Up to 12 (kids) | 6.5in to 6.75in (micro) |
| Child (about 6 to 8) | 13 to 2 | 7.0in (mini) |
| Older child (about 9 to 12) | 3 to 6 | 7.3in (mid) |
| Teen and adult, street lean | 6 to 8 | 7.75in to 8.0in |
| Teen and adult, all-round or park | 9 and up | 8.0in to 8.25in+ |
If you are ever caught between two sizes, most beginners are well served by an 8.0in deck. It is the most popular width in skateboarding for a reason: stable enough to learn on, narrow enough to learn tricks with, and comfortable for a huge range of riders. When people ask what size skate deck should I get and give no other detail, 8.0in is the safe answer.
Buying a skateboard for a child
Sizing for kids trips up a lot of parents, usually in the same way: the board looks small next to an adult deck, so it feels like the wrong choice. It is not. A skateboard for a 7 year old should be narrower and shorter so their feet can actually control it and the board is not too heavy to pop. An adult-sized 8.25in deck under a small child is genuinely harder to learn on, not a helpful head start.
Because children grow, buying a shade up rather than a shade down is sensible, but only within reason. Aim for a deck that matches their height and shoe size now, and let them ride it out. A well chosen mini complete like the Tony Hawk 360 Utopia Mini gives a younger rider a board that is the right scale from the first push, which matters far more for confidence than a couple of spare inches.
Trucks and wheels should match the deck
A skateboard is only as good as its parts working together, and the two that beginners most often get wrong are trucks and wheels. The trucks (the metal axles) should roughly match your deck width, so the wheels sit more or less flush with the edges. Trucks that are too narrow make the board twitchy; too wide and it feels sluggish. On a complete this is already sorted for you, which is one less thing to think about.
Wheels are measured in millimetres for size and by a durometer number for hardness. For learning tricks on flat ground and at the skatepark, smaller and harder wheels (around 50mm to 54mm, 99a or so) are the norm. Softer, larger wheels roll better over rough pavements if you mainly want to cruise. Again, a sensible starter setup will already be sitting in a useful middle ground.
Complete or custom: what makes a good starter skateboard
You can build a board piece by piece, choosing your own deck, trucks, wheels, bearings and grip. It is part of the fun once you know what you like. For a first board, though, a complete is almost always the smarter buy: the parts are matched, the price is lower than buying separately, and you can skate it out of the box. A good starter skateboard is simply a complete in the right width, from a brand that uses proper maple decks rather than a toy-shop imitation.
If you are shopping, our range of complete skateboards is grouped by size, so you can filter straight to the width you settled on above and skip the guesswork. Once you have ridden a complete for a season, you will have a much clearer sense of whether you want to go wider, narrower or start swapping parts.
One more thing before you skate
Whatever size deck you land on, the single best upgrade to a first session is protection. Wrists, elbows and heads all meet the ground when you are learning, and a helmet is not optional for younger riders. It is worth spending a few minutes finding a helmet that fits properly alongside the board, plus wrist guards and knee pads if you can. Confidence comes a lot faster when a slam does not hurt.
So, what size skateboard should you get? Match the deck width to the rider, lean towards 8.0in if you are genuinely unsure, size children down rather than up, and let a complete handle the fiddly bits. Get that right and the only thing left to work out is the fun part: where to skate first.
