Penny Boards are small, skateboards that are light-weight, easy to carry, and available in every color imaginable. Today, we will look at Penny Boards to help you decide if they good for beginners.
Are Penny Boards good for beginners? It depends, a 32″ Penny Board is fine for beginners but the 22″ and 27″ variants are too small and unstable for new skaters. Another downside is that they are slippery and the flexible deck makes it harder to keep your balance.
Your feet will stick out and your legs will be closer together compared to regular-sized skateboards. Don’t make the mistake of starting out on a small Penny board.
Contents
What is a Penny Board?
Penny Skateboards is an Australian-based company founded in 2010 by Ben Mackay. They make skateboards in 3 sizes: Penny (22” long deck), Nickel (27” long deck), and the cruiser variant (32” long deck).
There are been many companies that offer plastic skateboards and as a result, almost any plastic skateboard is referred to as a Penny Board We will be referring to the 22” Penny Board for our discussion.
A Penny Board is a small, light, moulded plastic deck skateboard, which are often sold as a complete setup (deck, wheels, and trucks preassembled) in skateshops, but you can also buy the components separately, and design your ideal setup.
They have wide (about 3” wide), soft (83a on the durometer scale), 59mm diameter polyurethane wheels with a plastic core.
Penny Boards also use a ABEC 7 bearing, which is a fast (ABEC doesn’t really matter) and a quality bearing. The truck hangars are 3” wide and designed for use with the Penny Board, to make it turn sharply and perform as intended.
The Penny Board shape is very classic, or “retro”. The shape is based off some of the original skateboards in the 1960’s and 1970’s. They are quite narrow (about 6-7” at the widest), have a somewhat pointed nose, reaching its maximum width after the front truck bolts, and gradually narrows back down to the tail. They have a kicktail, but there is no kick on the nose. The front trucks are also set quite close up to the end of the nose.
Penny Boards are available in almost any colour imaginable. They are also available with screened graphics their deck bottoms. A Penny Board does not have griptape, instead it has a “waffle grip pattern” moulded to the top as part of the deck manufacturing process.
What Are Penny Boards Used For?
Penny Boards were designed as cruiser boards, and are quite good for commuting. They are small and lightweight so they can easily fit in a backpack.
The wheels are larger and softer than most street/park skateboards, so they are able to tackle cracks, pebbles, and rougher terrain. Much easier than with a smaller and harder street wheel.
Usually street wheels have a hardness between 99a-104a, and a size of 50mm-56mm. The light size, big soft wheels, and bearings allow the rider to get some fast speeds on this board, with minimal pushing, and a nice smooth ride.
The tail kick also allows the rider to lift up the front easily when going over curbs and big cracks. They are perfect for cruising!
Is a Penny Board Good for a Complete Beginner?
This is a 2 part answer:
Maybe- for a small and young beginner, a Penny Board would be an option to learn fundamentals, like balance, and how to push, turn and cruise around. Because the wheelbase is so small, and the wheels are fast, a Penny Board can almost turn on a dime (or better yet a penny!).
They are built for cruising, and cruise very well. If you learn to cruise and carve tight and fast on a Penny Board, you should have acquired the skills to ride almost any other board shape comfortably, with some adjustments to your stance.
NO- Because it is so small, and fast, the Penny Board is not very stable. The trucks are adjustable, so you can tighten them to add stability, however, because it is only 22” long, your feet are placed close together, and you are not able to crouch as easily as you could with a longer board.
Having a wider, more crouched stance, makes the skater more stable than a narrow, more upright stance. For an adult, or anyone with feet over size 9, the Penny Board will probably be too small to feel comfortable on, and will take more effort to be able to learn to ride with any stability.
Are Penny Boards Good for Learning Tricks?
This is a 1 part answer:
NO- The Penny Boards are not a good option for beginners learning how to do tricks; they are built for cruising, not for performing advanced tricks.
On a Penny Board you can learn tricks like pushing, riding switch, kick turns, power-slides, manuals, layback carves (laying back/forward and carving hard with a hand on the ground), and rolling off of curbs.
Tricks where you don’t leave the ground, are probably about all you could learn to do, as a beginner. There are video clips of people doing kickflips and Tre-flips on Penny Boards, but most likely those skaters didn’t learn to do those tricks on a Penny Board first.
Given the small size, soft wheels, no griptape, and only one kick, you will struggle to learn how to do technical tricks that require an ollie, or flipping the board, as the small Penny Board is hard to catch and land back onto.
Grinding tricks would also be very difficult to learn because the board and trucks are very narrow, and the wheels are large, soft, and wide, so “locking in” to the grind will be very difficult.
When to Get a Penny Board
A Penny Board is an option for someone smaller that wants to learn how to ride a skateboard, but not learn advanced tricks. For beginners, especially smaller people, the Penny is an excellent option for learning balance, pushing, turning, carving and basic fundamentals.
Keep in mind that it’s a lot harder to learn skateboarding on a small Penny board compared to a popsicle skateboard.
If you are looking to learn how to cruise, for commuting to work, the corner store or to school, with a smaller lighter board that will fit in your backpack, locker, or under your work desk, the Penny Board is a terrific option.
If you are a kid with bigger feet or an adult, a larger Penny Nickel Board would be a better choice for you than the smaller Penny Board.
Are Penny Boards Cheaper?
Not really. penny skateboards has its complete models listed for about $90 – $119 USD. A decent complete “popsicle shape” trick skateboard sells for about $60 – $70 USD for a blank complete, and a higher-end complete, with a graphic deck, and branded trucks and wheels for between $100 – $120 USD.
An official Penny Board is a branded complete, and the price is comparable to a branded complete from companies like Santa Cruz, or Birdhouse.
Conclusion
If you are a beginner wanting to learn the basic fundamentals of riding a skateboard, the 32″ Penny Board is a decent option. They are durable and lightweight, and of similar cost to other skateboards. They are designed for cruising, with their lightweight, larger and soft wheels, which they do very well.
If you are a beginner wanting to learn to skateboard with the intent of learning ollies, grinds, ramp riding and more advanced tricks, a Penny Board will not be a good choice for you. The small size, shape, and components make learning tricks very difficult. Pick a more stable, popsicle shaped complete if you want to learn tricks in the future.
I’m an aged skateboarder and still shred responsibly. Started skateboarding 25 years ago, peaked in the 2000’s, and still ride to this day. I am a total geek when it comes to skateboard gear, love test to stuff and share my findings.