Is a longboard or penny board easier to ride?

Rider Height and Weight makes a huge difference in when considering how a Penny Board vs Longboard will ride — and is the primary indicator of which board is best / easiest to ride for you. Get advice by Rider Height & Weight....

4 years ago

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Your height and weigh as a rider is a big deal when choosing a board, figuring out whether to go with a Longboard or a Penny Board is no different.

For most average size riders (5ft 5 inches to 6ft) a longboard is easier to ride than a Penny particularly if you have never stepped on a skateboard, longboard or Penny Board previously. The main reason behind that is Penny Boards have a very small standing platform, and super narrow shape, that makes balancing harder — going too far forward or too far back means losing control or tipping over forward.

That problem is amplified by the fact the small standing platform on Penny Boards means your feet will be closer together (more narrow / tight stance) — which also reduces control and makes it harder to balance.
Notice the large amount of space that is not useful to stand on in front of the front wheels. For a very small board the shape and design decisions made by Penny Board designers don't make sense to a lot of people and make riding more difficult than it needs to be for larger riders.

Short Standing Platform Makes It Harder

Don't get towed behind a car — but if you do DEFINITELY don't get towed while riding a Penny Board. The lack of stability and control on a Penny Board makes that even worse. In the video above the flex of the cheap plastic combine with a narrow board and short wheelbase to result in a crash that could have been avoided.

On the other hand a longboard has a much wider effective standing platform resulting in more stability and comfort for cruising (and learning) than the dramatically smaller Penny — which is just a bit bigger than the length of your foot.

More Standing Platform = Easier to Balance on a Longboard

Longboards are going to give you a much longer and wider standing platform for balance while also being more forgiving for pushing than a skinny little piece of plastic on wheels. More room for your feet means a more comfy ride — compare that to the incredibly small amount of space the Penny Board allows (which is even worse if you are a taller or heavier rider). Think about it like wearing a shoe that's slightly too small, no room for your actual size.

Still feel like a penny is the way to go? No judgement, click here to see more →

Bigger Better Wheels on Longboards = Less Pushing and Easier Cruising.

The bigger wheel size used on Longboards is also going to roll over rocks, cracks and bumps way easier while a Penny Board with small wheels will hang up on cracks and rocks — that usually will unexpectedly buck you forward (possibly onto your face) and means riding a Penny Board requires way more attention, just to make sure you avoid those rocks and cracks.

Performance composite construction Longboards like the Apex 40 DiamondDrop last longer and provide a HUGE increase in performance (tricks, slides, cruising, carving, downhill) compared to the cheap plastic used in a Penny Board.
Like what you see? Click here to learn more about the Apex 40 DiamondDrop →

Penny Board wheels are small (which slows them down and requires more effort pushing) but they are also made out of less expensive, lower performance, urethane that  slows them down further making cruising long distances harder on a Penny.  It's way easier to push fewer times and coast / ride further but most importantly being able to coast & ride with less pushing means you will improve faster as a beginner on a Longboard since more time is spent riding and less time is spent pushing.

Having larger good quality longboard wheels made with performance urethane and supportive cores is going to help you ride around town, coast further, learn faster and handle whatever features the street has to throw at you.

Easier Slides on a Longboard = Control Your Speed

That same urethane also makes a lot of tricks / slides easier on Longboards than they are on a Penny Board.  The poor quality Penny Board urethane doesn't slide well and the narrow shape (with no concave) means it's not easy to slide a Penny Board and even it was the instability of the Penny setup means they are difficult to control when riding down hills.

Some skateboards and longboards do bridge the gap and are meant for both hill riding and skate parks and tricks. If you want a little bit of everything that could be a good choice.
The narrowness of Penny Boards combines with the short wheel base to make it VERY difficult to recover quickly if you make a mistake — that means more wipe outs, more injuries and less safe ride sessions.

Longboard trucks make turning easier

Even the trucks will help create more stability for your ride on a longboard —  because of their wider size and reverse kingpin design longboard trucks also make turning easier than a traditional kingpin skateboard truck that you'll find on a Penny. Plus the Penny trucks are incredibly narrow to match the already super narrow width of the board making it more unstable and sketchy to learn on than a longboard.

Even when you aren't looking for pure downhill speed, higher quality components that are used in performance longboards will lead to more fun when cruising and carving — and let you learn faster as a beginner.
Turn on a dime and ride in style (and comfort) with the Pintail Series. Click here to learn more about the Pintail 40 →

Penny Boards are cheap — but they are not easy to learn on and even experienced riders need to pay more attention to make sure they avoid cracks, rocks, and hills in general.  The only place a Penny Board is really better than a Longboard is if you need to fit it in your backpack, or skate through a crowded airport — in those instances the small size makes the Penny Board an awesome option.

Sam Radtke

Published 4 years ago

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