Skateboarding has always been a passion for me throughout my whole life. After moving from my hometown in California, my love for skateboarding definitely grew. My brother, Adrian, and I ended up going to buy a brand new skateboard to build last Wednesday and it ended up being a great experience. The main reason why I decided to build a new skateboard now is because my old skateboard that I have been using for awhile has not aged well and is about to break. The store I visited in the Potomac Mills Mall that I recommend for skateboards is Zumiez because I know that they always have the newest products to buy and they usually have great sales.

I started with buying the deck size I typically get which is 8.0, because it’s nice and wide. If someone is a beginner, I would strongly recommend this size because the possibility of anyone stepping off the board while practicing a trick is not likely. The brand of the deck that I ended up getting was Element which is a well known brand amongst skateboarders.

Next, I went ahead and got the Thunder Sonora 147 high skateboard trucks. In my opinion, it’s a really great brand and my favorite thing about these trucks is the color of them. I purchased the size 147” because it goes with the size of the board deck that was chosen in the first place. I love how the Thunder trucks are well known and I also love that there are many different colors the trucks are offered in.

The wheels that I already had in mind were the Bones 100 Ringers red and white wheels. The brand Bones is a super cool brand that I would recommend because they are affordable and they always last for a long time. I also really like the design, it’s what really attracted me to the wheels and the different parts that the brand has. I also ended up getting the same brand for the bearings because they are known to be really affordable like the wheels are.

Finally, I purchased the Bones Speed Cream that is used to let the wheels spin a lot faster and it also enables them to not rust in the rain. The more speed that the wheels produce, the easier it is to skate on the ramps.

I ended up buying some last little items for the board as well as some extra skate tools. For example, I purchased a normal screwdriver to use to screw the top of the board to the truck.

At the end of the day, I strongly recommend going to Zumiez to get a new board. Another cool thing offered at Zumiez is that skateboarders are able to customize their boards. The service is amazing at this store and they are always willing to help and provide information on skateboarding for novices. I believe that there is a big difference between buying an already built skateboard and building one yourself. Skateboarders are able to customize their own skateboards to their liking if they build it on their own. With me personally building my own skateboard all on my own, it made me feel super proud of my work and a lot more confident while skating. 

Overall, it was a great experience and I will definitely be doing it again in the future.