Need skateboard advice

[Nikki]

My 7 year old "prissy" daughter has been into skateboarding for about 6 months now. She absolutely loves it and has been learning on a mini board that is only 16.5 inches long. The board is a piece of junk though. We want to get her a larger one (no larger than 26.5 inches though) for Christmas. I don't want something that will fall apart in a couple months, but I don't want to dish out a lot of money just yet. If she continues skating for 6 more months, then I'll put more money into a good board.

So, do any of you know anything about skateboards? Do your husbands, sons, etc have advice? I was looking at this one, but I know nothing about the brands, wheels, bearings, etc.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MINI-ME-GREEN-B...1QQcmdZViewItem

I want to get her a Termite or Element Twigs board, but they're expensive! I will consider it if she keeps up with the skating.

 

[KnarfKS]

If you can find a skate shop near by, go and talk to them, you might be able to get an entire setup for relatively cheap. I used to skate, I put together my board, trucks, wheels and bearings all brand new for under $60 and it was a pretty good setup. Just get a board that is a solid color, that will save quite a bit right there. And you daughter is light enough that she doesn't really have to worry about breaking a deck anyway so a name brand really isn't that important unless the picture is important. You pay quite a bit for a name on a deck, wheels or trucks. Just don't buy a walmart special :-? .

I would suggest that you get her a larger sized wheels for the board because the smaller ones catch rocks or sand and cause falls much easier. It will be much easier to ride on streets or parking lots. I think I used to use 56mm and rode a lot of streets, but not really sure, they vary from 49-70mm.

 

[Nikki]

I'm so lost with this skateboard stuff!

We were at Target tonight and I'm so glad that I had her stand on some because I know for sure that I want nothing larger than a 29 inch. Do you remember what kind of deck and wheels you had? I'm going to go to the skateshop either Monday or Wednesday since it's right across the street from my school.

 

[KnarfKS]

my deck was just a generic solid color deck, but it was the same construction as the nice name brand ones. As for wheels I think I used spitfire wheels, but ask the board shop to show you a few, I bet they keep fairly good merchandise at most skate shops, not really the junk like a walmart board.