Are you new to longboarding? Do you want to start learning to plunge down a hill or cruise around campus? Here is one of the things you will need to ensure that you have all the basics down. One of the first things you’ll need to decide is which style board you want to start with.
There are a lot of options. One of the most popular and common questions is, “are drop through longboards good for beginners?”
Drop through longboards make an excellent option for beginners. This is mostly because of how versatile they are. You will easily be able to explore different boarding styles with it. While it can be limiting in some aspects, it can give you a great overall experience, making sure that you experience a full range of boarding with it.
The right kind of longboard matters a lot when you are a beginner. Many experts talked about using drop through longboards as a beginner. But is this the ideal option for you? Let’s find out all you need to know about whether or not drop through longboards are good for beginners.
Determining Your Longboarding Goals
Before getting into any other detail, you need to determine what your goals are for longboarding. Your goals will help you identify what type of longboard works best for you. Keep in mind that different types of longboards work well for different things.
As a beginner, you might have varying aspirations when it comes to longboarding. You might want just to cruise around or go bombing down a hill. There are specific boards that you should be aware of, depending on what you want to do.
While every beginner might not want to pull off major stunts, many aspire to. Here, we talk about the different things you might want to do with your longboard and what type of longboard will best suit your need for it.
Cruising/Commuting
The first and perhaps the most common thing that beginners wish to do with their longboards is cruise around. Cruising refers to when you want to spend a short amount of time on your longboard, just moving about in your neighborhood park. It is the perfect thing to do as a beginner, and you will find many people doing the same thing once you take your longboard out for a run.
Many beginners want to use their longboards for commuting. So, you might think of using your longboard to travel greater distances, such as from your home to your office, school, or any other place.
The ideal way to do this is the drop-through longboard. It offers you stability and enough flexibility to help you enjoy your time on your board while you cruise or commute.
Carving
Carving is a step up from cruising or commuting. As a beginner, you will quickly find yourself wanting to learn new things to do with your longboard. One of the most common things you will learn how to do is carving with your longboard.
This is a super fun trick to learn with your new longboard. You might have seen people on their longboards, creating an S-shaped movement across their path. This is basically what carving really is.
For this, you would want to get a board that gives you better movement and flexibility. A longboard with looser trucks and a mid-range wheelbase is the ideal choice for you. Drop through longboards come in a wide variety, so it will not be too difficult to find one that gives you enough flex to carve beautifully.
There are other, more advanced options available to you as well when it comes to this. But those might not be fit for beginners as they would not offer you the kind of control required by you at this stage.
Freeriding/Sliding
If you’re not looking for just cruising with your longboard and want to learn more about it, then you are in for a lot more fun. Freeriding or sliding gives you an adrenaline rush, and you keep going back for more. But to make sure that you get the best experience of freeriding, you need to have the right longboard.
When you’re at the beginner level, you want to ensure that you have some stability when you’re going about freeriding on your longboard. Without stability, you’re prone to fall much easier. While falling is a process of learning, you want to limit it to the maximum. You can only do this by choosing the correct longboard for it.
Drop through longboards have proven to be very effective when it comes to freeriding. They offer you stability and the concavity that you require to go about freeriding effortlessly. You will also feel safe when you’re riding with a drop-through longboard as they offer you a sense of security.
Dancing/Freestyle
Something that many longboard users want to do is pull off some freestyle stunts. But this is a demanding activity as it requires a good range of motions. It is great for beginners to learn small tricks and freestyle and dancing tips.
To be fully prepared for freestyling as a beginner, you need to have the right setup. This means that you will require a wide top-mount longboard for smaller wheels. Many hybrid designs work best for this style of longboarding. But you need to make sure that you are getting something that will allow you to make all the stunts.
Choosing an option that is too stiff to make movements will only make things difficult. It is ideal to go for hybrid extensions of different longboards so that you can maximize its use for freestyling or dancing.
Downhill
The thrill of big downhills is a big draw for many new longboarders. A drop-through longboard is a smart option for the beginner. The added stability of the drop-through will help you get comfortable at a high rate of speed.
If you find that bombing down a hill is what you want to do regularly, you may want to upgrade to a top mount deck. With the right configuration, top mount decks are a little better suited for downhills.
But as a beginner, start with a drop-through longboard for downhills.
What Can A Drop Through Longboard Do?
When it comes to using a drop-through longboard, one of the common things you will hear is that it is an all-rounder. It offers you the right features to help you with all sorts of longboard styles. Essentially, as we mentioned above, drop through longboards are great for cruising and commuting. For beginners, a standard drop through longboard proves to be great.
When you start with longboards, you quickly get the itch to do more with them. Once you invest in a longboard, you would also eventually want to carve, freestyle, and dance. So, make sure that you think before you make any decision.
Whether you want to cruise, commute, free ride, or even downhill, a drop-through longboard works well for beginners.
Do’s & Don’ts of Drop through Longboards
Let’s take a look at the basic guidelines of a drop-through longboard. Any given longboard cannot possibly only have benefits. There are drawbacks to each one. So, let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages that drop through longboards have to offer.
Drop through Longboards Advantages
Stability
The first thing to bear in mind is that drop-through longboards are known for stability. Therefore, they ride low, allowing you to be more stable as you go about increasing your speed. As a beginner, you would want to focus on making sure you are firm on your feet. Stability is essential, and you don’t want to compromise it when you start longboarding.
Control
Stability gives you greater control. You need that control for different activities such as dancing, sliding, or even downhilling. Since the deck is much closer to the ground, you will control it better than others.
Carving
You might have heard that a drop-through longboard is primarily used for cruising or commuting. But that is not true at all. It can be used for a variety of things, especially carving.
Drop-through longboards prove to be great for carving as they give you the right kind of flex and stability to make your turns. While the turns might not be as perfect with other longboard options, there’s no stopping you from pulling off longboard carving with a classic drop through longboard.
All-Rounder
Lastly, drop-through longboards prove to be all-rounders when it comes to longboarding. You don’t have to worry about not being able to do anything with them. While it does have its limitations, you can surely make a lot of use of them without having to feel like you’re too restricted. You will feel like you can do almost all the longboarding styles with this board, making it ideal for beginners.
Drop through Longboards Disadvantages
The drop-through longboards have a few disadvantages that you might want to consider.
Limited Use for Stunts
You will find that a drop-through longboard has limitations when it comes to stunts. It gives you a lot to work with, but it is bound to be restrictive when doing different tricks. You might get away with downhill longboarding, but it doesn’t prove to be the ideal longboard for kickflips and such.
Restricted Turns
With a drop-through longboard, you might get restricted when making turns. If you’re looking to do something with quick turns or high speed turns, then this is probably not the best option for you. This has more to do with the longboard’s low deck; it restricts you from making sharp turns, especially with higher speed.
Conclusion
Before you move on to purchase a longboard, you should always ensure you have all the data necessary for you to determine which one will be the most useful for you. Choosing just any longboard isn’t the right way to go about it.
Generally, drop through longboards are great for beginners. You might have different aspirations that you would want to try out. So, learn about what you wish to do with your longboard, and then decide which one proves to be the best option for you.
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