When it comes to skateboarding, there’re many options to choose from. This can be confusing to a great extent since the rider is trying to find the perfect board for his/her needs.
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If you have made up your mind to skate, and you are presented with a Penny Board and a skateboard to make your choice, you’ll be confronted with one question, “are penny boards harder to ride than skateboards?”.
Surely as a new rider, you would want to go for one that’ll make you feel at ease and balanced while developing your skills. For this reason, asking yourself that question is no surprise.
As experts, we’ll be providing the answer to that question in this article while explaining their benefits and downsides.
What Are Penny Boards?
Before we go deep, let’s talk about what a Penny Board is. A Penny Board is a small, lightweight board that’s made of plastic mounted on large wheels. Their lightweight construction makes it very portable, weighing less than 4 pounds.
Penny Boards took off their designs from the 70s and 80s skateboard designs and are re-engineered to fit modern times, offering various colors and patterns. As you can see, you may not be entirely wrong to call a Penny Board a type of skateboard.
Penny Boards came into existence after a company based in Australia, which bears the same “Penny Board” name, started production in the mid-2010s. Since then, its popularity has grown beyond measures and has become a favorite of young riders.
There are three types of Penny Boards: Penny Boards Original, Nickel, and Cruiser. The most significant difference between the three is Nickel and Cruiser are a little bigger than the Original (between 5″ – 10″ more prominent).
And now, to the benefits.
Benefits of Riding on Penny Boards
Why would anyone want a small skateboard? What do you stand to benefit from buying a lightweight skateboard?
Penny Boards are designed for commuting – that is, getting someone from one point to another. Penny Boards help people to get around quickly, primarily through tight or congested spots. Since they are small, it will be easier to avoid bumping into obstacles.
Another benefit of having Penny Boards is because of their portability. They are lightweight and small, which makes it easy to carry around. Penny Boards will fit into backpacks conveniently, so you can take it to wherever you intend to go, whether it’s school, store, field, etc.
They are also durable to an extent. That means you can ride on it a lot without worrying about chipping or wear.
And now to arguably the most significant benefit – Penny Boards are super easy to manoeuver, mainly because of its small size and wheelbase. They are easy to navigate through tight spaces. They allow you to make sharp turns and offer you better control, and since they come with large wheels, you have a slight degree of balance.
Since they come with somewhat larger wheels, they can work pretty well on all road surfaces, regardless of the terrain. That makes it an excellent option for regular commuters.
Downsides of Penny Boards
As much as a Penny Board has a short wheelbase, which makes manoeuvrability possible, its small size doesn’t give enough space to accommodate your feet, mostly if large, which may inhibit performance. However, once you’ve become used to the small area, it will become less of a problem, but it isn’t easy getting started again.
With a Penny Board, you’ll have to learn to stand, balance, push, especially if your feet are large. All these things take time, and depending on the rider’s consistency, it may take a few weeks to a month to learn all that. Worse still, you can’t perform sophisticated tricks with it, but for a beginner, I don’t think this is necessary for now.
Another downside of Penny Boards is that they tend to lose balance at high speeds. This is an issue because most new riders may not have an idea when they are losing control. If you are riding through hills, you may want to take it easy on a Penny Board because you can lose control, leading to severe head injuries.
Once you discover that there’re lots of hills on your path, you might have to take it slow with your riding. Or better still, walk through it.
What Are Skateboards?
Now that you know what Penny Boards are, it’s time to talk about skateboards.
Skateboards have been around since like forever. Skateboards are sometimes called longboards because of their similar structure. I think the major difference between the two is that longboards have relatively large wheels.
Skateboards are mostly made of maple wood, although you may find plastic variants. They have decks that come in different variants and lengths as well. You can find the deck’s length to be 28″ or 32″.
Speaking of decks and boards, skateboards are wide, longboards designed to mount on two sets of small wheels. It’s designed that way to offer the rider some degree of balancing.
Benefits of Riding on Skateboards
Unlike Penny Boards, skateboards offer a high degree of stability, and you can go quickly on them too. For downhill riding and uphill driving, skateboards are best to use. With skateboards, high speeds aren’t a problem.
And then we have the issue of balance. Skateboards are so much broader and more prolonged than Penny Boards, meaning they can accommodate any feet’ size, whether small or large. That extra foot space results in a more comfortable ride.
Durability-wise, they are just the same as Penny Boards (maybe even less durable), so you can use them for a very long time, regardless of the weather.
Downsides of Skateboards
Skateboards will get scratched, and the bottom will wear out if used frequently, thus causing you pain.
Another downside of skateboards is that they are heavy. That means carrying it will be problematic in the long run, even for a heavy person.
And it will be hard to fit into a backpack. As you know already, it’s broad and lengthy and will take extra space, which a regular backpack can’t afford unless you have a larger one. That means you can’t take it with you all the time – you’ll be limited to using it.
Furthermore, skateboards are pretty hard to navigate through tight or congested spaces in the city. They’re great for regular riding, but they can be a real pain once in the city.
Moreover, skateboards can’t navigate well in certain places. For instance, skateboards won’t work well in rough terrain. Their wheels work very well on smooth surfaces, mainly because they come with smaller wheels than Penny Boards.
What Are the Factors Involved?
For a beginner, there’re two factors that you must consider before choosing a board – weight, and height.
Your weight and height are keys to giving you the right balance on a skate. What’s crucial to learning skateboarding or “penny boarding” is that you have the right balance. That balance is provided by you, which is the rider and the board.
If the board doesn’t offer you the required stability, I’m afraid learning to skate will be difficult. It will take you some time before you become a master at the art because you’ll have to develop and use your core muscles more.
What are we saying in essence? Boards that offer a high degree of stability will be an excellent option for beginners. Such boards tend to have more standing platform to accommodate your feet, and in this case, skateboards fit such a description.
Penny Boards are small standing platforms and have incredible narrow shape, which makes balancing a little complicated. With Penny Boards, your feet will be closer together or more limited, which minimizes control. A novice wouldn’t want that.
More room for your feet means more stability and comfort compared to Penny Boards.
Let’s elaborate more on the weight and height factor. For excessively tall and average size riders, skateboards will be easier to ride than Penny Boards – same for someone bigger. Since skateboards have a larger standing platform, a tall/big rider’s stance will be more stable. On a Penny Board, the rider will find it difficult maintaining his/her posture, which will mean losing control.
Which Is Easier to Ride: Skateboards or Penny Boards
As we have pointed out in this article, choosing a skateboard or a Penny Board depends on certain factors. A small or slightly shorter rider will find it easier to cope with a Penny Board than a large or tall rider.
A Cruiser Penny Board could work for a beginner if he/she wants to learn tricks. A Cruiser Penny Board is 32″ large, which is stable enough for a novice, whether small or large. You can’t learn tricks on skateboards.
And if you are looking for one that’s easier to navigate, you’re better off with a Penny Board than a skateboard due to its small size and lightweight construction.
Conclusion
“Are Penny Boards harder to ride than skateboards?” We have provided the answer to this question in this article. Both skateboards and Penny Boards are great skating pieces of equipment. They are easy to ride if you know what you want and understand how they are designed.
While the skateboard is more balanced, the Penny Board is more manoeuverable. As a novice, you can learn to ride on both perfectly if you dedicate some quality time to learning.
