What Skateboard for Kids?

How into it is your family? For my son earning his 2nd Degree Black Belt in February (he's 13) we bought him a penny board. It was all he had been talking about for weeks. And it does seem pretty cool.

He also has a rip-stik, and my 10 yr old daughter wants one of those really badly. She has a cheap run of the mill wal-mart skateboard (and he has one of those too) but she reeeeeallllly wants a rip-stik.
ETA: They love the rip-stik. They DO need to read the instructions on how to use it though, b/c it is different than a regular skateboard. They sell a "ripSTER" and a "rip STIK". The RipSTER is shorter. The RipSTIK is longer. A friend of my kids got a ripster (after riding my son's ripstik) and seems to like it alot. She just turned 14. My daughter is 10, and she wants the ripSTER having used both her brother's and her friend's. The RipSTER runs about $79. The penny board was around $100-125, if I remember right. But you can choose any color combination, and there are tons. Son's is bright yellow with neon green wheels.

Just asked the kiddos, and they say you CAN use the ripstik at the skateparks and my daughter chimed in that it was more fun than a skateboard.

my son has a grown up size tony hawk board the wheel bearings arent as fast so its not too fast for him. i had to loosen up the trucks quite a bit so he could turn right. i think i spent 65 on that one and it does what it needs to do for now.

I have to give props to our friends at Globe and recommend buying from them. Because they are a super cool skate/surf company, make great skate shoes, and now make skateboards as well that you can order online. This is not a little fly by night company, they are worldwide and well established for at least a decade, because I remember them being around when my 15 year old was a baby. Whenever we order stuff online from them, it usually arrives within a couple days, 5 days max, they are really quick! But we are on the mainland.

And no, I don't work for them, lol. They have been super supportive of some community programs we are involved in for kids that surf/skate and have donated a lot of product for our programs, which is why I wanted to give them the love here. My boys have ordered several skateboards from them and they are high quality boards. Great skate shoes too that actually last, my boys are super hard on skate shoes.

If your kids are super good skaters and want "trick" boards, get the ones that are 32 inches and under, Globe only offers a few of those. I looked on the website and one of those, totally complete (comes with trucks and wheels already set up on the board) is $119. Most of the ones they have are kind of the fun retro looking boards, which will work fine too at the skate park, but are meant more for just cruising. Don't get a longboard for the skatepark, and don't get a penny board either, unless that's what your kids are asking for. Globe has those too.
We have a little bit of everything in our household, penny boards, longboards for downhill racing, and trick boards for the parks.

The website for Globe is globe.tv/us/
Go to the right hand part of the home page and click shop.
Be careful if you just google Globe. Make sure you get their real website, the Globe TV one.

If they are that good you should get them a good board. Order from a skate shop online. I got my DH's from one. I got to build it online and then they shipped. There were all sorts of prices but I got something pretty darn nice for 160.00.

Saw the Penny boards at Zumiez and I would get one of those for my DS who only can ride slowly down the driveway. He has a Tony Hawk and the bearings are so crappy it's dangerous.

Good question.
Don't forget the helmet & elbow pads.
Wrist guards would probably be good, too.
I bought a whole package for my little guy.
Sounds like I need to ditch our relic & get one of these boards that everyone is recommending.
I just wanted to mention the safety gear in case you didn't have that already. Especially the helmets.....super important to protect those noggins! :)