How to Assemble a Skateboard

You're excited to get to the skate park and practice your ollies, flips and grabs. First, of course, you'll need to put your skateboard together. When you get a new skateboard, it likely arrives out of the box in several piece. Luckily, you can do this yourself.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Skateboard kit
• Screwdriver

1. Apply the grip tape to the whole deck. This helps you maintain control over the board while skating. Apply it slowly and use something hard to push all the air bubbles out from under the tape. The safety knife makes it easy to trim the tape around the shape of your board. You don't want to leave anything hanging off because it may get dirty and start pulling away after a little bit of skating. Use a screwdriver to poke holes in the grip tape. This allows you to add your trucks and wheels.

2. Push the bolts through the holes you just made and thread your trucks over them. Make sure the trucks are aligned properly, so you won't skate in circles. Tighten the nuts over the bolts and make sure you have tightened them enough that they won't slip off while you're in the middle of a gnarly heelflip.

3. Add your bearings by slipping one upside down or face up and pushing down hard. Add another bearing by putting it on in the opposite direction. Do this for all four of your wheel posts.

4. Slip the wheels onto the posts. Make sure they are interfacing with the bearings properly. They should spin easily and smoothly. You also want your wheels to be on tight for reliable skate control. Try using your wrench to tighten the wheel until it is stuck, and then wrenching it counter-clockwise by one-quarter turn to get the best balance between security and range of motion.

5. Check everything for stability one final time before you take to the skate park. Skating can be dangerous enough without tooling around on an unstable board.

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