Category Archives: How-To

Last Minute Gift Fixes: Give a Custom Board in a Card or Give a Gift Card

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2 Perfect (last minute) Gifts for the Holidays! Skateboard in a Card, or as a Gift Card!

Are you looking to give the perfect gift to a longboarder or skater who would LOVE a custom board? Well, depending on the date you may still have time to get it in the mail, but if it’s too late to get it shipped in time now or you don’t want to splurge for a rush order, well, we have the PERFECT 2 rad gift solutions for you, with TWO different ways you can give a custom board as a gift!

Last Minute Gift #1 – The Coolest Card Anyone Ever Will Receive.

(Print the design and put it in a card!)

Design a Board »

When you create a custom board design on our site, it creates a preview image of the deck that you can print out. Simply print out the page or the image itself, fold it up and slide the page with the board photo into a card. This will be the best card someone special has ever opened when they see it’s not the typical card – it has a sweet custom skateboard or longboard inside! This is sure to put a happy surprise smile on someone’s face this Christmas, even if you do it the night before ;) Boards start at $59.99.

Last Minute Gift #2 – Gift Card

A voucher to Design Your Own!

Shop Gift Cards »

Our gift cards are always a great way to give someone the gift of customization while still allowing them to make their own design. Purchase a gift card right here from our site in the Shop section. We’ll email you a graphic of a gift card with the code on it that you can print out and stick into a holiday card and give someone the chance to design their own board! They will be stoked when they realize they get to design something themselves and have it shipped right to their door. Please allow 24-48 hours for the gift card to be emailed to you. Gift Cards start at $25.00.

Still Got Time?

To check if you still have time to get a custom deck in the mail by Christmas, check our page here:

Holiday Shipping Times and Last Days to Order



Happy Holidays!




5 Mistakes Beginner Skaters Make

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VL skate outlines the five mistakes beginners make when trying to land new tricks and how to avoid them! The first two are not fully learning the trick and moving on too fast. These two go hand in hand! Muscle memory is the most important thing when getting a new move down. You can try it 100 times and land it 20 times out of that but without creating the proper muscle memory, you won’t be able to retain the trick. The third mistake outlined in this video is losing motivation. It can be discouraging to try something over and over again and not get it, but you can always move onto a different trick and come back to the one you are stuck on another day! The fourth mistake is getting burnt out. If you feel yourself getting tired or frustrated-take a break! The fifth mistake is comparing yourself to others. The only person you should compare progress with is yourself!

Click here to design a beginner board!

An Easy Way to Get Better at Skating

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In this video, created by the guys of Braille Skateboarding, they teach you how to critique yourself in order to learn from your own mistakes when trying to land different tricks.  They share what their riders do behind the scenes to help each other improve from their mistakes and ultimately master different tricks. They share with us their technique of  having a friend film you, watching it back in slo-mo to break it down, and recognize exactly where you are screwing up so you can learn from those mistakes!

10 Tricks Your Dad Can Do by Michael Brooke of Concrete Wave Magazine

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We love videos like this. With this video even beginners can pick up a new trick or two to go have some fun without it being too difficult or frustrating or dangerous. Nailing a new trick in an hour or two is the best feeling. Sometimes, it’s a trick you’ll continue to do for the rest of your life and get a lot of props for! But, not every trick has to have air-time and rails whether it’s skateboarding OR longboarding or otherwise! The original roots of skateboard tricks were flatland and surf style tricks more like what we consider longboard freestyle and today, not what most people consider “tricks” on a skateboard, but these tricks paved the way for steez and style to be forefront in what soon blossomed from a surfer hobby sport to a world-wide phenomenon capturing the hearts and minds of the youth like something nobody had expected before, with pioneers like Jay Adams and the Dogtown Z Boys are still famous to this day for. Along these lines, Michael Brooke of Concrete Wave Magazine demonstrates as he shows off 10 of his favorite tricks in a video he calls:

10 Tricks Your Dad Can Do

Nice job Michael!



How To Travel With A Longboard: The Only Guide You Need

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If you’ve ever been on a trip and come across the perfect longboarding spot, you know the feeling of longing that can arise. “If I’d only brought my board,” you think out loud. Of course, the reason you left your board at home is because you didn’t want to be tethered to a three-and-a-half-foot wooden anchor. But in truth, having a longboard when you want one is worth carrying one. If you’re just starting out in longboarding, you shouldn’t have a giant board anyway. There are great longboards for beginners aren’t too long. Don’t get it twisted. It’s not that the word longboard is a misnomer. No, some of them are definitely long. What people who have not traveled with one often fail to understand, though, is that they are not as cumbersome as they appear. You can bring your board with you on your journey, regardless of your means of transport. You will barely notice it until you set urethane to concrete, and then you will be thrilled that you brought it. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you trek with your setup in tow.

Backpack

When traveling with a longboard, it is wise to have a way to bind it down and stow it. Skateboard backpacks work great for street and park boards but, these are usually too small to be effective longboard bags. Recently though, a few manufacturers have begun to cater to this niche in their market. Backpacks with straps large enough to hold a longboard are available. Another tip is to simply pass a longboard through the shoulder straps of any backpack so that the bottom is facing your back. Once you put on the backpack, you will hardly notice the board. Just remember not to overstuff the backpack with gear, which makes riding and carving on a longboard much more difficult. Travel light to remain light on your board. travel with longboard

Transport

There are only so many ways of getting anywhere and, though each may seem more burdensome with a longboard, the truth is less daunting. Longboards are more common than ever, and carriers have made traveling with them simple. No matter the hurdles, riding fresh surfaces in new places is worth the added time it takes to tote a longboard.

Air Travel

In the modern age, air travel is by far the most complicated way to get anywhere. The long lines and the security is enough to give anyone pause, especially someone flying with a longboard. To make matters worse, carriers demand that travelers check longboards with their luggage — no carry-ons. So, you can’t even use it to see the sights on a layover. That said, it is almost always better to have a longboard when you get to your destination, regardless of where it is. The freedom of movement longboarding brings is best enjoyed in unique locales.

Trains and Buses

Ground-bound public transport is where having a longboard pays dividends. Lengthy layovers are common on wheeled transit, providing the perfect opportunity to peel some urethane trails. It affords the ability to see things in a short time that would have otherwise gone unseen, and you’ll make memories that might have been a terminal bore. Your arrival at your destination might not be the experience it would have, but you will never look at layovers the same way again. One thing to remember when traveling by public transportation is to bind your board securely to your pack. Bungee cords work great for this, because they come apart as easily as they go together, but rope will do in a pinch. When stowing a loose board, look to put it under your seat, and be sure to place it grip tape down so it doesn’t roll around on the floor.

Hiking and Hitching

Of course, traveling by mass transit need not be the only way one gets places. Properly set up, longboards are capable of being the mode of long-distance travel rather than the baggage. Large, soft longboarding wheels smooth out rough and uneven highway surfaces with ease, and quality bearings make for as much coasting as pushing. If we see more of a country on trains than on planes, we see it all on a longboard. Suddenly, a cross-country trip becomes a story to tell the grandkids.

Conclusion

If you are about to set out on a journey, and you’re thinking of making it an adventure, consider bringing a longboard along for the trip. Throwing it over the shoulders for carrying is as easy as hooking it up to a backpack, and it is a set of wheels when walking becomes monotonous. The things that are just out of range on layovers become experiences, and the unique terrains of destinations emerge as the whole point of travel, rather than the regret they are when we’re boardless. With a little forethought, your longboard will be that one travel companion that always spurs you to get moving, to see new things and to live a little.

Cool Ollie Tutorial and The Poser Ollie!

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LoL!

There’s lots of ollies that could have been in the Top 5, but that’s not this. This is a pretty funny and yet very informative ollie tutorial here for skaters of all levels. Our hats are off to Skateboard Bruh for making this fine tutorial happen.

If you’re a beginner, check out the difference between the beginner ollie and the boned ollie and it might help you take it one step at a time. If you’re advanced, check out THE POSER OLLIE, this is one of the funniest explanations I’ve ever seen in a tutorial! I didn’t know what is up with this guys accent or where he’s from but if you subscribe to his channel you’ll probably figure it out! He’s got a lot of good tutorials, and it’s cool how he shoots this from a first-person point of view so you can see how it’s supposed to look when you look down at your feet to hit your ollie in practice!

Pokemon GO and Skateboarding – The Ultimate Pokemon GO Guide for Skaters

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Pokemon GO and Skateboarding Are Perfect, Here’s Our Pokemon GO Guide for Those Who Skateboard!

Pokemon GO Skateboarding Guide

By now you’ve heard of Pokemon GO the amazing new Pokemon game and the first Pokemon app for iOS and Android. You move around the real world and the augmented reality part of the Pokemon app shows you wild Pokemon nearby, Poke Stops which give you items, and Pokemon Gyms which you can challenge based on your team. Pokemon GO is the most popular app and most popular game right now, and that’s perfect for skateboarders: we get around the real world better than anyone else. Becoming a skateboarding Pokemon trainer is easy, here’s our Pokemon GO guide to going from Pokemon GO Beginner to becoming the ultimate Pokemon GO Pokemon Master using nothing but your skateboard and our guide.

DISCLAIMER: BE CAREFUL WHEN COMBINING POKEMON GO AND SKATEBOARDING. ALWAYS WATCH THE ROAD.

Master the Basics of Pokemon GO

To max out your potential you need to know how Pokemon GO works. Download the app, get your account set up, and catch your starter Pokemon. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the way the map works, locating Pokestops, and locating gyms, you’ll be ready to use our Pokemon GO guide. Poke Stops are blue with a cube until you get close, then you open them up and swipe the circle image / coin. You will get items from Pokestops. Gyms are larger, typically a color from a team with a Pokemon on top. You need to become level 5 before you can fight and conquer a Pokemon Gym. Now that you’ve downloaded Pokemon GO and you know how to use it let’s get in to the details.

Pokemon GO Title

Get Informed – Know Your Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO Charmander
  • Grass Shaking/Leaves – Seen on the map, a Pokemon may be at the grass or may *not* be at the grass. Wild Pokemon are simply more likely to be in the shaking grass area. The leaf / shaking grasses are found everywhere but are most common near parks or open areas. Try to find a park you can skate through to snag a bunch super quick.

  • Pokemon Tab / Gray Pokemon Outlines – Seen on the map this lets you know which Pokemon are nearby.

  • Footprints Below Pokemon – Seen in the menu in the map this lets you know how close a Pokemon is to you. The fewer footprints there are closer the Pokemon is. Rumor has it that 1 foot = 50m, 2 feet = 100m, 3 feet = +150m

  • CP – This is the Combat Power of a Pokemon. The higher the better for use in battle. The higher your level the higher the CP of the Pokemon you catch.

  • Stardust – Used to level up your Pokemon this stuff is gained from capturing Pokemon. You can earn it as part of you bonus for owning a Gym.

  • Candy – Used to level up your Pokemon. Get candy from capturing Pokemon. You can get Candy from doing a Transfer, but you get 1 Candy for each Pokemon transferred.

  • Eggs – You have an Incubator in your Items. Click to your Pokemon then swipe right to get to the Eggs tab. Choose an egg and start incubating. The egg will hatch when you’ve gone the distance on the egg. Your incubator is infinite but Incubators you buy with Coins have limited uses.

  • Incubator – Used to hatch Pokemon Eggs. The Incubator only counts your steps if you are skateboarding or walking. It seems like driving does not work. App must be open.

  • Coins – Buy them with real money or earn them each day by having a Pokemon defending a gym. Open up the Shop section and top right is a button. Make sure you have at least 1 Pokemon defending a gym to earn Coins daily.

  • Alerts – The app has to be open for you to get alerts about Pokemon.

  • PokeStop Refresh Time – 5 minute refresh.

PROTIPS: Pokemon GO and Skateboarding

Pokemon GO Map

  • Watch The Road – There have already been reports on Reddit of people crashing on their skateboards and hurting themselves as well as *gasp* shattering their phones! You can hold your phone in your hand or pocket and get vibrations and sound updates. You’ll most likely be taking lines and alleys you haven’t taken before so stay sharp.

  • Always Equip An Egg – If you’re skating around never forget your eggs. Unlike most people your eggs will be hatching 2x as fast because you’re skating. Eggs and skateboards are one of the best cheats for Pokemon GO.

  • Drop Your Pokemon At the Gym – Before getting your daily bonus to get your Coins be sure to drop some Pokemon off to defend the local gyms. With your skateboard under your feet you’ll be able to roll from gym to gym quick.

  • The Grass Is Always Greener – Grassy areas and parks are the prime locations to pick up new Pokemon. Poke Stops are usually at nearby landmarks and Pokemon Gyms are at major landmarks. Skaters have the advantage as often Poke Stops will be along pathways and parks cars are not allowed on and other trainers will have to walk.

    • Pokemon GO Cheat With Skateboard
  • Get Electric – You need battery power. Between filming skate clips, watching skate clips, and playing Pokemon GO your skateboarding session is going to wreck your phone battery. Make sure you’re fully charged and keep your charger on you.

  • Capture Everything – To get Candy and Stardust you need to capture Pokemon and you’re going to get a lot of Zubats and Ekans as you’re rolling around. Capture everything you can while on your skateboard so you’re always finding new Pokemon as you’re skateboarding.

  • Pump Yourself Up – Some phones will allow you to play music over Pokemon GO. Turn off the music in the Pokemon GO settings and blast your usual skating playlist to keep yourself pumping the kilometers.

  • Pokemon Move With Your – If you get to catch a rare Pokemon but its floating out in the street don’t stress, it doesn’t actually move away as you move away. You can powerslide to a stop and hit the sidewalk so you have the time to make a Great Pokeball throw.

  • Roll Deep – Get to your friends in your crew before anyone else does to make sure you’re all on the same team. Once you pick a team color in Pokemon GO you cannot change your team color. After you’re all on the same team it will be easier to take down gyms as a squad. Roll deep to smash your opponents and get tons of prestige for your gym so its invulnerable.

Skateboarding Tricks While Capturing a Pokemon

So far we’ve done is a little curb slapper while catching a Charmander but one of the finest parts of skateboarding and playing Pokemon GO is getting a rolling capture or making a trick. Trying to hit a Pokemon with a Pokeball while skateboarding and busting a trick is no small feat! We’ve also been getting screen captures with the AR turned to get Pokemon in the shot.

Pokeskate

Ash Ketchum may ride a bicycle but Pokemon GO is a skateboarding game for sure. We were busting tricks at every gym location earlier today and were considering a system whereby you had to do a trick based on which Pokemon you caught. Either way Pokemon GO is getting dominated by skaters rolling from gym to gym claiming the rarest and best Pokemon Gyms for themselves. Now that you know the Pokemon GO basics and you’ve got the Pokemon GO PROTIPS, its time to hit the streets.

No Look Pokemon Capturing – Pokemon GO Plus

Pokemon GO Plus Pokemon GO Plus is the wristband attachment made by Nintendo made for capturing Pokemon without needing to hold your phone. Skating around staring at a screen can be exhausting after a while so Pokemon GO Plus is a Bluetooth wearable Pokemon GO wristband that notifies you when a Pokemon is near without needing to have the Pokemon GO app open. Perfect for those who roll the distance in areas where there aren’t really a lot of Pokemon the Pokemon Plus wristband isn’t available yet but will be released this year by Nintendo. The Pokemon GO Plus wearable is already up on Amazon.com so we can see what it looks like, and Nintendo *is* taking preorders but no one has had a real chance to do a Pokemon GO Plus review yet. When we do get one we’ll do a Pokemon GO Plus review for sure.

Pokemon GO Plus Preorders / Pokemon GO Plus In Stock

The Pokemon GO Plus release date says December 2016, but that is only when it is sold out. With the popularity of Pokemon fever hitting peak right now Nintendo has been taking Pokemon GO Plus preorders and the Amazon.com offering says its Currently Unavailable when the Pokemon GO Plus is not in stock. If you want to see if Pokemon GO Plus preorders are working or if Pokemon GO Plus is in in stock click here.

Pokemon Gear

We’ve seen mad people rolling around in Pokemon clothes, from Pokemon Tshirts to Pokemon Hats. There’s some rad Pokemon gear floating around, (outside of Ash Ketchum snapbacks), to help other Pokemon Trainers recognize you at a spot. Not everyone on their phone is out training their Pokemon so its nice to know who’s playing the game and who’s not before you start creeping on people. We’re in to the Pokeball Tshirts, Pattern Pokemon Tshirts, and some of the Pokemon Backpacks out there. Here’s some of what’s floating around out there:

Send Us Your Illest Pokemon Trick Shots!

Got some killer content for us? Follow us on Instagram @whateverskateboards and shoot us a DM with your best Pokemon skateboarding pics. If your pics are sick we’ll give you a shoutout! Follow our Instagram for giveaway and dank skateboarding memes!

Custom Skateboard with Skateboard Quotes

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skateboard quotes

Pick The Ultimate Skateboard Quote

Skateboarding is a lifestyle. It has transcended the concrete bowls into its own culture with fashion, entertainment, and super stars. A lot of inspiration as risen out of the world of skateboarding, and we can learn some things from the big skate stars that have helped skateboarding evolve over the years. Here are some inspirational skateboard quotes to feed your need to skate, and to help you get started on creating a custom skateboard with your own skateboarding quotes!

Classic Skateboard Quotes

Here is a collection of some memorable skateboarding quotes from some skaters.

“Life is a lot like skateboarding.” – lil Wayne “I consider skateboarding an art form, a lifestyle and a sport. ‘Action sport’ would be the least offensive categorization.” – Tony Hawk “Skateboarding teaches you how to take a fall properly. If you try to kickflip down some stairs, it might take you thirty tries – and you just learn how to take a tumble out of it without getting hurt.” – Bam Margera “My whole life has been the skate life. I don’t really remember doing anything besides skateboarding.” – Ryan Sheckler “When I was a kid, everywhere I went people said I should be a model, but I was more into skateboarding.” – Daria Werbowy  

Custom Skateboard Quote Designing Tips

So when designing your custom skateboard, there are a few things to keep in mind. When you design the board, always keep in mind the trucks on the bottom side of the board. The trucks will be a part of the design once it is installed, unless this is a board that will hang on your wall. So… if you are putting a skateboarding quotes on the board, make sure it is on either sides of the trucks or in-between the four indicated dots on the template. Or else, you may get a board that looks funked up.

Some Short Skateboard Quotes

You could always put a long skateboard quote on the board, but sometimes a shorter one will do. Shorter skateboard quotes are easier to incorporate in to the design when creating a custom skateboard. With less words, you can play with the text size and placement of the text. This makes it easier to add style to your design and helps with creating a bold impact. Here are some short skateboarding quotes that are good for this type of custom skateboard design. “Skate or Die”, “Keep on Rolling”, “Go Skate Day”.

Start Designing!

Custom Patterns on Your Next Custom Skateboard or Longboard

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Everybody loves new features, and we’ve got a great one you’re going to love for your next custom skateboard or custom longboard. With this new feature you can easily customize cool patterns with combinations of background colors or fades, to really make some rad looking designs.

New Background Patterns Feature

The new custom patterns features are super easy to use. First, you can find the new custom patterns in the first step in the desktop customizer (not available on mobile yet). Click the button for “background patterns” and the pattern list will load up. Simply click a thumbnail to select a pattern and it will load in. Give it a moment as it may take a few seconds for it to crunch the graphics to make them editable for your custom colors of choice. Once the pattern is loaded, you can change the color of the pattern lines to any color you want. Then, you can change the background color or even do color fades for the background to make a really cool unique pattern that nobody else has! Here’s a shot of the new pattern menu and a custom “Chevron” pattern being put onto a Carerra longboard.

Screenshot of a Custom Pattern on a Custom Longboard

Cool Patterns for Skateboards

As time goes on we’ll be adding lots more cool patterns to the library available in the app. Right now we’ve got a great set to start with, including some optical illusions, some cool grunge floral designs, classic stripes and polka dots, chevrons, and lots more. Also you can find some non-customizable, full-color patterns premade in the “Background Images” menu under the “patterns” category, stuff like different plaid patterns, etc. But, with those you can’t set the colors to exactly how you want them, like you can with the new background patterns.

Want a New Pattern?

If there are patterns you LOVE and want to see in our patterns library, please let us know! We’ll do our best to add them. If you have a black and white copy of your pattern at 3000px or higher, you can even send it to us and we might be able to add it to our app for you to use. Check back from time to time to see what additions have been made.

Design Your Custom Longboard or Skateboard with These Sweet Patterns!

Ready to design your next custom skateboard or custom longboard with a super rad custom pattern? Then go for it!

Choose a Deck to Begin »