well a board with 54mm wheels are not good for cruising because the Little Rock and sticks on sidewalks. also the cracks and bumps that give wheels issues. for cursing it 60mm and bigger. So the Walmart trick board no good for anything.
I once heard it said that trying to start a kid on a skateboard of terrible quality is actually worse than getting them a pro set-up because the board's severe limitations make them think they're not getting it and hurts the confidence of a beginner.
Goes the same for most hobbies too. Let's say musical instruments. I'm not saying you should get your kid a $10,000 acoustic piano only to find out the kid prefers a violin, but there is a price bracket that you should avoid to get the best experience.
@@bassyeyyeah i learned that on guitar, i bought a 60€ clifton guitar and it was so hard to stay on frets and then my friend borrowed me a 300€ used guitar and it was so much easier to hit chords and stay in frets
Definitely true. My first board was a Valtera from the local department store. I didn't know there was anything wrong with it, that it weighed a ton, that the shape was super clumsy. My first real "pro" board was a Vision Psycho Stick mini, which is kinda funny, bc it was a gimmick board. It still skated like 100 times better than that Valtera. Which apparently is a company that is still around. Yikes
John I’ve been watching you for years but I don’t think I’ve seen you get injured and have to be off your board. How do you keep yourself injury free? I feel like I sprain an ankle every 6-12 months.
I got my friend the shop complete from Tactics for about 70 bucks on sale, and I think it's probably the best deal you can get in the market right now even at full price. The shop decks are pressed by bbs, too.
I used to use Dew Tour boards from walmart and they were surprisingly decent. I never was doing kickflips or grinds cause I was a much bigger kid. (6'0 250lbs) But I was able to ride around, ollie off curbs, even manage to ollie down 3 set stairs and ride out. I guess so long as you had decent trucks, wheels and good bearings they worked fine.
My dad got me a tony hawk bike back in the day and literally threw away my 1500 dollar complete bike I was absolutely heart broken but I didn’t wanna say anything because it was a kind gift from him. I miss that bike
When my 11yr old son wanted a board I got a hawk complete from a local big box toy shop, trucks looked and turned ok, wheels a little soft but good shape, bearings ok but the deck actually was a decent press 7 ply. So as a first board it made sense.
hahah nice ! reminds me of the 90s when we grew up on expensive Kona or Norco mountain bikes , so me and my buddies for a prank got walmart bikes and brought them to the skate park to see what happens ! we snapped the frame pretty quick , snapped rims and axels as well ! hahah
I literally bought that sucker, it disentigrated with a few ollies and the trucks literally snapped at the bushings. I rode it for like literally 10 mins.
Would you recommend this board for someone who's 34 but hasn't skated in over 10 years? I used to be able to Ollie down 5 stairs, kick flip down 2 sets, and do some decent board slides and back 50s. I still have my old custom board (Girl board, Indy trucks, red bones) and when I got on it for the first time in years it was just too fast and too loose. I couldn't even Ollie properly without losing my balance. I almost would PREFER a slower board that sticks to stuff.
$26... Thats crazy! This plus a blank deck would be good for someone who's unsure about becoming a skater and just wanting to try it out. Then just upgrade the other parts step after step if they like it.
So they roll a lot better if you back the wheel nuts off about a quarter turn and spray all the bearings with some wd40. I have 3 kids who wanted to try skating at the same time and didn't have enough to buy them all pro style boards. Their young and not great at tricks but are enjoying learning to cruise around and some basics.
Sounds like one of those rumors in elementary school back in the 90s that everyone gets excited about all year, and no one could figure out who started it, nor how to confirm it because no internet in most homes yet. 😂
Tony's name being on this board is so frustrating to me. It's so painfully, painfully bad, and that's going to be a lot of kids' intro to skateboarding. THPS helped blow up skating for a lot of kids, and I feel like we're somehow in another mini explosion of skating right now... but that board sucks to bad, and parents of kids who played THPS and got into skating might think it's a good board... but it is absolutely not. Again, I bought it, knowing it was trash, but it was worse than I even expected it to be.
@@LostOldElf I don't think you understand how bad the board is. Have you seen the little ones at a Five Below? It's like that quality, but full-size. I love Tony, and my genuine guess is that he didn't come up with this board himself. I'm not bothered for me, I have great boards to skate with. I'm bothered by parents and kids falling for what almost feels like false advertising to call it a skateboard and not just a toy. There aren't real boards on the shelves to compare it to when parents go to buy their kids a board.
It would be interesting if you tested some of the more expensive complete boards, I always wondered if these are actually any good. Some examples of these completes: Element, Santa Cruz, Powell, DGK Ghetto Complete, Zoo York, Globe. Guessing some of these have a slightly better deck but still bad quality trucks/wheels/bearings.
walmart boards can honestly make kids think they have less skill than they do. there are so many places to get a cheap board that isn't terrible. there are lots of $30-$40 decks out there, especially if you look for the sales. you can usually get free grip tape with them. tensor alloy trucks are great, and are only $28 at tactics. tactics also has a decent $13 shop wheel that i tried (honestly i wouldnt choose it over one of the "real" brands), but they roll a million times better than a walmart wheel. almost has $50 completes right now on their site. hopefully this helps someone on a budget
I got my daughter a Tony hawk walmart board to see if she’ll actually stick with skating before dropping the cash on a dope one. So they do serve a purpose lol
if you're going to get a complete go for a Creature, Enjoi, or Element. Element has a lot of discount sales and so does Enjoi. can get completes for $50-$60 sometimes with construction better than a Mini Logo or something.
@haniel1234 no... cuz when i mention Mini Logo i'm talking OG Mini Logo made with maple. their new blanks are trash. made out of birch. i actually bought 4 Element decks on a sale for like $120. basically took care of my whole season. trucks are indiscernible from Indy Raw trucks, wheels are generic whites, and bearings roll. not as good as Reds, but ok.
@@Ha1rD1aperFor sure. I'm skating an element deck I got for $25 right now. But when we're talking about completes the deck isn't the most important thing. With a mini-logo complete you're getting decent trucks, bearings, and wheels that you can bring over to a $25 element deck after the mini-logo one snaps. Vs having to buy new trucks, wheels, and bearings immediately.
@@IamNathaniel1234 i got a complete from element for $50 last year and got 4 more decks at $30 each. the bearings are the weakest part, but they are not bad. their $15CDN "premium" bearings are actually surprisingly good. just popped in a fresh pair for spring, and comparable to Reds at half the price. the trucks are about the same as mini-logo. not far off of Core trucks and about the same as Indy Raw trucks. better than the ones on Creature completes. decks are maple compared to Creature/Mini-logo/Enjoy who has swapped to weaker birch with water based glue. Enjoy has some birch with epoxy glue decks available, but are more expensive.
@@IamNathaniel1234 getting back into it after a bulging disk in the back took me out a couple times. 3/4 of this is last season on an Element "complete". th-cam.com/video/rsbFQkkko2Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bXvyWcj565Ui4V2T
I would disagree that the board is useful for beginner kid skaters. You put the board through the pro skater gauntlet and the board was the limiting factor on how long you (a pro skater) could use it. I think the most important thing for a kid or any other beginner skater is going to be the trucks and bearings. I had two different walmart boards as a kid and never really used either. I'd move like 10 feet at most from the biggest push I could give it and it bored me. Once I finally got my first board from a real skate shop I was able to actually ride around and get comfy on my board and start to want to learn more.
Back in the 80's I learned that cheap Nash product sucked and spending good money on legit professional high quality product goes a long way in skateboard products. Never go cheap in sports, art or music. Just spend the money in good quality and it'll pay dividends in the end. Thumbs UP! Great Video!
I always feel bad when a kid comes up to me at the park asking for help or tips and they're riding one of these things. I don't know why people buy them when you can get completes on marketplace for $40 and under all day
Tony Hawk putting his name on the walmart boards is literally one of the worst things ever done for skating. Idk though I guess walmart boards still help because you can over time switch to real parts as your parents can get you them onto the walmart board
I kinda get this, I used to work for Halfords and we so the UK equivalent to Walmart bike. We also sold Laura Trott and Chris Boardman bikes and these gave you a decent enough bike but one that needed a little work to get the most off. Well you know until they pulled out and we had to drop the Laura Trott bikes and drop the Chris from the Boardman range. We also sold Mongoose stuff too. In short they where good for the £500 to £1500 bike range but where never going to be great.
I donno. I started out on shit boards. It got me rolling. Then i learnt about the industry and pro levels. This was in the 80s. That then led me to get pro boards etc. 25 for an entry level board. Love it
I saw a TH-camr who doesn't skate buy a Tony Hawk Walmart board and take it to the skatepark and he said "it feels like my board don't roll?!" That sums up the Walmart board experience.
SO , if you could find a good beginners wallmart board , what would you do to make it really good , for a wallmart board , could this be a challenge for you to do in a vid ?
The thing is there are no good Walmart boards for beginners because a beginner needs a quality setup so the board itself isn't keeping them from learning the trick. It's like trying to learn your first kickflip on a 2x4, yes, an expert could do it, but a beginner most certainly would have a hard time
The owners talked about it a few years ago on nine club. His philosophy is that Walmart are going to sell terrible walmart boards anyway, so he’s going to make the best of the terrible ones; to the level they are at least good for the price.
You should have pointed out that Tony does not make these setups. He sold his image rights when he was a teenager, not knowing who he would become. Some rat company makes these and owns the legal right to use Tony's name. Tony actually spent 10+ years campaigning to get the setups made functional, and somewhat safe(r). Previous to that the bearings didn't roll, the trucks were plastic, and the board wasn't cross layered ply wood.
I think so department store boards aren't that bad, and as long as its got nice concave, then you could probably get away with just swapping out the wheels and trucks with high end trucks wheels and bearings
I bought one on holiday and I did one ollie and the tail broke... it's crap. Good for kids/beginners but not for streetskaters. The materials are cheap.
I recommend this board for beginners who don’t wanna waste money and just wanna learn; definitely not for tricks, but you can cruise with them.
I agree it's a great cruising board.
well a board with 54mm wheels are not good for cruising because the Little Rock and sticks on sidewalks. also the cracks and bumps that give wheels issues. for cursing it 60mm and bigger. So the Walmart trick board no good for anything.
Are not good for cruising at all.. they constantly tilt to the left or right and they are not good on concrete because of the pebbles and what not
I once heard it said that trying to start a kid on a skateboard of terrible quality is actually worse than getting them a pro set-up because the board's severe limitations make them think they're not getting it and hurts the confidence of a beginner.
Goes the same for most hobbies too. Let's say musical instruments. I'm not saying you should get your kid a $10,000 acoustic piano only to find out the kid prefers a violin, but there is a price bracket that you should avoid to get the best experience.
@@bassyeyyeah i learned that on guitar, i bought a 60€ clifton guitar and it was so hard to stay on frets and then my friend borrowed me a 300€ used guitar and it was so much easier to hit chords and stay in frets
True. I almost quit at first. Plus my friends made fun if mee too
Definitely true. My first board was a Valtera from the local department store. I didn't know there was anything wrong with it, that it weighed a ton, that the shape was super clumsy. My first real "pro" board was a Vision Psycho Stick mini, which is kinda funny, bc it was a gimmick board. It still skated like 100 times better than that Valtera. Which apparently is a company that is still around. Yikes
kids dont deserve high dollar skateboards when 90% of them quit
I'm going to recommend lubrication on the bearings and loosening the trucks when you first get a Walmart deck, Every time I'll recommend it.
John I’ve been watching you for years but I don’t think I’ve seen you get injured and have to be off your board. How do you keep yourself injury free? I feel like I sprain an ankle every 6-12 months.
i want him to answer this
FACTS John please answer this 🙏
He had gotten injured and he’s said it in a few of his videos.
Stretching and learning to fall. The sprained ankle is unavoidable but if you recover smartly it doesn't last as long
Bailing without instantly killing momentum, either by rolling if necessary or walking it off if possible.
I got my friend the shop complete from Tactics for about 70 bucks on sale, and I think it's probably the best deal you can get in the market right now even at full price. The shop decks are pressed by bbs, too.
My first board was the 90s version of a “walmart” board. It got me rolling and let me know its what i wanted to do. Been skating over 25 years now.
John wearing a DBZ shirt days before the passing of a titan, Akira Toriyama. RIP
i swear this is like a reupload lol
they went the extra mile with the logo on the bushings lol
that squirtle hat is fresh
This is gonna be awesome i love these types of videos!
John proves once again it's not the wand it's the Wizard
I appreciate that bit of knowledge you gave about feeble-grind to smith-grind.
your videos make me happy after a bad day thansks John
got my brother a this same board to start with, barely hit a fence and the front end chipped a good 2 inches
I used to use Dew Tour boards from walmart and they were surprisingly decent. I never was doing kickflips or grinds cause I was a much bigger kid. (6'0 250lbs) But I was able to ride around, ollie off curbs, even manage to ollie down 3 set stairs and ride out. I guess so long as you had decent trucks, wheels and good bearings they worked fine.
Love your videos John it calms me down
I hope that everyone has an amazing and memorable rest of the year and safe travels, vacations, work, and adventures throughout the years. 🍀♾️❤️🔥
My dad got me a tony hawk bike back in the day and literally threw away my 1500 dollar complete bike I was absolutely heart broken but I didn’t wanna say anything because it was a kind gift from him. I miss that bike
When my 11yr old son wanted a board I got a hawk complete from a local big box toy shop, trucks looked and turned ok, wheels a little soft but good shape, bearings ok but the deck actually was a decent press 7 ply. So as a first board it made sense.
hahah nice ! reminds me of the 90s when we grew up on expensive Kona or Norco mountain bikes , so me and my buddies for a prank got walmart bikes and brought them to the skate park to see what happens ! we snapped the frame pretty quick , snapped rims and axels as well ! hahah
Love the Squirtle squad hat🔥🤙🏻
I loved the detail about not being happy with the grind switch until you were on the right part of the truck.
Toxic fire wood ☠️🔥
the griptape on the thumbnail really reminds me of a style you can choose from in an older thps game. same with the board graphic
I just got a CSS Complete board for about $80 and it’s amazing.
I literally bought that sucker, it disentigrated with a few ollies and the trucks literally snapped at the bushings. I rode it for like literally 10 mins.
The DBZ shirt is 🔥 fire. And the vid too much love Jawn ❤
Yes John we do care about the tips. Tutorial videos for tricks in the future
I started on a Tony Hawk Huckjam Series board. The wheels and bearings were even worse than the ones you tested.
Have you skated the vans ave pros and if yes how do you like them?
I started off on these back in 2011 it’s decent for beginners
Different is a great way to describe these
Would you recommend this board for someone who's 34 but hasn't skated in over 10 years? I used to be able to Ollie down 5 stairs, kick flip down 2 sets, and do some decent board slides and back 50s. I still have my old custom board (Girl board, Indy trucks, red bones) and when I got on it for the first time in years it was just too fast and too loose. I couldn't even Ollie properly without losing my balance. I almost would PREFER a slower board that sticks to stuff.
$26... Thats crazy! This plus a blank deck would be good for someone who's unsure about becoming a skater and just wanting to try it out. Then just upgrade the other parts step after step if they like it.
hey john what's the board size do you usually use ?
Is there gonna be a spring drop for progress daily? Missed the last one and i was hoping to pick something up at some point
So they roll a lot better if you back the wheel nuts off about a quarter turn and spray all the bearings with some wd40. I have 3 kids who wanted to try skating at the same time and didn't have enough to buy them all pro style boards. Their young and not great at tricks but are enjoying learning to cruise around and some basics.
Looks cool
It would be crazy if they built a skate shop area into Walmart
Sounds like one of those rumors in elementary school back in the 90s that everyone gets excited about all year, and no one could figure out who started it, nor how to confirm it because no internet in most homes yet. 😂
If you are seshing a flatbar that well, I would say that is a excellent beginner deck.
Lets see you review lutzka's walmart board 😁 ive already reviewed the darkstar, it broke day 1 on a flatbar backside boardslide 🤦
Love your style❤
ngl john you lookin fresh outta cook county with that tan fit on in the end and i think its hilarious lol. not in a mean way ofc
Tony's name being on this board is so frustrating to me. It's so painfully, painfully bad, and that's going to be a lot of kids' intro to skateboarding. THPS helped blow up skating for a lot of kids, and I feel like we're somehow in another mini explosion of skating right now... but that board sucks to bad, and parents of kids who played THPS and got into skating might think it's a good board... but it is absolutely not. Again, I bought it, knowing it was trash, but it was worse than I even expected it to be.
@@LostOldElf I don't think you understand how bad the board is. Have you seen the little ones at a Five Below? It's like that quality, but full-size. I love Tony, and my genuine guess is that he didn't come up with this board himself. I'm not bothered for me, I have great boards to skate with. I'm bothered by parents and kids falling for what almost feels like false advertising to call it a skateboard and not just a toy. There aren't real boards on the shelves to compare it to when parents go to buy their kids a board.
It would be interesting if you tested some of the more expensive complete boards, I always wondered if these are actually any good. Some examples of these completes: Element, Santa Cruz, Powell, DGK Ghetto Complete, Zoo York, Globe. Guessing some of these have a slightly better deck but still bad quality trucks/wheels/bearings.
walmart boards can honestly make kids think they have less skill than they do. there are so many places to get a cheap board that isn't terrible. there are lots of $30-$40 decks out there, especially if you look for the sales. you can usually get free grip tape with them. tensor alloy trucks are great, and are only $28 at tactics. tactics also has a decent $13 shop wheel that i tried (honestly i wouldnt choose it over one of the "real" brands), but they roll a million times better than a walmart wheel. almost has $50 completes right now on their site. hopefully this helps someone on a budget
Yeah tensors are definitely slept on, I hate their bushings but it’s a good truck that turns and grinds well
Lols “Tony Hawk Signature”
Progress Daily!
I got my daughter a Tony hawk walmart board to see if she’ll actually stick with skating before dropping the cash on a dope one. So they do serve a purpose lol
Wishing Tony Hawk stood for quality - but at the same time its good to get many skaters in at a low price point.
You should test out the greg lutzka one
fire!!!.Yo their cruiser boards are way better. I got a kryptonic penny board and lasted me years!!. Bearings pretty good too
if you're going to get a complete go for a Creature, Enjoi, or Element. Element has a lot of discount sales and so does Enjoi. can get completes for $50-$60 sometimes with construction better than a Mini Logo or something.
A mini-logo complete is going to be substantially better than anything else you listed.
@haniel1234 no... cuz when i mention Mini Logo i'm talking OG Mini Logo made with maple. their new blanks are trash. made out of birch. i actually bought 4 Element decks on a sale for like $120. basically took care of my whole season. trucks are indiscernible from Indy Raw trucks, wheels are generic whites, and bearings roll. not as good as Reds, but ok.
@@Ha1rD1aperFor sure. I'm skating an element deck I got for $25 right now. But when we're talking about completes the deck isn't the most important thing. With a mini-logo complete you're getting decent trucks, bearings, and wheels that you can bring over to a $25 element deck after the mini-logo one snaps. Vs having to buy new trucks, wheels, and bearings immediately.
@@IamNathaniel1234 i got a complete from element for $50 last year and got 4 more decks at $30 each. the bearings are the weakest part, but they are not bad. their $15CDN "premium" bearings are actually surprisingly good. just popped in a fresh pair for spring, and comparable to Reds at half the price.
the trucks are about the same as mini-logo. not far off of Core trucks and about the same as Indy Raw trucks. better than the ones on Creature completes.
decks are maple compared to Creature/Mini-logo/Enjoy who has swapped to weaker birch with water based glue. Enjoy has some birch with epoxy glue decks available, but are more expensive.
@@IamNathaniel1234 getting back into it after a bulging disk in the back took me out a couple times. 3/4 of this is last season on an Element "complete". th-cam.com/video/rsbFQkkko2Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bXvyWcj565Ui4V2T
sorry just wondering what those pants are, where can I get them?
I would disagree that the board is useful for beginner kid skaters. You put the board through the pro skater gauntlet and the board was the limiting factor on how long you (a pro skater) could use it. I think the most important thing for a kid or any other beginner skater is going to be the trucks and bearings. I had two different walmart boards as a kid and never really used either. I'd move like 10 feet at most from the biggest push I could give it and it bored me. Once I finally got my first board from a real skate shop I was able to actually ride around and get comfy on my board and start to want to learn more.
What ate the soecs of the board looking like?
I would buy it and hang it on the Wall. The Desing is great!
Cool video and a well done also
Back in the 80's I learned that cheap Nash product sucked and spending good money on legit professional high quality product goes a long way in skateboard products. Never go cheap in sports, art or music. Just spend the money in good quality and it'll pay dividends in the end. Thumbs UP! Great Video!
Good video
I always feel bad when a kid comes up to me at the park asking for help or tips and they're riding one of these things. I don't know why people buy them when you can get completes on marketplace for $40 and under all day
Safety
Ha I’m wearing the English version of your DBZ shirt right now lol!
Signature Series. 😁
This is a valid skate sesh ❤
I remember my first Walmart skateboard, it had metal trucks. One of them broke in half when it threw it or something
It's always amazing to me how cheap boards even "sound" cheap. You can hear that rubbery plastic sound with every flips, slide, and roll.
Eff Walmart boards lol I got broke off doing a 50-50 and snapped the plastic trucks..dam near ended my skating life ay the age of 6
Tony Hawk putting his name on the walmart boards is literally one of the worst things ever done for skating. Idk though I guess walmart boards still help because you can over time switch to real parts as your parents can get you them onto the walmart board
I kinda get this, I used to work for Halfords and we so the UK equivalent to Walmart bike. We also sold Laura Trott and Chris Boardman bikes and these gave you a decent enough bike but one that needed a little work to get the most off. Well you know until they pulled out and we had to drop the Laura Trott bikes and drop the Chris from the Boardman range. We also sold Mongoose stuff too. In short they where good for the £500 to £1500 bike range but where never going to be great.
Mine sucks. Still going with a Walmart bord/ longboard combo
Love Tony....don't like the sell out part of him. $ is $ though. I get it. 😢
I donno. I started out on shit boards. It got me rolling. Then i learnt about the industry and pro levels. This was in the 80s. That then led me to get pro boards etc. 25 for an entry level board. Love it
I saw a TH-camr who doesn't skate buy a Tony Hawk Walmart board and take it to the skatepark and he said "it feels like my board don't roll?!" That sums up the Walmart board experience.
Sup, John! You could do voiceovers. You got the voice for it. Maybe something to look into
RIP Akira
I bought a Tony Hawk longboard last year for Toys For Tots.
It had regular trucks but the card said RESERVE LINGPIN.
Let me go pick up these pieces hold on 🤣
love it
yoooo what a nice dragonball shirt
I learned how to Ollie on a tony hawk walmart board
SO , if you could find a good beginners wallmart board , what would you do to make it really good , for a wallmart board , could this be a challenge for you to do in a vid ?
The thing is there are no good Walmart boards for beginners because a beginner needs a quality setup so the board itself isn't keeping them from learning the trick. It's like trying to learn your first kickflip on a 2x4, yes, an expert could do it, but a beginner most certainly would have a hard time
Darkstar is the best I've seen while at walmart.
The owners talked about it a few years ago on nine club. His philosophy is that Walmart are going to sell terrible walmart boards anyway, so he’s going to make the best of the terrible ones; to the level they are at least good for the price.
Dark star used to be an legit skate company too
I remember buying a board from Walmart that had a graphic I really liked just to take it out of the box and find out the wood is warped and unusable
You get what, you pay for! Those boards are good to get you, from Point A, to Point B (A____________B)...
You should have pointed out that Tony does not make these setups. He sold his image rights when he was a teenager, not knowing who he would become. Some rat company makes these and owns the legal right to use Tony's name. Tony actually spent 10+ years campaigning to get the setups made functional, and somewhat safe(r). Previous to that the bearings didn't roll, the trucks were plastic, and the board wasn't cross layered ply wood.
I'm gonna need the link to that DBZ shirt
Something I took out this video,our boy is bulking up.check out those shoulders
Change the bushings in the 20 year old mongoose and it may turn better
Made from popsicle stick wood😂
Much love John 🫶
I think so department store boards aren't that bad, and as long as its got nice concave, then you could probably get away with just swapping out the wheels and trucks with high end trucks wheels and bearings
Truly unfortunate because I can see Walmart boards becoming way better and affordable if only they can make the concave/strength better.
you know you've watched too much john hill if you knew why he re-did the front feeble - back smith before he explained it
Where can I get a good skateboard?
bro fogot to wax the truck
John, Thanks for being a nerd.
Ah yes Walmart boards. I remember those.
What is the weight limit for board? I imagine a kids board will break under adult weight.
Guess the board does work
I bought one on holiday and I did one ollie and the tail broke... it's crap. Good for kids/beginners but not for streetskaters. The materials are cheap.