There's a lot more to buying a skateboard than I thought

On July 25 I made a plan to visit East Coast Skate & Snow in Merrimack. My intent was to just talk to someone and find out what I needed to know to buy a skateboard. I really wasn't looking to make a purchase that day. I told the guy I didn't skate and had no idea what I needed. I sort of assumed that buying a skateboard would be easy. Find one with a pretty picture on it and buy it. Not quite. I needed the deck, trucks, wheels, grip tape, bearings and hardware to put it all together. I had no idea what grip tape was. It's the sand papery stuff on the top of the deck. I had always assumed they came with that on it. There are different types of wheels and bearings. Some help you go faster than others. I always thought a wheel was a wheel. There's a lot more to it than I had imagined.

Next thing I know, I'm picking out a deck. From there the guy helped me with everything else. I didn't now what was what so I just told him I didn't have much money and that I didn't need to go fast or anything fancy like that. I decided against the wheels with the naked ladies on them. We picked out all the stuff I'd need and he put the board together for me. After it was together he told me to stand on it to see if it was too wobbly or not. It was too wobbly so I had to give the board back to him. I wonder if he noticed how slowly I bent down to pick up the board and how slow and stiff I was coming back up. At that point I was thinking "I'm going to kill myself on this thing." All of this took an hour.

Going in I didn't know how much this would cost. I was surprised when I got the total. I didn't even want to think about how much it would have been if I'd gotten fancy, top of the line stuff. Here's a run down of what it cost me:
Spitfire Wheels - $30 for all 4
Hardware - $4
Speed Demons Bearings - $10
Mack IV Trucks - $13 each (need 2)
Real deck - $50 (it was on sale)
Thankfully all the stuff was on sale and in the end I only (ONLY!) paid $109.41 As a bonus, I had my ass felt up by a dog while I was there and the guy who runs the place thought I was somebody's mom. WTF! How many moms do you know with purple hair? OMG! I was horrified but then I had to admit to the guys that yes, I could be somebody's mom. Sigh... I always knew that day would come.

So, last week I decided to go out and get myself some safety gear. I went to Eastern Boarder for that. I'd never been in there before. It's a lot bigger than I thought and there's a lot of energy in there. I was sorry my shopping experience was so brief because the place just had a groovy vibe and I wanted to stay. Some guy, I think his name is Brian, offered to help me. I told him what I needed and he started getting me stuff. Thankfully, he didn't think I was somebody's mom. He thought I was with the Roller Derby Girls. That's more like it! Brian, if that was in fact his name, was wicked nice. He hooked me up with a helmet, elbow pads and wrist guards. When I put on the wrist guards I said "Oh, these are like the splints I'm supposed to wear to bed." We both got a laugh out of that. They didn't have any knee pads in my size. Looking back, I probably should have asked what size I need. The safety stuff cost more than you probably think. I already knew that helmets were about $40 but I had no idea about the other things. Here's what my trip to Eastern Boarder cost:
Helmet - $36.99
Elbow Pads - $24.99
Wrist guards - $19.99
Considering the cost of a trip to the ER I'd say it's worth it to spend the extra money by getting this stuff at a skateshop rather than some cheapy crap at Walmart. Know what I mean? I still need to get the knee pads and then I'm good to go.

This coming weekend I'm hoping to check out Rye Airfield. That's where I'm planning on taking my lessons. I want to scope the place out and maybe talk to someone about their thoughts on an old, broken chick wanting to skate. I was told they had some 60 year old guy in there learning to ride a BMX bike. If he can do that then I can do the skating thing...I hope.

I'll let you know how my trip to Rye goes.

-Beaver