10 Best Longboards

Both skateboarding and surfing utilize longboards of different types. In each sport, a longboard offers a different experience to the rider while requiring a somewhat altered style of riding to accommodate the length of these boards. If you're planning on using a longboard in either sport, or even looking to upgrade your current board, an excellent resource will be top 10 lists of the best longboards on the market.

  1. Longboards in Skateboarding

    • As its name implies, a longboard looks much like a standard skateboard but with a longer length, usually about 1 meter long (almost 10 inches longer than a standard skateboard). Longboards are manufactured from pressed wooden veneers, which enhances the board's flexibility. Longboard wheels are larger and softer than those found on a traditional skateboard, providing better adhesion to the surface and greater stability while allowing the rider to travel longer distances without having to push off with the foot. For this reason, longboards aren't used for the same kind of stunts and tricks as regular skateboards, but are generally used as a means of transportation suitable to both the experienced skateboarder and the beginner.

    Longboards in Surfing

    • The length of a longboard can be anywhere from 8 to 14 feet, compared to typical shortboard surfboards that range from 5 to 7 feet in length. The modern longboard consists of a polystyrene or polyurethane foam core with numerous layers of a substance such as fiberglass or epoxy resin coating the surface. In appearance, however, today's longboards resemble the long wooden surfboards popularized during the 1950s, which were made out of wood. A longboard provides a surfer with a long, graceful ride over the crest of a wave, making it well-suited for a beginner.

    10 Best Longboards for Skateboarding

    • The website Made Man compiled its 2010 list of the year's 10 best longboards for use in transportation, since longboards are a better means of transportation than standard skateboards. The ranking lists manufacturers, not specific models. These are in descending order: Comet; Rayne; Flexdex; Original; Never Summer; Ladyachtz; Gravity; Arbor; Loaded; and Sector 9, which is described as being "the most popular longboard company in the United States, and quite possibly the world."

    10 Best Longboards for Surfing

    • The website Surf Science selected its top 10 skateboards of 2011, based on ratings and reviews from actual surfers. These are in descending order: Robert August's RA Retro Single Fin; Infinity's Rad Noserider; Stewart's Hyrdo Hull; the Hydro Glide Longboard, also from Stewart; Infinity's Cluster; the Original longboard from McTavish; the Robert August -- What I Ride model from Surftech; the Fireball Evolution from Mctavish; and, in the number 1 spot, Walden Surfboards' Magic Model.