How much should you spend on a longboard? If you’re asking this question, you may be a beginner looking to buy your first longboard. You can get a longboard for as cheap as $50, but you’ll probably immediately regret your choice. Also, buying a cheap longboard might simply discourage you from longboarding as your riding experience will not be very good.
Longboards typically cost between $150 and $400. If you’re new to longboarding, our recommendation is to choose
Factors that will help determine how much you should spend include:
- Longboard brand
- Longboard size/riding style
- Deck construction
- Trucks upgrade
- Wheel size upgrade
- Bearings upgrade
Let’s examine each of these factors in more detail.
See also:
Choosing the best longboard for a teenager
How to choose a cheap longboards (only if you’re on a tight budget)
Longboard cost by brand
Here’s a quick rundown of how much longboards cost for some of the top brands on the market that make trustworthy, reliable, quality products.
The price ranges below are based on the regular list prices ignoring any promotions. Also, I only included “regular-sized” longboards, leaving out mini cruisers and large dancers (see later section).
- Arbor longboards: $150 – $210
- Landyachtz longboards: $170 – $250
- Loaded longboards: $290 – $360 (exclusing the $500 Chubby Unicorn Blood Slayer)
- Globe longboards: $150 – $230
- Sector 9 longboards: $140 – $225
- Rayne longboards: $200 – $250
- Omen Longboards: $160 – $250
- DB longboards: $140 – $310
- Dusters California: $145 – $230
- Moonshine longboards: $250 – $340
Impact of deck construction on longboard cost
Longboards made with bamboo typically cost more than all-wood boards. Even for a longboard of a given brand and model that comes in several constructions, expect to pay more for the bamboo version than for the
In addition to materials used for the deck core (e.g. maple vs
A good example of this is to compare the cost of the Loaded Tan Tien vs the maple construction Arbor Catalyst, two popular freestyle and freeride oriented mid-sized longboards. The Loaded costs almost twice the price due in large part to the advanced technology that goes into the deck.
Impact of deck size on longboard cost
I mentioned earlier the price ranges for each brand excluded longboards with very small and very large sizes. The reason is that the cost of much smaller and much bigger longboards are respectively below and above the “regular longboard” price range.
City cruisers (aka mini-cruisers) with lengths of 32″ or less typically cost less than a regular longboard – you may or may not actually call them “longboards”. The fact that there’s less material going into their construction probably affects the price, but most importantly these mini-cruisers cater to longboarders looking for a portable and affordable board for nimble city riding.
Mini cruisers are typically priced below the $150 mark. Here are some popular examples:
- Landyachtz Dinghy: $130 (seemy review)
- Landyachtz Tugboat: $140 (my review)
- Globe Blazer: $135-$140 (my review)
- Dusters Flashback: $140 (my review – Dusters cruisers)
- Arbor Pilsner: $150 (my review)
At the other end of the spectrum, large dancing longboards are generally higher priced than regular longboards. Again, a lot more material goes into these decks, and longboarders who are into dancing expect to pay a premium price for these oversized boards with ample room for boardwalking. See my post on the top 5 dancing longboards.
Here is the typical cost of the most popular dancing longboards on the market:
- Loaded Bhangra: $360
- Landyachtz Stratus: $200 – $400 (maple vs bamboo hollowtech)
- Rayne Whip: $260 – $360
- Bustin Daensu: $280
- DB Dancefloor: $320
- Loaded Tarab: $425
Considering a ballpark cost of $150 – $250 for a good quality longboard, expect to pay less than that range for a mini-cruiser and more for a dancer longboard.
Choice of trucks and longboard cost
A key aspect of the cost of a complete longboard is the components it comes with, namely the trucks and the wheels.
Most quality longboards come with reputable quality truck brands such as Paris, Bear, Caliber, Randal, and Gullwing. Longboard trucks from these brands generally cost between $40 – $60 range for a set of two when sold separately.
Upgrading to higher-end trucks will obviously increase the cost of your longboard. Forged precision trucks for downhill racing, for example, can easily run $100 – $150 per truck.
Switching your stock trucks for special carving surf trucks like Carver CX trucks can also increase the cost of your longboard setup by $100 – $130.
Wheel choice and longboard cost
Quality longboards in the $150 – $250 range typically come with good quality wheels. Reputable longboard wheel brands include Orangatang, Sector 9, Hawg, Arbor, Venom, Cloud Ride, Seismic. The price of a set of quality longboard wheels typically falls in the $35 – $55 range.
Swapping a longboard’s stock wheels to larger ones, e.g. from 60mm to 80mm, will typically add to the overall cost of your longboard. Switching from one brand to another can also add to the price.
Bearings are another key aspect of your setup cost. While the standard bearings that often ship with your longboard may cost as little as $10, good quality bearings such as Bones Reds can run about twice at around $20 for an 8-pack.
For super smooth high-performance bearings, you can invest in Swiss Reds or Swiss Ceramics which will add $60 to $160 to the total cost of your longboard.
Recap: how much should you pay for your longboard?
You probably shouldn’t pay less than $150 (unless you get a special discount) for a
You typically don’t need to invest more than $250 for that first longboard – unless you’re already passionate about the sport and you want something high-performance and super durable to follow you in your evolution.
If what you want is a small cruiser for urban riding, on the other hand, your budget may be in the $130 – $150 for a quality board. Mini-cruisers are small and nimble but good ones come with quality TKP or RKP trucks and smaller yet high-performance wheels.
If you’re into longboard dancing, expect to fork out the big bucks, from $260 on up (excluding promotions) for a larger sized, quality dancer with good carving trucks (e.g. Bear Grizzlies) and quality medium-sized wheels (60-70mm).
Finally, if you decide to improve your setup with high-end trucks, larger wheels, and/or high-performance bearings, expect to bump up the cost of your complete longboard by $20-$100 for each of these. My advice is to ride your longboard for a while before deciding on what to upgrade.
