HOW TO SET UP A SKATEBOARD WITH DENNIS DURRANT

Welcome to ‘How To’, a walk through tutorial series highlighting the best (and occasionally quirky) steps to efficiently tackle whatever challenge is presented to you!

How do you put grip on a skate deck? How do you put in and remove fins on a surfboard? What’s the best way to style your Chuck Taylor’s? All this and more now answered for you, through the eyes of those most involved in each individual industry.

In this episode, Element professional Dennis Durrant runs you though the best steps to set up a skateboard – from starting with the essential parts, to rolling away with a fresh set up.

What you’ll need: a board, trucks, wheels, bearings, deck bolts and a skate tool.

1. First thing is to get the four deck bolts and put them through the whole on your deck. Turn your board over so you can hold your hand there so the bolts don’t fall through.
2. Step two, grab your trucks, sit them on there so the bolts go through the relevant holes on the trucks.
3. Next thing is to put the nuts on. Just get them finger tight then get the skate tool – and always turn it from the tool side – righty tighty!
4. Now it’s time to put on your wheels. What you need to do is put your bearings into the wheels. To do so, take your nut off the where the wheels would go on your truck, grab that bearing that’s already pushed in there, and just push down on it to make sure it’s seated in there right properly. You’ll hear and see it pop in.
5. Then just go ahead and tighten it by going around and do the same thing again for the other wheels. Tighten them down to your liking. Everyone has their own preference, but I like to have them a little bit looser.
6. That’s pretty much how you set up your board. Now go skate!