Ever since we visited Virginia Beach and rollerbladed alongside skateboarders on the boardwalk each morning, my boys have been asking for skateboards. While totally clueless when it comes to the skateboarding scene, my guess was that the cheap ones that we kept seeing in each gift shop that we happened upon, weren’t going to be smooth or easy to ride.

The boys also wanted new helmets for their birthdays…which happen to fall just 3 weeks apart. In addition to the helmets, they wanted cool stickers to decorate their helmets with.  Stumped. So, I took to social media and shouted out to my Facebook friends.  Loaded with tons of awesome suggestions, I took to the mall (shudder) and went to a store I had never even noticed before.

Not going to lie….I felt a wee bit like a fish out of water in the too-hip-for-the-43-frumpy-school-teacher-mom-of-two that I am.  I found the stickers in the display case (just as I was told that I would) and started chatting with a couple of the employees. They couldn’t have been nicer…or more tolerant of my ridiculous lack of knowledge.  With a pretty excellent pile of stickers in hand, one of the kids offered to show me some skateboards….boards, that is.  I’m guessing it is fairly uncool to use the full name.

Turns out that I was right to have not pulled the trigger and bought a gift shop board.  Not smooth.  Harder to ride.  Wear easily.  Boys will lose interest.

I was schooled on the parts of a true board and the different ways to customize them.  I was also taught what to look for when buying starter boards for the boys to help set them up for success.

Turns out, for $99 the boys could go into the store, customize their own boards, help assemble them, and not only get a sweet board, but also have a pretty cool hands-on learning experience….while chatting with some pretty cool employees. I got such a kick out of my own experience that I couldn’t wait to go back with them.  By “customize” I mean, pick out their own deck (board), wheels, grip tape, wheel bearings, and wheel mounts.  Pretty cool.  They got to use the vice to assemble the wheels, help sand the grip tape into place, and screw it all together. Pretty cool again.

The boys were absolutely beaming as they walked out of the store with their new boards and have been working hard to get the hang of it. Have you been on a skateboard lately?  Holy crap…not easy.  Thatcher got the hang of it pretty easily.  Finn is having some trouble figuring out if he’s left-footed or right-footed, but is doing pretty great for his age.

With such short, little wish lists for their birthdays, I’m feeling pretty psyched that they are so happy! Total score for mom…maybe I’m just a little bit cool after all (this week anyway).

Check out Zumiez website HERE….and their store at the North Shore Shopping Center.