Best Cheap Longboards

OUR TOP PICK

Let’s start with one of the pioneers of longboarding, Quest. This California based company that was founded, and is still run, by skateboarders are a brand that’s stamped indelibly into the history of longboarding. They were there at longboarding’s beginning and they’ve been at the forefront of the scene ever since.

The Quest Super Cruiser is a hardwood board made from seven-ply maple and bamboo, which means that it’s rigid and stiff enough to provide an incredibly stable ride, which as most beginning longboarders will happily confirm, is exactly what you want when you step on a longboard for the first time.

The Super Cruiser’s sure and steady forty four-inch deck gives you enough room to learn how to ride your longboard in style and with confidence.

It’s also more environmentally friendly than most other longboards, as the bamboo it uses is a replenishable wood, which means the Super Cruiser is as kind to Mother Nature as it is to longboarding newbies.

Quest boast that their longboards are built with better components, and given the deck, aluminum trucks, and polyurethane wheels fitted with high-speed bearings that the Super Cruiser uses, it’s hard to argue with them.

It’s a durable, long-lasting, strong, and reliable longboard that was built with the beginner in mind. 

Pros

• Let’s cut straight to the chase. We promised you that we’d found the best value for money longboards it was possible to find, and the Super Cruiser is proof that we keep our word. Retailing at under one hundred dollars, this longboard delivers all the thrills you’ve been searching for at a price you won’t object to paying.
• The stability that the stiff bamboo and maple deck provides is perfect for beginners. It won’t wobble and flex and terrify you like other less rigid longboards might. It’s a purpose-built street cruiser that’s easier to control for beginners, than a lot of other more responsive and maneuverable longboards. 
• Speaking of that stiff deck, as it’s made from a combination of bamboo and maple, it’s going to be strong, tough and it’ll almost certainly last well beyond the point when you start thinking about moving on to your next longboard. 
• Thanks in no small part to its aluminum trucks, it’s also light and if you give the bearings some tender care and attention, the Super Cruiser will be as fast and responsive as you want and need, it to be.

Cons

• Let’s talk about those bearings for a minute. If you want to get the best out of them, and your Super Cruiser, you’re going to need to give them some attention. It’s not that they’re bad, they’re not. But they could be better and with a little patience and care, they can be.
• Those heartbreaking good looks that the Quest’s traditional longboard design is imbued with? Well, they come with a traditional longboard problem. The Quest, like almost every other longboard that shares a similar design, tends to suffer from and is limited by, wheel rub. If you carve too hard or turn too fast, the wheels can rub against the deck and, in extreme cases, can either slow you down or stop the Cruiser dead in its tracks. And unexpected stops mean riders can easily come unstuck. And by unstuck, we, of course, mean that you can, and will, fall off the board. That wheel rub issue, it’s one that’s worth thinking about.  

EDITORS CHOICE

Another California based longboarding brand, Yocaher has been making all kinds of skateboards since the late nineties and like Quest were founded by skaters and are still run by skaters. 

Which is another way of saying that when it comes to longboards, Yocaher knows their stuff. Unlike other longboard brands thought Yocaher has completely embraced the digital revolution and while they still make their boards in the USA, they don’t have any brick and mortar outlets. They’re completely online and that’s the way they like it.

Made for the more daring beginner, the Lowrider is a mountain carver and downhill racing longboard that, as its name suggests, sits closer to the ground than most longboards do.

This lack of height gives you a more stable, and thanks to its drop deck design, slightly stiffer ride. 

Thanks to being fashioned from nine-ply Canadian maple, the Lowrider is also tougher than Chuck Norris and should last at least as long as the eternal Karate legend.

You might take a few bumps and knocks when hurtling down mountain roads and hills on the Lowrider, but your longboard will be just fine.

Because it’s primarily made for speeding down mountains and hills, the Lowrider has been designed to completely eliminate wheel rub, so the only way that this longboard is going to stop is when you want it to.

 It’ll cut through all of the corners and carve as hard as you want it too and won’t even pause for breath. And it’s responsive aluminum trucks keep it light and give you all the control you’ll need to confidently skate the steepest slopes.

Pros

• It’s time to talk money again, or rather the lack of it as the Yocaher Lowrider, like the Quest Super Cruiser, comes in at under one hundred dollars. They might be built to do entirely different things, but they’re both hovering around the same price point. 
• The low-riding design of the Yocaher means that it’s an easy longboard to learn how to skate on. It may have been made to tear your face off with its downhill G-force acceleration, but the stability that drop deck gives this board means that it’s also perfect for beginners to master everything that they’ll need to know before they try to carve the mountains. It’s a best of both worlds longboard that’ll take you from the streets to the hills in no time at all.
• It’s a longboard that’s not only made to last, but also to take a beating while it does what it does so well. The nine-ply maple construction of the deck means that the Yocaher is not only tough, its also been made to outlast its riders. You never know, it might just become a family heirloom.

Cons

• Straight out of the box, it tends to be a little sluggish, so if you want to make the most of your lowriding downhill longboard, you’re going to need to work some old fashioned skateboarding magic on the bearings. Which, thanks to YouTube is nowhere near as difficult as it sounds. Yocaher has embraced the internet, you should too. 
• As it’s a stiffer longboard, it might be as forgiving with larger riders as some other longboards. Push it past the two hundred and some spare change pound mark and things could get messy very quickly.
• Some serious skaters who are serious about skating have complained that the quality of the parts that Yocaher used on the Lowrider aren’t quite up to the task they’ve been given. That said, there are a plethora of other less experienced riders who have completely fallen for the Lowrider, so who knows? The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle of both camps. You’re either going to love the Lowrider, or you’re going to hate it.

BEST VALUE

We thought that it was probably wise to stick with brands that actually know what they’re doing when it comes to longboards, which is why Atom has made our list.

They made their name making longboards, so if anyone knows what they’re talking about when it comes to longboards, it’s Atom.

The Atom Drop-Through was created to race down mountains and hills but is versatile enough to carve the concrete and let you explore every facet of freestyle that you ever wanted to. 

It’s a laminated maple longboard that’s durable and long-lasting and because it uses specialized aluminum longboard trucks, it’s a smooth-riding, speed machine that’ll blow your socks off every time you take it for a spin. 

What makes it ideal for beginners and newbies though, is it’s incredibly stable ride.

The Drop-Through is a downhill longboard so it was made for stability, but the longboard trucks it uses also make it incredibly maneuverable and easy to control which adds volumes to its carving ability. 

Then there’s the Atom guarantee. Every Atom board comes with a twelve-month warranty which means that if your Drop-Through fails or breaks, Atom will replace it or refund you.

While they won’t be able to fix you should tragedy befall you or your Drop-Through, Atom will fix your longboard.

Pros

• Let’s get straight to the point and the real reason that we’re here - the price. Even though it’s the first choice on our list to break the hundred dollar barrier, you do get a lot of longboard for your money. And the warranty that comes with the Drop-Through is worth paying an extra twenty bucks for the peace of mind that it provides.
• Did we mention the warranty already? We did? Well, just in case you missed it, the Drop-Through comes with a twelve-month manufacturer’s warranty, which means you’ll get a year of worry-free longboarding included in the price.
• It’s an Atom longboard, so it uses Atom’s longboard trucks, making it more maneuverable and, for the slightly more experienced skater, much easier to control than the other longboards on our list.
• It’s a hardy old beast, but then all of Atom’s laminated maple longboards are. It’s built to last and last is exactly what it will do.

Cons

• Some reviews have complained about the quality of the Drop-Through and that it isn’t made to the same punishing standards that almost all other Atom longboards are. The quality issue is food for thought that you should maybe chew on, and over, before making the Atom leap.  

RUNNER UP

Twenty years ago, Krown emerged on to the skateboard scene with a simple mission. To make high-quality boards for skaters on a budget.

And that’s exactly what they’ve been doing for more than two decades. Don’t believe us? Then take a look at the staggeringly well priced Freestyle Elite that retails at just under eighty dollars.

The appropriately named Freestyle Elite was made to master and conquer the three longboard disciplines and it went above and beyond the call of duty when it came to fulfilling its design objectives.

Fashioned from nine-ply Canadian maple, the Freestyle was built to be stiff and strong and to have all the speed that you need and none of the hang-ups that you don’t.

Thanks to the shape of the Freestyle’s deck, wheel rub is a thing of the past which means that the Freestyle is as suited to downhill racing as it is to perfecting tricks and carving the streets.

It looks good too. Krown hasn’t scrimped on the graphics. In fact, they haven’t scrimped on anything - the trucks are aluminum, the polyurethane wheels won’t be stopped by any of the unusual bumps in the road and the board while providing a stable ride thanks to its rigidity, is also flexible enough to absorb any unexpected and unwanted shocks.

We have no idea how Krown can do everything that they’ve done with this board for a mere eighty dollars and if we’re honest, we don’t really want to know because we’re wise enough to know that sometimes, you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

You just say thank-you, hand Krown your money, and walk away with an astonishingly good longboard. 

Pros

• At eighty dollars, the Freestyle Elite is staggeringly good value for money. A master of all trades, it’s not just a board for beginners, the Freestyle Elite is a longboard that’ll put a smile on any skaters face.
• Whatever you want a longboard for, and to do, the Freestyle Elite will handle with ease. It’s made to cope with anything that longboarding can hurl at it and then turn around and do it all over again.
• Do you want a resilient longboard that’s going to last, and last and last? You got it. The Freestyle’s nine-plies of Canadian maple wood guarantees its durability and longevity.

Cons

• It isn’t all milk and honey in the land of the Freestyle Elite. The bearings aren’t great and need some persuading to reach their full potential, but as that’s not exactly difficult it isn’t a deal-breaker.  

RUNNER UP

We couldn’t help ourselves, we had to go and save the best for last. The Rimable Drop-Through isn’t just the cheapest longboard on our list, it’s the cheapest by a pretty wide margin, and while it might not do everything that the other longboards on our list are designed to do, for fifty dollars, it does far more than it needs to. 

Rimable’s Drop-Through longboard is made for beginners. It’s a Freestyle Cruiser that, thanks to its drop through trucks, sits low and tight to the ground which produces a stable ride that’s ideal for beginners.

And, because it’s made from nine-ply maple, it’s a stiff board with just the right amount of flex for beginners of all shapes and sizes and levels of ability.

It’s built to cruise and carve, and when you’ve crushed the longboarding basics, you’ll discover its greatest secret. That it’s also a pretty sweet Freestyle board. 

Made to cruise and carve, the Drop-Through is the only street longboard that you’ll ever need.

It’s an easy rolling, concrete loving cruiser that’ll not only introduce you to the world of longboarding, it’ll also make sure that you never want to leave. 

It’s seven-inch aluminum trucks make sure that the Drop-Through glides down the road, and thanks to the shape of its deck, you’ll never be burdened or troubled by wheel rub.  It’s a value cruiser that bats way above its weight.

Pros

• That price. Do you need to know anything more about this longboard? At fifty dollars, it’s almost as if Rimable are giving the Drop-Through away. It’s our choice of valve for money, entry-level longboards. It doesn’t get any better than this for beginners.
• The deck is tough and durable and the drop-through trucks mean that the Freestyle rides low enough to the floor to make it one of the most stable and easy to handle and control longboards on our list.  As we said, it’s perfect for beginners.

Cons

• The wheels and bearings aren’t brilliant. With some fettling, the bearings can be made to exceed their lowly origins but at some point down the line, you’ll almost certainly want to swap the wheels. When you do, that’s the moment that it’ll dawn on you that, thanks to a fifty dollar Drop-Through board, you’re a full-blown longboarding fanatic.