Should I buy a mini cruiser or a micro cruiser board?

A cruiser board is ideal for transportation but is not specifically built for doing tricks like a skateboard is (though you can do tricks on some cruiser boards). There are 40-plus-inch boards meant for cruising, though they are not very manoeuvrable. If you’re into carving, or if you live in a congested area, a mini cruiser or a micro cruiser may be just what you need. So which one should you choose?

What do They Have in Common?

Yocaher Mini Cruisers and Micro Cruisers both come complete with conventional-kingpin trucks that fit their decks perfectly. The bushings are good for beginners and the setup is incredibly agile and will dive into a curve as sharply as you’re willing to push them. 

The wheels are 62 millimetres tall and have a soft, 78A durometer. Their height means they’ll provide plenty of speed, but their softness lets them roll over debris and uneven surfaces easily. They also wear gradually for a long life. Turning those wheels are our fastest, ABEC-7 bearings. They may be small, but these cruisers aren’t kids’ toys. We’ve outfitted them to roll as fast as you want to go.

Both shapes are composed of seven layers of hard rock Canadian maple. This wood is an industry standard for its superior strength and forgiveness. They’ll flex a bit, but these decks are as strong as any of their bigger brothers. They each also have a small kick tail and nose. These features allow for extra manoeuvrability and even tricks, if that’s your thing.

What’s the Difference?

The difference between these two decks is their size. Mini cruisers are 27 inches long and 8 inches wide, while micro cruisers are 25 inches long and 7 inches wide. Short of placing them side by side, it is hard to adequately describe how different these boards feel underfoot. Those couple inches either way make a big difference.

Micro cruisers are roughly the same size as the classic plastic skateboards some of you may remember from the 1970s. They are agile in the extreme, and they require an experienced rider to be ridden to their full potential. However, there are others who may benefit from their smaller size. Mini cruisers have a reputation as campus cruisers, owing to their ability to weave through pedestrians and to stow away easily. So, let’s see which one is right for you.

Younger Riders

Despite their stability, large skateboards and longboards can be unwieldy for younger kids. Their short strides make it difficult for them to push long or tall boards. Additionally, their little feet are often dwarfed by bigger longboards. Either mini or micro cruisers will likely work well for these littler skaters, but the smaller micro cruisers work best for the smallest riders.

Experience Level

For adults, this is the nuts-and-bolts consideration that you have to account for when choosing a cruiser. Larger boards tend to be easier to learn on, simply because they are inherently more stable than smaller boards. This holds true for mini cruisers and micro cruisers, as well. Micro cruisers are a blast to ride. Their ability to dart in altering directions is fun with a capital F, but they require a bit more skill to ride. Adult beginner skaters usually appreciate the extra stability that a mini cruiser has to offer.

Portability

Cruising is fun on almost any longboard, but using one as transportation means finding a place to stash it once you arrive at your destination. When space is at a premium, be it in a locker at school or just out of the way at work, mini cruisers really earn their place. Being under 30 inches in length makes both types easy to tuck away, but the extra space a micro cruiser saves doesn’t mean it’s the only way to go. Unless you’re already comfortable and confident riding a board, the mini cruiser will be easier to use as transportation.

Carrying

Whether you find that the pavement you’re riding on is suddenly not suitable or that the foot traffic around you is just too heavy, there will be times when you must carry your board. When that happens, a 10-pound longboard suddenly becomes a load. Micro cruisers tuck right into many backpacks, but either one will be much easier to carry by hand than other types of longboards.

Urban Terrain

If you live in the city, there will likely be quite a few obstacles in your way as you cruise from point A to point B. Curbs and potholes are easy enough to negotiate, but when the quarters get really tight, bigger longboards can become burdensome. The extra manoeuvrability you get from mini cruisers makes it much easier to get around in these environments, but a micro cruiser may be overly manoeuvrable for these situations.

Foot Traffic

Cruising on city streets also brings with it the likelihood of coming across people on the sidewalks. Negotiating inanimate objects is one thing, but people bunch up and shift around as they walk. Avoiding them – and their ankles – requires the ability to make sharp turns. Here again, a micro cruiser may be too much. The mini cruiser is plenty small enough for splicing through crowds, and it is a bit more stable once the coast is clear.

Tricks

If you’re the type of rider who gets bored cruising around and just has to cut up a little bit from time to time, the mini cruiser is probably the wiser choice of these two. The extra couple inches in length makes it much more likely you’ll pull off a trick, and even enable board slides. The smaller micro cruiser is harder to control when you’re doing anything other than cruising and carving.

Conclusion

It really is hard to go wrong with either of these setups, but let’s recap just for clarity. Small children often do better and learn faster on micro cruisers because their little feet fit on them more comfortably. Otherwise, it takes a skilled skater to really get the most out of our smallest Yocaher.

Mini cruisers are the fun-size board for just about everyone else. They are nearly as manoeuvrable as the micro boards, but their extra heft makes them much more stable platforms on which to learn the sport. For cruising in foot traffic, you really won’t get much more agility from the smaller board. Either one will carve and turn on a dime, though, and we’re proud to offer both shapes with a variety of new graphic designs.

Check out our full range of Yocaher skateboards and cruisers here.

This post is edited from an original article by Yocaher. For more information, visit www.yocaher.com