Can You Skateboard in The Rain?

The last thing you want to do with your skateboard is making it wet. Can you skateboard in the rain? The answer is plain “NO”. There are three things you don’t want to do with your skateboard. These are;

1. Riding skateboard in the rain
2. Riding skateboard on a puddle
3. Submerge skateboard underwater

If you love swimming, then dive in the river and take a bath, but leave your skateboard on the ground. Water may make you more energetic, but it will kill your skateboard.

There are mainly five parts in a skateboard, six if you consider bolts.

1. Deck
2. Grip tape
3. Wheels
4. Bearings
5. Truck
6. Bolts

Water can cause damage to every part of the skateboard. Don’t you believe me? Let me tell you how

Can you skateboard in the rain? NEVER

Deck

The one that you usually stand on is called the deck. The deck is made of maple wood. The maple wood can be of different variations. There are Canadian, Russian, Chinese etc., maple. But maple deck is not the main point here. 

The main point is water can seriously damage the deck. So you won’t get the same performance from the deck after it comes in touch with water.

Grip Tape

The grip tape is the top black cover that gives your shoe proper grip so that you can easily ride your skateboard. Whenever you get on a skateboard, the grip tape will help you not to fall from it. 

You can do multiple tricks easily because you have good grip tape. However, once that grip tape comes in contact with water, it will lose its traction, and you won’t get that steady feeling anymore when you stand on your skateboard.

Bearings

You can see two bearings inside each wheel. Bearings help rotate the wheel. The bearings are a very important part of a skateboard, as it defines how smooth you will go with your skateboard. Proper lubrication is needed in the bearings so that it stays smooth. 

But if water gets inside bearings, it can slow down the speed. The lubrication will get mixed with water and won’t work properly. The tiny balls inside the bearings will lose their smoothness and will not rotate like before. As a result, you will get a bad experience riding the skateboard.

Bolts

There are multiple bolts under your skateboard. Some are attached to the wheels, and some are connected to the trucks. If the skateboard gets wet and those small bolts get wet, it will make them rust quickly. It won’t be able to serve you a long time. You will notice the bolts are becoming rusty.

Rusty bolts can break easily also. Suppose you are trying to land some tricks. The bolts will damage faster from the constant pressure it will get. As bolts are rusty already, they will easily break.

Trucks

There are trucks under the skateboard that hold the wheels, and they are attached to the skateboard as well. Water can make the bolts of the truck rusty, and it may break as well. 

The truck is very important as it determines how easily you can turn the skateboard. Also, it distributes the pressure evenly within four wheels. So if it gets weak, it will be very tough to ride the skateboard smoothly.

Wheels

There are four wheels in a skateboard that can get loose if it comes in touch with water. Bearings, wheels and trucks should be tightly attached. But water can lose the grip among them. 

The next thing you know, you are riding a loose skateboard.

So now you know all the terrible things that can happen to your skateboard if it gets wet. 

But what if it’s already wet? What do you do now? Can you fix the skateboard and bring back the performance it used to provide before?

There are several things that you can do to reverse the damage. For starters, take your skateboard home and don’t ride it and make it worse. Chances are there’s already water inside. So first, you need to get that water out.

You have to re-assemble the entire skateboard to clean it properly. Just use a skateboard tool and separate the trucks, wheel, bearings aside. However, you may face some problems removing the bearings. Well, you can watch this video By Aaron Kyro from Braile Skateboarding. He shows how easily you can remove the bearings. This is a fantastic video that you can follow.

Keep a clean towel with you so that you can properly clean the deck, wheels, bearings and truck. There will be eight bearings in total. Make sure you clean all of them so that there’s no water clogged inside.

Then place your skateboard in the sun and leave it like that. The sun should do its magic, and all the remaining water should get vaporized. If there’s no sun outside or you live in a cold country, you can keep your skateboard inside your home. That’ll do the trick. 

If you want to skate when it’s raining, you can go to the nearest indoor skating ground and skate there. There’s no point in damaging the board. 

If you don’t have an indoor skatepark, you might as well wait for the next sunny morning. You will have a good board to skate on, and you can skate without worrying. If you are impatient, you will damage the board. And later, you have to spend hours fixing the board. You will try to bring it back to its original phrase. 

In the worst-case scenario, if parts are too damaged, you may have to buy an entirely new setup. Which is not worth it. So it’s best to wait for the following possible good weather to skate outside.

And also, for safety purposes, you should not skate in the rain. A wet road can make you lose your balance, and you may fall. Now answer me, can you skateboard in the rain?

So to avoid injury to yourself and your skateboard, skip the rainy day, and you can enjoy the following day. Let me know whether you like this article or not. There’s some other skateboard content that you can check out.