I will watch my ds and see if he starts on the board again. Thanks a bunch for your help!!

Seasons also i recently found a skatepark closer to you then 3rd lair, it is called summit skate shop and park it is lake elmo. its on hudson drive. they do lessons also. since we live in white bear lake we have been doing more and more with this park. (not that you have to follow us)

Thanks for the idea! I did get him a used board... he tried it twice and was quite proud... but he hasn't gone on again. Later he also said he did not want to go to soccer.. actually got really upset with me so I told him he didn't have to. I guess I read him wrong that day.

well, you can get him cheaper boards to learn on from wal-mart or target.(20 or 30 bucks) make sure he has a helmet and other protective gear. breaking boards really doesn't happen til they get going off the jumps and ramps and are bigger body wise.

you can take him to 3rd lair for lessons, they are in golden valley,off of 394. depending on the lesson schedule it is about a 25 bucks a hour with a team rider then he can stay and skate the rest of the day. if lessons are too much a month just get a board and let them go. most cities have at least one skate park now in the cities. also 3rd lair has summer day camps that travel to different parks in the city. also at 3rd they have a summer series contest where kids get together and compete against each other last year it was 10 dollars for a contest they get prizes and it is really a fun morning. one day a week. usually saturday

how i got my son into it was we got the basics from 3rd lair and paid for a month or so. then stopped lessons as he made friends and pursued his friendships with the skaters in the lessons and then we started him in summer series. the main focus of summer series is getting kids out skating , it is concidered the little league of skating.

to address the expense of it i pay less a year for skating then i do for football and track and field together for my other son. yes, you go through shoes and boards do break but when a boards breaks all you have to do is replace the wood which is between 40 and 70 dollars instead of the 200 for a full board. you can reuse the wheels and truks. ( when i say 200 that is for a pro board.) all though every board shop will tell you that you need to spend hundreds of dollars for a board it really isn't true.

hope this helps,

Loosing his balance isn't the issue.. I think that is an excuse... more worried about him not being safe and hurting himself.