Landyachtz Dinghy Review – Arguably the Best Cruiser Money Can Buy 

 March 4, 2021

By James Mason

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Our Verdict:

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The Dinghy was built to be the go-to cruiser for riding through the city streets and around campus.

Whether you are looking for a skateboard to cruise, commute, or simply have fun with, look no further than the Landyachtz Dinghy !

PROS

  • Compact and portable
  • Designed to provide versatility
  • Stable ride
  • Endless options to choose from
  • Good value for money
  • Perfect for cruising
  • Attractive deck graphics

CONS

  • Uncomfortable for bigger sized riders
  • Maple wood soaks in water
  • Not suitable for beginners

If you are in the market for a compact longboard to cruise on, the Landyachtz Dinghy is worth considering. If you wondered why......well, the dinghy was designed to provide a combination of features that make for the ideal cruiser longboard. 

From an excellent build quality and convenient deck design to high quality specs on the trail, this is just a fraction of what you get from this great-looking board. 

Not to mention that the manufacturer has been in the game for more than 20 years, boasting a reputation for producing top notch products with superior functionality. 

So, why do some people consider the Landyachtz Dinghy as the best cruiser board in the market? Let us explore that in the following in-depth review of the Landyachtz Dinghy longboard. 

 Landyachtz Dinghy Review

The Dinghy was built to be the go-to cruiser for riding through the city streets and around campus. It boasts a versatile functionality that allows you to do almost anything you want. 

To proclaim the Dinghy as the perfect city board, the manufacturer designed it with a small and lightweight frame to enhance its maneuverability. Despite the small size, the board is equipped with longboard wheels to bring about versatility over different riding surfaces. 

So, let us delve deeper into the features in this Landyachtz Dinghy review:

 Size

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Source: landyachtz.com 

The Landyachtz Dinghy is available in three different sizes to suit smaller riders. These include:

Landyachtz Mini Dinghy 24: 24-inch length, 6.5-inch width, 14-inch wheelbase

Landyachtz Mini Dinghy 26: 26-inch length, 6.5-inch width, 14-inch wheelbase

Landyachtz Dinghy 28: 28.5-inch length, 8-inch width, 14.6-inch wheelbase

Apart from the deck size, all the Dinghy boards use practically the same kind of components. Another aspect you’d like to note is that there have been more than 20 editions of the Dinghy over the years. The ones I’ve listed above are just the main sizes you’ll find the boards in.

While the major difference between the boards lies in the graphic design art, some have a small variation in size. For instance, the Dinghy Handstand is slightly bigger than the rest with dimensions of 29 x 8.5 x 14.4 inches for the length, width, and wheelbase respectively.

Some people find themselves struggling to choose the ideal board with so many options on the table. Overall, you’d be wise to go with the bigger version with a graphic design of your preference if you are of standard height. The smaller sized boards are better suited for a kid or smaller rider. 

 After all, all the Dinghies come with similar components. All the wheels, trucks, and bearings are produced by Landyachtz and deliver the same type of quality performance. Let us review the individual parts and see what their impact on the ride is:

Deck

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Source: landyachtz.com 

One of the most praised features on the Dinghy has to be the deck! It is made out of strong and durable 7-ply maple wood to make for a stable performance on the trail. When it comes to size, the Dinghy comes in sizes of 24-28.5” x 6.5-8.5” x 14-15” as earlier mentioned in this Landyachtz Dingy review. The unit is generally short and the wheelbase is small.

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Source: landyachtz.com 

The maple board on the Dinghy is pretty sturdy and has no flex, which is something you’ll need to get used to if you’ve been cruising on a flexible board. The maple is much stiffer than a bamboo deck. 

You might assume that a flexible board would be a more suitable choice but that’s not the case for the Dinghy board. Testing the board tells you it was built for fun. The sturdy deck even allows you to do ollies, flip tricks, and maintain your stability on rough riding surfaces.

While other materials tend to be a little lighter, they are also limiting to the rider. 

 Grip Tape

A notable feature that you don’t find on all boards in the market is the clear grip tape. This helps to keep you stable when you stand on the board, ensuring that you remain on your twos when the ride gets wobbly. 

Landyachtz used high-quality tape on the Dinghy, and this can last for years. While the tape offers enough grip to keep your feet planted on the board, it still lets you move your feet around comfortably when handling the ride. 

But not all versions come with clear tape on the deck, and the Dinghy Summit is just one of the exceptions. 

The board is also designed with wheel wells that help to prevent wheel bite. These prove to come in handy for riders who prefer loose tracks and deep carves. You won’t have to worry about the wheels touching your skateboard. 

 Shape

The Dinghy’s deck is built in a mellow radial concave shape. The side of the board is slightly elevated to make the Dinghy more responsive, which makes it a decent choice for pulling off tricks. 

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Source: landyachtz.com 

But you should note that the concave design is not for everyone. This is because it tends to eat into the stability you get on an entirely flat deck like a penny board, although it’s a nice design for playful riders. 

Furthermore, the shape enables you to perform sliding movements much more easily, and you’ll appreciate that the concave design is perfectly balanced on the Landyachtz Dinghy.

The board also features a directional deck, which means both the nose and tail are elevated. The nose is a little pointier than the tail while the shape of the tail lets you ollie or hop over curbs and patches of grass. It helps you to maintain your balance as you lean back. 

The kicktail ensures that you can hop curbs with relative ease as you cruise while the soft wheels make for a pleasant landing. They don’t bounce a lot like on some boards. Another benefit of the kick tail is that it allows you to perform kick turns if you are up to it. 

Given the stiffness of the deck and the shorter wheelbase, you might experience some wobbliness when cruising around at top speeds. 

 Trucks

The Dinghy is equipped with 105mm traditional Polar Bear trucks, featuring enlarged bushing seats for enhanced turnability. This is relatively narrow for a truck, which may not be as stable as a larger truck. However, it is expected given the small size of the board.

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Source: landyachtz.com

One attribute of Polar Bear trucks is their high tolerance level to minimize slop. Meanwhile, the hangers have been machine faced to boost strength, and axels heat-treated and reinforced to make sure they keep spinning straight. 

The baseplates of the trucks come with 8 holes to let you customize your Dinghy by leveraging the new school or old school hole pattern. The 0.25-inch risers on the Bear trucks also help to reduce the likelihood of wheel bite. 

Some riders claim the bushings are a little bit squeaky when you start to use the board, but that’s pretty common with new bushings. The noise tends to stop when you finally break into them. Anyway, you can upgrade to higher quality bushings if required.

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Source: landyachtz.com

 Bushings

A closer review of the bushings on the Dinghy reveals that the top bushing is cone-shaped whereas the bottom one is barrel-shaped. The variation in shape offers different qualities while riding. The combination of the two adds stability, as well as maneuverability to the ride.

For perspective, bushings are typically shaped differently to suit a certain style of riding or improve the ride in some kind of way. For instance, cone-shaped bushings enable the rider to make quick turns and other agile maneuvers whereas barrel-shaped bushings help you to maintain stability, particularly during long turns. 

As you start to ride your newly acquired Dinghy, you might want to consider changing the bushings, depending on the weight of the rider . 

 Wheels

The Landyachtz Dinghy comes with 63mm Hawgs Fatty wheels- a brand that Landyachtz owns. The Hawgs wheels make use of proprietary urethane and are tested rigorously on downhill slopes under freeriding conditions. 

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This makes for a superior quality of wheels that most Dinghy owners swear by. These are also the same kind of wheels that Landyachtz uses on higher-end freeride models of longboards it manufactures. 

 Small but Smooth

I my opinion, the 63mm soft wheels are slightly small when you consider the size of the Dinghy and the fast turning Bear trucks it comes with. However, they deliver great roll speed that I didn’t expect at their size. 

Their 78A durometer feels kind of squishy but remains firm when you are riding. Overall, the Fatty wheels strike a sweet spot between rolling smoothly on various types of terrains and breaking into slides easily. 

The wheels are smooth and you barely feel the bumps even when cruising at high speeds. These remain steady when running over all kinds of surfaces. Whether you’re cruising on a sidewalk with cracks or metal chunks; they just won’t get chipped. 

 Grippy yet Slidy

The small size of the wheels mixed with the proportionally wide 50mm contact patch makes them controllable for slides and they still manage to offer just enough grip. Their rounded lips also help to significantly support kicking into slides. 

The other feature to note about the Hawgs wheels is the offset positioning found on the wheel cores. The core is placed between the inner and center of the wheel instead of the side-set or center-set cores. 

The offset positioning leads to a balanced combination of grip and slide. The wide and supportive cores on the Fatty wheels makes the longboard ideal for sliding and performing tricks on the Dinghy when carving through streets. 

 Bearings

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The Dinghy uses Bear Spaceball bearings. These are not your typical generic, low-quality components. The bearings are pretty decent and help to enhance the performance of the board. They have built-in spacers that help the wheels to stay aligned and wiggle free. 

This allows you to change the wheels much more easily and tighten the axles to your preference without interfering with the setup. The result is that the Bear Spaceball bearings enable your wheels to roll for hours on end without getting loose and can cope with popping tricks.

While the consensus among Dinghy owners is that the bearings are quite good, you can still decide to upgrade to better ones if you’re looking for something with more speed. 

How Does the Landyachtz Dinghy Perform?

The Dinghy performs impressively on all kinds of surfaces. It boasts a versatile design that allows it to hold its own in the city streets, as well as the on rougher off-road trails. Let us look at what the board is good for?

 Is the Landyachtz good for Cruising?

The Landyachtz Dinghy is a great choice if you’re looking for a cruiser! In fact, it was designed specifically for cruising through city streets and sidewalks in urban areas. The small size and overall design of the wheels allow the board to accelerate pretty fast yet still manage to roll smoothly.

boy on the Longboard

The short length of the board allows for enhanced maneuverability and agile turnability, enabling you to swerve in and out of crowds with relative ease. Don’t worry about the occasional potholes and curbs you’ll come across on the road; the kick tail design of the Dinghy makes it easy for you to hop over obstacles . With this board, you can look forward to a full urban commuter experience in whichever city you find yourself in.  This is just what the manufacturer envisioned when designing the Landyachtz Dinghy!

 Is the Landyachtz good for Freeriding?

The Dinghy wasn’t exactly designed for freeriding. Nevertheless, you can still pull it off and enjoy yourself while at it. Generally, freeriding boards are notably longer than the Landyachtz Dinghy. So, if you’re buying the longboard primarily for freeriding, I recommend you look elsewhere for a more suitable option.

But if you just want to experiment with the Dinghy, you may manage to pull off some nice slides. With the concave design of the top, sliding becomes easy as you can lock your feet. Furthermore, the Fatty Hawgs wheels won’t prevent you from sliding. 

 Is the Landyachtz Dinghy good for Pumping?

The Dinghy can be used for pumping. However, it does necessitate experience and you’ll only be able to perform the maneuver if you know what you’re doing. While the Polar Bear trucks may not be the ideal choice for pumping, you can still pull it off with the right experience. 

 Can it Perform Tricks?

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The Landyachtz Dinghy allows you to performs tricks such as ollies, manuals, kickflips, as well as a bunch of other old school moves. Despite being capable of pulling off more technical tricks that a skateboard would, I wouldn’t recommend the Dinghy as a go-to option. 

This is because the board wasn’t designed for tricks’; you’ll be better off going for a regular skateboard. Only experienced skateboarders can perform tricks with the Dinghy, so don’t take your board to the skatepark if you don’t have the skills. 

Admittedly, the Dinghy can easily handle very tight turns and carves, which comes in handy for pools/bowls, but the Hags Fatty wheels are very soft. You may be able to do slides, manuals, and plenty of other tricks but they won’t be as perfect as they should be. 

Unlike regular skateboards, the stock wheels on the Dinghy are big and soft, which allows for smoother rolling but landing the trick might prove to be slightly unstable. Riding a bowl is possible but you’d still be better off with an alternative setup meant for that purpose. 

 Is the Landyachtz Dinghy good for Riding on Rough Roads?

The Dinghy rides perfectly on rough roads. It is fitted with large Hawgs wheels that have an easy time rolling over stones, twigs, small rocks, and other debris on the road. Although it was designed for cruising around the city streets, you can still have a fun time with it on the off-road tracks. 

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However, you still need to get acclimated to the board before you take it on the rough terrains, unless you want to be left with egg on your face. 

 Downhill Riding?

When you review the setup of the Landyachtz Dinghy, it is easy to conclude that the board isn’t suitable for downhill riding. The package is relatively small and its narrow trucks will get unstable when you achieve the high speeds associated with downhill riding. 

The wheelbase is also small and does not favor you downhill. A smaller wheelbase reduces your stability, which is not something you want on a downhill slope. Furthermore, you can’t reach the type of speeds you can achieve while riding a downhill longboard. 

After all, city riding typically doesn’t involve a lot of hills, so the design of the Dinghy doesn’t embrace downhill riding. 

 On the flip side, the stiff maple construction of the board, as well as the Hawgs Fatty wheel, can allow you to catch some speed downhill as you maintain your balance. Additionally, the mellow radial concave shape ensures that your feet will be planted securely when moving at a fast speed. 

Still, it comes with a level of risk you wouldn’t want to take . There are much better boards available for downhill riding. The Landyachtz Dinghy is more suited for cruising. 

 The Dinghy is the Perfect Commuter Board

The Landyachtz Dinghy features a compact build that you can easily carry around whenever you’re not riding it. It will comfortably fit under your arm or you can strap it on your backpack for easy portability. 

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The 24” version of the board is small enough to fit inside the bigger backpacks in the market, allowing you to go with it practically anywhere your schedule takes you. This means you’ll have no problem hopping onto public transport when you grow tired of skateboarding. 

 Is the Dinghy Too Small for You?

Looking at the Dinghy, it is easy to see that it’s a lot smaller than the majority of boards in the market. You may be wondering whether it will accommodate you if you decide to invest in one. 

Well, it all comes down to two aspects: rider size (shoe size and height) and the kind of riding you plan on using the board for.

If your shoe size is above average, there is a possibility you’ll have a hard time getting comfortable on the board. The deck is only 8” wide, so you’ll want to try standing on the board first to see if it can accommodate your foot size. 

This also means that on tight turns, you will experience a level of instability since your heels or toes will be sticking out. 

 Considering the short length of the Dinghy, taller riders will have a hard time finding a good stance. But if you are under 6’4”, it shouldn’t be a challenge for you. Overall, it’s a matter of preference. 

There are tall riders who shine on small boards and shorter riders who ride on large boards; find what works for you! 

When it comes to the type of riding, the Landyachtz Dinghy was meant for cruising. The small design comes in handy when you have to weave in and out of crowds in the streets and the kicktail allows you to hop over obstacles on the ground. 

So, don’t buy the longboard to go free or downhill riding!

 The Landyachtz Dinghy is not a Board for Amateurs

The small size of the board and the responsive trucks makes the Dinghy very twitchy. It is designed for agile city riding and slashing. The board doesn’t offer the kind of stability a beginner skateboarder would require. It turns relatively faster when you lean and this can bring about major stability issues for a learner. 

If you want a more suitable option for a beginner, find a unit with a wider deck, longer wheelbase, wider trucks, larger wheels, harder bushings, etc. All these factors help to make the longboard less twitchy and keep you steady when you ride. 

Also, look for a board with a drop deck design ensures you are able to ride closer to the ground, resulting in improved stability as you learn to kick push.

 Multiple Designs for the Landyachtz Dinghy

If you are looking to get a Landyachtz Dinghy, you’ll be glad to know that there are numerous designs of the board for you to choose from, in fact, more than twenty versions of the Dinghy in the market and three different sizes. 

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With such variety, you can rest assured that there is a Dinghy somewhere that fits your preferences. In case you’re wondering what your options are, some examples you may be interested in include the Emboss and Beach Party, which are quite popular with riders.

The Dinghy Emboss comes with particularly sober graphics and is a top seller in the company’s mini-cruiser category. Other popular Dinghy models that you may want to consider include the Dinghy Turbo, Burning Sky, and Summit.

 What Did We Like?

The Landyachtz features a versatile design that combines the feel of a longboard with the agility and controllability of a skateboard. It is pretty stiff with no flex and the medium concave deck allows you to pull off tricks on the board. The kicktail also ensures that you can do moves such as ollies and manuals.

The Hawgs Fatty wheels used on the Dinghy enable you to slide easily. 

Even though the board was built for cruising, you can still manage to ride downhill with it if you have some experience.

The board is also compact and portable, allowing you to carry it pretty much anywhere you want to go. The smaller versions of the board can even fit inside a large backpack when you are not riding the skateboard. 

The Dinghy is also available in more than two versions with three different sizes. This provides you with endless variety to choose from, ensuring that there’s something for everyone.

Thanks to the versatile design of the longboard, you’ll have a fun time riding it on the city streets but you won’t have a problem riding on the rough off-road trails if you have to.

For a board that costs less than $200, the Dinghy boasts a host of high-performance features ensuring you get a bang for the buck when you buy one!

What Didn’t We Like?

If you have bigger than average-size feet, you might have a hard time riding on the smaller deck of the Dinghy. Tall people may also struggle to find a comfortable stance on the board. 

The maple wood used on the deck is not adequately water-resistant and tends to soak in water over time, resulting in a heavy skateboard.

The Landyactz Dinghy is not suitable for beginners who have no experience in skateboarding. It is best fit for intermediate of pro riders. 

Pros and Cons

PROS

  • Compact and portable
  • Designed to provide versatility
  • Stable ride
  • Wheel wells
  • Endless options to choose from
  • Good value for money
  • Perfect for cruising
  • Can perform some tricks
  • Attractive deck graphics

CONS

  • Not suitable for beginners
  • Maple wood soaks in water
  • Uncomfortable for bigger sized riders

 FAQ

Is the Landyachtz dinghy good for beginners?

If you are a beginner with some skateboarding experience but never tried riding a longboard before, then a Dinghy shouldn't pose much trouble for you. However, if you are completely new to skateboards, you shouldn’t choose the Dinghy for your first skateboard ride. It is just not stable enough for a beginner rider.

 Is the Landyachtz dinghy good?

The Landyactz is a remarkable cruiser and a favorite in the market. It comes with a top notch design that combines an array of quality features to deliver superior performance on all kinds of surfaces. Furthermore, it offers great value for the money considering that you can get for less than $200.

 Can you Ollie on a dinghy?

You can pull off an ollie on the Dinghy if you know how to! The stiff deck and the kicktail design allow you to perform an ollie without much trouble. You won’t need to use your hands to get the board in the air; the kicktail enables you to pop up the board with your feet!

 Can you do tricks on a Landyachtz?

The design of the Landyachtz lets you pull off a couple of tricks if you have the right experience. Thanks to the kicktail on the board, you’ll be able to perform tricks such as manuals, kickflips, and ollies. 

However, the wheels on the board are a little heavier and stickier, so the board may react slower when trying to do an ollie. As such you’ll only be able to perform basic tricks with the Landyachtz; not the complicated skatepark tricks!

 Conclusion

From the above Landyactz Dinghy review, I can conclude that the board is an ideal choice for those looking for a mini cruiser that is compact and light enough to carry anywhere, and agile enough to perform tricks yet stable enough to offer a comfortable ride.

The board boasts a versatile design that mixes a host of top notch features and components to deliver the ultimate cruiser experience. It is the perfect choice to swerve through the crowded city streets as you commute to school.

Unfortunately, you’ll only realize the joy of riding the Dinghy if you have some skateboarding experience. So, whether you are looking for a skateboard to cruise, commute, or simply have fun with, look no further than the Landyachtz Dinghy !

About the author

James Mason here. Surfing, skateboarding, and longboarding enthusiast currently living in Rio, Brazil. Started boarding since I was old enough to wear a helmet, except I often didn't. Think that explains a lot :)