For your kid, if he just wants to experiment, look for older 132 or even 137 boards that you can pick up used for next to nothing. Way back in the day, there were tons of boards with flat or mostly flat bottoms. The bottom profiles often are very similar to modern park boards, and stances tended to be much narrower (good for kids). These boards can be great for kids, and you can often get them for free or nearly free. My son (8) currently is on an ancient Blindside Five-O 137 and he loves it. He has top tier Ronix Vision kids board and also LF kids board, but be only wants to ride the Blindside. For many older boards, you probably want to detune the edges, especially between the bindings. The Blindside has a slightly rounded/lifted rail, so it's perfect, but for other boards with sharper rails, you can just take a file and some sandpaper to round off the edges. If you can get an old 132 for free from a buddy's storage shed, or trade a case of beer for one, then your investment is so small that there is not much to lose if it doesn't work out. You could let your kid get crazy with paint pens, spray paint, stickers of whatever to customize the boards, because who cares if there is so little invested.
Just an idea that worked for me. I put my kid on the Blindside one day just for fun to see how a smaller kid would do with a 137, and now it has become his primary board for both boat and cable.
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