Skill Board Balance Board Review

Launched on Indiegogo and Kickstarter in 2019, Skill Board sells two main products, the Skill Board and the Skill Board Mini, along with a small assortment of accessories. This board is primarily designed for athletes to avoid injury and improve their skills by building balance and core strength.

The Skill Board is a flat piece of wood that sits on either the Wobble Cushion or a ball. When you stand on the board, you have to work to maintain balance. You can increase the challenge by going from the cushion to a ball, changing the size of the ball, or inflating the object to a higher PSI.

While the Skill Board is aimed at those who want to exercise, this is essentially a more extreme balance board. Since we’re big fans of balance boards at standing desks, we decided to try these products out to see how usable they might be while working at a standing desk.

Skill Board Specs

The board itself is made from maple plywood. It has a weight limit of 300 lbs. The standard Skill board is 36.5” x 19.5”. The Skill Board Mini is 26.6” x 16”.

You can order the board with or without the grip tape. The grip tape is the only area of the board itself where we saw some minor quality concerns, as it had slightly ragged edges in a couple of spots.

Skill Board suggests going with the smooth board if you’ll be using it barefoot and using grip tape if you’ll be using it with shoes. Alternatively, the Beginner to Pro bundle comes with a smooth board and grip tape so you decide which option you prefer. The Beginner to Pro bundle also comes with the Wobble Cushion, floor savers, a small ball and a drawstring bag.

The Wobble Cushion is designed as basically a 101 course for the Skill Board. It allows for full rotation on a non-rolling point, as opposed to the ball. It can also be deflated or inflated to adjust difficulty (lower inflation is easier).

Once you’re comfortable with the Wobble Cushion, you can progress to a ball. We tested a Skill Board Mini with the medium ball. The standard Skill Board comes with a large ball. If you want a small ball, you can buy one separately or it is included in the Beginner to Pro bundle that we mentioned above. Whichever ball you’re using can also be deflated or inflated to adjust the difficulty.

Rough Patches

There are some rough edges with the components outside of the board. The ball that came with our Skill Board Mini started warping after use. You should expect this issue, especially if you’re using the ball with a low PSI or changing the PSI often. Skill Board’s website says you should expect to replace the balls “somewhat regularly.”

As for the pump, based on the FAQ page, there are issues with pump threads and pumps not reading the correct PSI. Skill Board made a video on how to repair the pump gauge so that it reads correctly. We didn’t have any problems with our pump.

Using The Skill Board Mini

Using the Skill Board Mini at a standing desk was bittersweet. On one hand, we could feel our balance and core strength improving. On the other hand, it was distracting to use during work. Even with the Wobble Cushion at low PSI, typing accuracy and focus both suffer slightly because your body and mind are working hard just to stay balanced. Once we switched to the ball, it was more difficult to type and use a mouse with any degree of precision.

If you already have excellent balance, being on the board while working will require less work and you may be able to work without disruption.

When you start out on the board, make sure you have something nearby to hang onto until you get used to it. We’d also suggest starting slow and building up to more time on the board gradually.

The Takeaway

We enjoy using the Skill Board Mini. We liked the challenge. We found the progression from Wobble Cushion to the ball with varying levels of PSI to ramp up the difficulty to be very intuitive and easy. Unfortunately, all of the assets that make it great for a user to improve their balance and fitness make it unsuitable for most while working. Typing, focus and mouse precision all declined while using it. If you want to use a board while working without losing focus, try something like the iMovR Gymba.

This is a great device for building balance and strength, it just isn’t successful at allowing you to do those things while you also work.

Check out all our other balance board reviews along with our detailed comparison review of the top standing desk balance boards. Also, you might want to explore the related categories of standing desk mats, including calculated terrain standing mats.

If you’re interested in exercising with your balance board, we’ve put together a list of our favorite balance board exercises.

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