The small girl has expressed an interest in a skateboard for a Christmas present. She’s also mentioned if a few times in the past as well so it doesn’t seem like a spur of the moment thing. If we get her one we’ll send her to a skate day camp that the city offers. There’s a pretty awesome skate park not too far away as well.
Is there anything I should be aware of or looking for at the skate shop? Any questions to ask the 10yo girl, or the not much older than 10yo at the store?
Take her into the skate shop and get whoever is there to help her pick out a board, wheels, etc and then set it up for her with grip tape and everything. Unless it’s some weird corporate shop, the person working there will be able to give sound advice on brands for a newbie, and will probably be willing to set it up for free or cheap if you buy all the gear there.
It seems like you already know this, but do NOT buy her some cheap board from the toy store or walmart. Sure, it may seem to make sense financially to start out with less cost and see if she likes it, but the horrible quality of those store boards, wheels, and trucks can easily turn her off the whole thing.
I agree with filling_pages. Take her to a skateshop. Avoid any high priced stuff and get her a basic board with whatever design she wants. They are pretty standard these days unless you are talking about longboards or crazy stuff like ZenBeam mentioned. Part of the culture is hanging around skate shops so she might as well start enjoying that too.
Questions to ask? Street skater or only parks? Meaning will she be skating on asphalt and such or will it always be the nice smooth concrete and wood ramps of a park? For street skating she might want some curb wax.
Get her a video while you are there - ask the clerk for something with appropriate language, good music and some beginner tricks.