Lauren, who initially learned to ride on her sisters’ longboards, liked the mini-board as well. “It’s like a little bit easier to control because there’s less you have to turn and stuff,” she said.

Penny Skateboards are now rolling by all around. They have found popularity among college students, many of whom are ditching their bikes for easy-to-stick-in-a-backpack boards. The under-12 set is hopping on after having graduated from scooters. The price of the boards starts at $100, though knockoffs can cost as little as $40.

Action Watch, a Jupiter, Fla.-based action sports market research firm, reports that the Absolute Board Company, the Australian-based maker of the shorter boards, now has a 36 percent share of the under-34-inch skateboard market. Five years ago, it had none, said Cary Allington, president of Action Watch.

The Penny board’s size is its major selling point. Mantas Zvinas, 28, an instructor for SoulCycle who lives in the East Village, bought a red board to ride to work, and likes that it is easy to take on the subway, to restaurants or up the stairs. “I live on the fifth floor of a walk-up,” he said. “To have a bike would be the most awful thing in the world.”

Katherine Benjamin, 21, who recently graduated from New York University, bought a black board with blue wheels a couple of years ago to commute after seeing the shorter boards on YouTube and on streets in New York and by the beach in Barcelona, Spain, where she visited while studying in Florence, Italy. “I saw 10 people come by at different times riding Penny boards,” she recalled.