Skateboard Design

The deck is the most important part of the skateboard. The deck is the part of the board you stand on usually made out of Canadian maple veneers. The shape of the deck is concave so you can make the board spin, flip and do all sorts of tricks. The deck consists of 8 screw holes that are used to screw the trucks into the board.

Grip-tape is rough adhesive used to give the skateboarder control of their board. The grip-tape allows the rider to flip or spin the board by flicking their foot across the board. The grip-tape is applied to the board by peeling off the back part of the grip-tape then laying the sheet flat down on the deck. Next, take an allen key rub it against the board making a long line around the whole board so you can cut the excess grip hanging off the side of the board. There are a couple different brands of griptapes such as jessup, mob and black magic. The difference between these brands are that some have more grit which will rip your shoes, but will catch your foot better. The brands with the less grip won't eat your shoes as fast but won't catch as easy. So be careful picking your brand.

The trucks are the two metal parts right under the screw holes uses for holding the wheels. The truck is made up of two parts, the baseplate and the hanger. The baseplate is the part that screws into the deck. Beneath the baseplate is the hanger. the axle which is the part of the truck that holds wheels runs through the hanger. Between the baseplate and the hangers is a rubber part called the bushing that provides cushioning for turning the skateboard. The more resistance you have turning the board means you have softer bushings. The parts that holds all this together is called the kingpin which fits inside the bushing. By tightening or loosening the kingpin nut, the trucks can be adjusted loosley for better turning, or tighter for transitions. Trucks are manufactured with different axle widths for specific board widths. For example, a 7.75 board would be fitted with trucks that have an axle width of 7.5 or 8. There also many brands for the trucks as well such as, Independent trucks, indy trucks, royal trucks, destructo trucks, tensor trucks, and thunder trucks.

Skateboard wheels usually made out of polyurethane come in many different sizes. Street skaters usually skate smaller wheels ranging from 51 to 54 millimeters. Vert skaters usually skate bigger wheels ranging from 55 to 65 millimeters. Wheels are also measured by there hardness or durometer. Harder wheels are usually for street skaters so they can slide on waxed surfaces, bluntslide and boardslide. Vert skaters skate softer wheels so they don't slip going at high speeds. Inside the wheel is two bearings, one on each side of the wheel. The bearing are graded by the abec scale which means it's tolerance. the abec scale ranges from 1 to 9. The brands for wheels include spitfire, gold, hubba, autobahn and bones. Brands for bearings include bones swiss, fkd and independent.

The hardware consists of eight unified thread standard bolts, usually phillips or an allen head. Some have different colors that indicate which side of the board is the nose or the tail. The best place to buy these bolts are online because Home Depot, Lowes and other hardware stores don't often carry them.