How to Buy Skateboard Decks

Choosing a skateboard deck seems tricky, right? From lengthy to small, wider to short, curvy or flat, popsicle to shaped, wooden or carbon fiber; the market has hundreds of options to offer you.

Of Course, every option has a lot of adventure to offer; but not for everyone. Before investing your money, invest a little time to know how to choose a skateboard deck for yourself.

So, let’s start skating to know the right deck.

1. Deck Width

Deck width is the first information you get with any skateboard. The skateboard deck Size chart

gives you a guess to choose Decks’ width as per your shoe size.

You can adjust deck width with your riding style and the experience you have.

Like, Do you want to enjoy skateboarding at a higher speed? Wider boards come with wider trucks and are stable at higher speeds. But they are heavy, so difficult for flaps. If you have strong legs you can enjoy safe catches and landings.

Shorter decks being lightweight perform better in flippy rotation, transitions, curbs, and wheeling. But because of having smaller trucks, they are difficult for high speed and landing.

2. Deck Length

Firstly, you need to know that the length of the deck is not the whole length from nose to tip. It is the wheelbase length i.e. distance between both sets of wheels.

The length of the deck mainly depends upon your height. You have to spread your legs to manage your balance.

Deck length is also adjustable as per your ride and ease. Long Decks are good for casual cruising, pushing long distances, and skating fast downhill. These decks provide more room to balance. But, it becomes too heavy to rotate the deck or lift the tail.

Being lesser in weight and diameter, shorter boards provide better rotation.

3. Degree in Concave

Apparently, the deck seems flat other than the nose and tail. But the wheelbase has a concave to ease your shoe movement and increase the life of your deck.

The degree of concave will affect the deck feel under your feet and respond to your moment. Companies usually provide 3 types of concaves as low, medium, or high. Different degrees of concave will cater to different riding styles. As skaters prefer more concave decks to skate on steep walls and mild to low concave for street skating.

4. Shapes and Construction

Deck shape doesn’t matter for normal stance and less tricky rides. Popsicles are good for cruising, but for managing tricks and streets you need shaped decks.

Decks usually consist of 7 layers of maple glue in between and press really hard to make them strong. For having more strength carbon fiber or glass fiber skates are also available. The carbon fiber deck provides a smooth bottom layer to skate on the railings.

Skateboard deck pop tells about the quality of the deck. On hitting sound if the deck produces hard dry noise it seems like a good deck. But if the deck has taken much humidity, we would say it does not have good pop.

Take Away

You are a unique person going to enjoy skateboarding in a unique way. People ride concave decks in the street and flat decks on walls. Everyone comes with their own choice and makes amazing moves.

So, keep trying different styles and tricks and come up with your own style. Don’t forget to share which deck you are going to buy first.