Parts of a Freestyle Skateboard

Freestyle skateboarding involves flipping, stalling, hopping, and rolling on every edge of your skateboard. Freestyle skateboards have a few unique parts that make them more stable and more durable for freestyle skateboarding tricks. Here's the beginner's guide to freestyle skateboard parts.

Deck: The platform that you stand on, made from layers of laminated wood. Freestyle skateboarding decks come in a rage of sizes and shapes. Check out our Freestyle Skateboard Decks blog to learn more!

Grip tape: Rough tape applied to a skateboard to provide greater grip underfoot. Grip tape is often applied to the top of a freestyle skateboard deck and under the nose and/or tail.

Skid plate: Hard plastic guards mounted to the nose and tail of a skateboard deck to prevent wear. You might hear some people call these "tail guards" or "tail bones".

Wheels: The parts that allow the board to roll. Freestyle skateboard wheels are offset or side-set to make certain freestyle tricks easier. There are many freestyle skateboarding brands that sell wheels and they each have their own unique shape. 

Trucks: The structure that allows the rider to turn the board by leaning. Trucks provide axles for the wheels. On a freestyle skateboard, trucks are slightly narrower than the deck.

Bearings: The small circular devices that allow your wheels to roll. Each wheel contains two bearing housings which mount wheels to the axle.

Axle nut: The nut that secures the bearings and wheels to the trucks

Washers: Thin metal rings placed on the truck axle next to the bearings, allowing the wheels to spin freely. Washers are often used as shims to align a freestyle wheel with the edge of a skateboard deck.

Hardware: Nuts and bolts that hold the trucks on the deck.