The basics of skateboards’ deck and 14 Famous Brands.

The Deck is the most important part of Skateboard!

"Deck" will be the most important part of skateboard if you are trying to start skateboarding.

There are variety of shapes, size, colors, and designs of decks. The shape directly affects the riding and graphics would pump up your motivation.
This column is about the knowledge about very very important part of skateboard "the DECK". Please check it out.

Table of contents

※click the below link and you can jump right to the particular contents.

・Width of the Deck
・What and where is Concave located?
・What is Kicktail？
・Famous 14 skateboards' deck brand

Width of the deck

Unit of width

Basically, the width of deck is in inch.

 

The narrowest size of the deck is 7.5inch
The widest deck is 8.25inch

This difference of 0.75 inch seems very little, but this difference makes a huge impact on skateboard because tricks requires very precise techniques.

What is the difference between wider deck and narrower deck

Narrower deck

Narrower deck is lighter in the weight than wider deck. This arrows riders to try flip tricks easier.

If you are beginner, we would recommend narrower deck unless you have particular deck which you want to buy.

Wider deck

On the other hand, wider deck has more stability when landed. These decks are chosen by riders prefer bigger size tricks such as stair tricks.
Also, the touch of the deck when caught after flip tricks is better than narrower decks.
Riders who prefers ramps and vertical would chose wider decks too.

Whats and where is Concave located?

Concave is the place where the deck's width is flexed such as in the above photo.

The deck with steep concave

Deck is more easy to control. Steep concave enables the deck to have more contact points with the sole. This type of deck would be favorable more with the spin tricks such as 180.

The deck with low steep concave.

The deck with low steep concave enables the rider to do flip tricks easier. Low steep concave will not catch the sole of the shoes as much as the deck with steep concave. This makes easier for rider to slide their feet and kick the deck to do flip tricks.

It will be better to try on average type deck first to know what you want to do. Then find the deck which would fit you.

What is the Kicktail？

Kicktail is the bent tips of skateboard located at the nose and tail. The angle of kicktail will varies based on the brands and models.
Let's take a look at characteristics of each type of kicktail.

The deck with steeper angled kicktail

The steeper angle kicktail has longer distance in between the tail and the ground. This makes the board to stand higher when kicked for ollie and enables to gain height for tricks.
This type of board needs more power to ollie.

The deck with slight angled kicktail

The deck with slight angled kicktail has shorter distance in between the tail and the ground. This enables riders to ollie with less power.
This type of deck is perfect for the beginners.

But this does not mean skillful riders will not use this type of deck. Slight angled kicktail gives quick reaction to the tricks for riders.

Again, if you are beginner, the deck with slight angled kicktail will be perfect choice.

The price difference of complete set and parts individually.

Let's take a look at the price difference of complete set of skateboard which allows you to ride right after the purchase and buying the skateboards' parts individually to assemble the skateboard.

Parts sold loose

Parts	Price (with tax)
Deck	10,800 yen
Truck(front and back)	8,640 yen
Wheel(4 wheels)	6,480 yen
Bearings	3,780 yen
Grip Tape	1,080 yen
Total	30780 yen

According to the above table, if you are trying to buy a skate board from the parts, the cost will be around 30,000.
It will be great for pumping the motivation because the skateboard will be completely your original with your favorite brands and parts such as deck, truck, wheel and bearings.
The sale parts, or the cheaper but high quality blank decks will be helpful for lowering the costs.

Complete

On the other hand, the skateboard sold as a complete set will be at the price of around 15,000 Yen ~ 20,000 Yen.
Each brand assembles the skateboard with their brand's parts to lower the cost.
The price of complete set will be around half price of buying skateboard's parts separately.

For your Reference

For your reference, we have conducted a survey about whether buying the complete set skateboard, or buying the each parts to assemble the skateboard.

14 Skateboard brands

GIRL

This is the brand that almost every skateboard shop has in stock.
The brand uses very famous icon from the women's restroom and has many models with different nose and tail size which enables for easier flips and tricks.

chocolate

Chocolate is sister brand of GIRL that does unique branding.
The brand has been emerging through adding unique riders with originality to their team, and their identity never fades.

BAKER

"BAKER skateboards" is very hardcore deck brand. This brand is famous for movies such as Weekend Warriors which we, R/ForA has introduced in the website.
They produces the deck collaborates with SHAKE JUNT.

Cliche

The "Cliche" is from France and Europe.

They also sponsor Japanese top rider, Kouta Ikeda.
One of the most notable deck brands with unique urban graphics unusual in Europe.

ELEMENT

Have you ever seen this logo of ELEMENT。
They produce not only the deck but also the apparels.
The world famous skate rider "Nyjah Huston" is sponsored by ELEMENT.

Almost Skateboards

Almost skateboards were founded by Rodney Mullen, the legend who influenced the skateboard nowadays, and Daewon Song, the great skateboarder with tricks that gives huge impact to the skateboard nowadays.
Skaters in the team favors the technical tricks, the deck tend to have steep concave and steep kicktail.

toy machine

Toy machine has unique brand characters.
The alien with one eye and the red monster with horn appear on the deck graphics through out the products.

STEREO

STEREO is long-established skateboard deck brand.
Not only their pro team, but their amateur team is also very creative.

FLIP

They support very creative and all-round type riders such as Luan Oliveira and David Conzalez.
The skateboard deck brand supports their quality of tricks.

PLAN B

PLAN B is orthodox school skateboard deck brand.
They had legendary famous team on the 90s, but they have winded up the business on 1998.
Now they have recovered from that and gaining the fame again.

REAL SKATEBOARDS

REAL was founded by Tommy Guerrero and Jim Thiebaud on 1989 and started from San Francisco.
The brand is named after the mind of creating the REAL snowboard company.
They produces the deck which supports from the beginner to expert.

KROOKED skateboarding

KROOKEDは比較的若いスケートボードブランドで、2002年にレジェンドとして名高い、マークゴンザレスが立ち上げたブランド。
イラストレーターとしても活躍するゴンズが描いたグラフィックなどがデッキにプリントされることも多く、クリエイティブな滑りをする集団だ。

ZERO

Skateboard company founded by Jamie Thomas on 1995.
They ride till they broke arms or legs.
Everyone is covered by blood in the film.

ZOO YORK

The brand started from NEW YORK. The deck graphic is very unique with city's view.

Japanese Brand

lesque

web : lesque.com

"lesque" has started as Japanese brand on November, 2011.
They are named after『Endless Question』, and that shows that they are trying to find the answer to infinite questions appears in the world.
They support very stylish riders and their product is based on the natures.

Evisen

web : www.evisenskateboards.com

"Evisen" is the brand with most momentum in Japan nowadays. Their brand name has the image of SKATEBOARD = EVERYTHING, and they bring the Japanese peculiar items to their board graphic design.

UNIFUL

web : www.uniful-skateboards.com

"UNIFUL" is led by the Japanese rider, Shin Okada who is active worldwide.
They work very hard to appeal the delightful-ness and possibilities of skateboard.
They have very unique and original graphic designs for their decks.

JOYNT

web : www.joynt-skate.com

The brand was founded by 2 Japanese pioneer riders, Hiroki Saegusa and Hideaki Hayashi.
The numbers which appears on the graphic,『38：44』is the numbers of their kanji used for name of 2 founders of the brand.
They are trying to rise the level of Japanese skateboarding through schools and demos.

photo credit : socalskateshop.com

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