If you want to get somewhere, a cruiser. If you want to learn tricks, a classic skateboard. If you surf or snowboard and want to train off-season, a surfskate. If you want to bomb hills or cover distance, a longboard. That’s the short answer, and for most people it’s the only one they need. The long one is worth reading because all four boards differ in three parts — the shape of the wood, the trucks and the wheels — and those three parts decide what you’ll be able to do and, more importantly, what you’ll never be able to do.
The four boards at a glance
| Classic skateboard | Cruiser | Surfskate | Longboard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What defines it | Symmetrical nose and tail | Soft wheels on a short deck | Articulated front truck | Long deck, wide trucks |
| Wheels | 99a-101a, 52-54 mm | 78a-87a, large | 78a-87a, large | 78a-87a, very large |
| How it turns | Barely; with your weight and kickturns | Barely, but smoothly | Enormously, almost on the spot | Barely, but very stable |
| Good for | Learning tricks, street, skatepark | Getting around | Carving, training surf and snow | Speed and distance |
| What it can’t do | Roll comfortably on bad ground | Tricks | Tricks, or relaxed straight riding | Tricks, or going everywhere with you |
| Catalogue price | €74.90 for the deck alone | €54.90 complete | €54.90 complete | €94.95 complete |
What actually separates them
The classic skateboard — the popsicle — is a symmetrical deck with a nose and a tail, both kicked up. That shape exists for one reason only: so you can slam the tail into the ground and make the board pop. The entire modern trick vocabulary comes from it. It runs from 7.5” to 9” wide (8.0”, 8.25” and 8.5” are 65% of everything sold in Europe) and rides small, hard wheels, 99a-101a in 52-54 mm, so they accelerate fast and slide well on grinds.
The cruiser is, physically, a skateboard with large, soft wheels and a deck shaped to carry you rather than to be flipped: often shorter, with a tail but little or no nose, and often shaped or old-school instead of popsicle. The trucks are ordinary skate trucks. The part that makes a cruiser a cruiser is the wheels: 78a-87a urethane soaks up cracks, cobbles and gravel instead of passing them straight to your knee.
The surfskate is the only one of the four with a genuinely different mechanical part. Its front truck isn’t a skate truck: it’s an articulated system — with an arm, a spring or a ball joint depending on the maker — that pivots far more than a conventional truck. The technical description of the carveboard mentions tilt of up to around 45°, and manufacturers sell truck systems with different geometries. The result is exactly what you’re after if you come from surfing: the board turns almost on the spot and you can build speed by pumping with your body, without pushing with your foot.
The longboard is, above all, long: 90 to 150 cm according to the standard description, against the barely 80 cm of a classic skateboard. That long wheelbase is what makes it stable at speed. The trucks are wide and reverse-kingpin, the wheels soft and larger still, and many decks are mounted drop-through or with a lowered platform to bring your foot closer to the ground.
What people find out too late
This is the part that actually decides the purchase, and the part that never appears on a product page.
You won’t do tricks on a cruiser. Soft wheels have no pop: the board doesn’t rise the same way, and on landing the urethane compresses. If it also lacks a nose, half the trick list is ruled out by pure geometry. A cruiser does kickturns, manuals and not much else.
On a surfskate you’ll only carve. The articulated truck that makes it fun is the same one that makes it useless for everything else: no ollies, no skatepark, and riding straight and relaxed is tiring, because the front end wants to turn all the time. Bombing a hill is a bad idea too: a truck that turns that much also wobbles. And it has moving parts that wear out, which none of the other three do.
A longboard doesn’t fit anywhere. Not under a desk, not in a backpack, not in a locker; it’s heavy, and carrying it by hand for half an hour is work. It has no business in a skatepark. And downhill, which is what sells it, is a different sport with its own kit: the full-face helmet and slide gloves aren’t decoration.
You won’t ride comfortably on a classic skateboard. This is the most common frustration on the list: somebody buys “a skateboard” to commute and discovers that on 99a wheels every crack registers, cobbles rattle, and a small stone can stop the wheel dead. Nothing is wrong with the board; the wheels are wrong for that use.
Can you turn a street deck into a cruiser?
Yes, and it’s the cheapest conversion there is: swap the hard wheels for soft 78a-87a ones and you have a working cruiser on the wood you already own. The deck still has its nose and tail, so you lose nothing: the day you want to skate street again, you put the hard wheels back on.
The one caveat, and it matters, is wheelbite: a large soft wheel can rub the deck when you turn hard, and when it rubs, the board stops dead. Up to about 56 mm you normally don’t need to do anything. Above that, add riser pads — the shims that sit between truck and deck — or fit high trucks. The wheels guide and the hi and lo trucks guide cover it.
What the conversion doesn’t give you is the shape: a converted street deck rolls fine, but it’s still narrow and long. A surfskate and a longboard, on the other hand, can’t be improvised — the first is missing the articulated truck and the second is missing wood — so they have to be bought.
What each option costs
These are the prices measured in the comparator’s catalogue, across 78 European shops:
| Option | Median | Products measured |
|---|---|---|
| Complete cruiser or surfskate | €54.90 | 127 |
| Complete longboard | €94.95 | 17 |
| Set of soft wheels (78a-87a) | €50 | 304 |
| Classic skateboard: deck only | €74.90 | — |
| Classic skateboard: trucks | €59.99 | — |
| Classic skateboard: wheels | €55 | — |
Three things in that table are worth reading properly.
First: a complete cruiser costs less than a bare skateboard deck. It isn’t a hidden bargain, they’re two different markets. The cruiser is sold assembled and ready with entry-level components; the classic skateboard is sold in pieces, and the real price of a setup isn’t €74.90 but the sum of everything, as the price guide breaks down.
Second: there are only 17 longboards across 78 shops. European skate shops barely stock them. If you want one, expect few options and expect to look outside the usual circuit.
Third: converting what you already own costs €50, and a whole cruiser costs €54.90. The conversion only pays off if you already have a board sitting idle at home. Starting from zero and wanting to get around, buy the cruiser. And soft wheels are no oddity: of the 1,681 wheels in the catalogue with a readable durometer, 78a-87a are 19% — against the 49% that 99a and 101a add up to — but that’s still 304 sets available.
If you’re still unsure
- Getting to work or class → cruiser. And if you already own a board, soft wheels and you’re done.
- Actually learning to skate → classic skateboard, 8.0” or 8.25”. Start with the beginners guide and the sizing guide.
- Already surfing or snowboarding and wanting to train it → surfskate. Don’t buy it expecting anything else from it.
- Bombing roads or riding long routes → longboard, with protective gear.
- One board for everything → classic skateboard with two sets of wheels. It’s the only one of the four that changes personality by swapping a single part.
In the catalogue you can compare the price of the same model across every shop at once, which is where the real money difference lives.
Frequently asked questions
Is a surfskate good for learning to skate?
No, and it’s the most expensive buying mistake of the four. It teaches you to carve by pumping, which is a surfing motion; it doesn’t teach you to push, or to foot-brake, or to ollie, and the articulated truck behaves in a way you’ll find nowhere else. If you want to learn skateboarding, start on a classic skateboard.
Can I take a cruiser to the skatepark?
To roll around and do kickturns, yes. To learn tricks, no: soft wheels have no pop and many cruiser decks have no nose. If the park is where you’re going, what you need is a popsicle on 99a wheels.
Cruiser or longboard for commuting?
Cruiser, in the vast majority of cases. A longboard rides smoother and holds speed better, but it’s heavy, it fits nowhere, and it’s awkward in crowds and on stairs. The longboard wins if your commute is long and open; the cruiser wins if you’re going in and out of buildings, public transport and narrow pavements.
Do I need riser pads if I put soft wheels on my board?
Up to about 56 mm in diameter, normally not. Above that, yes, or you’ll get wheelbite: the wheel rubs the deck as you turn and stops you dead. You can also solve it with high trucks instead of shims.
Is a longboard safer than a skateboard because it’s bigger?
For rolling calmly down a bike lane it is more stable, yes. But size isn’t safety: a longboard reaches far higher speeds than a skateboard, and past a certain speed a fall is much worse. Safety is the helmet and the terrain you choose, not the length of the wood.