When you read a skate product listing, half the words are jargon and every one of them means something very specific. Hanger, durometer, wheelbite, switch: none of them is decoration; each names a part or a behaviour that changes what you buy and how you skate.
We group them by block — deck, trucks, wheels, shapes and the vocabulary of skating — because each word makes far more sense next to its neighbours than in an alphabetical list. Where a term has a guide of its own, the link is there.
The parts of the deck
Deck. The wooden plank you stand on. It is sold on its own, with no trucks or wheels, and it is the part you replace most often. Almost every other language borrows this word rather than translating it.
Nose and tail. The two raised ends. On a modern deck they are nearly symmetrical, with the tail slightly shorter and steeper.
Kicktail. The upward angle of the ends. It is what lets you lift the nose with your foot: no kicktail, no ollie and no manual.
Concave. How much the deck curves from edge to edge. Deep concave gives your feet more purchase for flips; mellow concave is more comfortable for cruising. The size guide goes into it.
Wheelbase. The distance between the two pairs of mounting holes, usually 13” to 14.5”. Short turns quicker; long stays calmer at speed.
Griptape (grip). The adhesive sandpaper on the top face. It stops your foot sliding off and lets you drag your shoe so the board comes up with you.
Plies. The pressed layers of wood. The standard is seven plies of Canadian maple; fibreglass, carbon and epoxy builds are variations on that base.
Hardware. The eight bolts and nuts that fix the trucks to the deck. Shops list them under that name in every language.
The parts of a truck
Trucks. The metal assembly that joins wheels to deck and makes the board turn when you lean. Everything about them is in the hi vs lo trucks guide.
Hanger. The horizontal piece the wheels bolt onto. Its width in millimetres has to match the deck’s, and its height is what separates a Hi truck from a Lo.
Baseplate. The plate that bolts to the deck and that the hanger pivots on. Its geometry is why two brands of the same width turn differently.
Kingpin. The central bolt that clamps the assembly together. Tighten it for stability, loosen it for agility. The free, instant adjustment.
Bushings. The two urethane rings the kingpin compresses, and what really decides how stiffly a truck turns. They cost €5-15 and change the feel more than switching brands.
Pivot cup. The plastic socket the tip of the hanger sits in. When a truck squeaks or feels loose, this two-euro part is usually the culprit.
Riser pads. The plastic shims between truck and deck that buy you height. They let you run big wheels without rubbing.
Wheels and bearings
Durometer. Both the instrument and the scale used to measure urethane hardness. It is not a skate invention but an industrial standard, the Shore durometer.
A scale and B scale. The A scale runs in practice from 78a (very soft) to 101a (very hard). Above 100a it loses reliability, which is why brands such as Bones use the B scale, read 20 points lower: an 84b equals a 104a.
Urethane. The elastic plastic wheels and bushings are made of. The quality of the formula is what separates a €30 set from a €60 one.
Contact patch. The strip of wheel touching the ground. Wide gives grip; narrow breaks loose sooner, which is exactly what many people want for powerslides.
Flatspot. The flat area that appears when a wheel locks up and scrapes the asphalt. Once it is there the wheel hums on every rotation and nothing fixes it: wheel guide.
Wheelbite. The wheel rubbing the deck when you turn and stopping you dead. It happens with big wheels on low trucks; riser pads or smaller wheels solve it.
608. The standard skate bearing size: an 8 mm bore. All skate bearings are 608, so any set fits any wheel.
ABEC. A scale measuring a bearing’s manufacturing tolerance, not how fast you skate. The ABEC scale is defined entirely outside skateboarding, which is why it measures it badly: bearing guide.
Spacers. The metal cylinders between the two bearings in each wheel; they spread the load when you land.
Shapes and sizes
Popsicle. The modern shape: symmetrical, with nose and tail alike. It is what you should buy if you are unsure, because it is built for tricks.
Shaped. Any deck that departs from the popsicle: wider, asymmetrical, with a cut nose or a squared tail. Made for bowl and cruising.
Old-school. The eighties outlines, wide and with a nose far smaller than the tail. Beautiful, and poor first boards.
Width in inches. A deck is measured across, not along, and the number almost always falls between 7.5” and 9”. In Europe, 8.0”, 8.25” and 8.5” are 65% of everything sold: how to pick yours and what exists in 8.25”.
Complete. A board sold assembled and ready to ride. The alternative is building it part by part, which the price guide breaks down.
Setup. The specific combination of parts someone rides. “What’s your setup?” means which deck, which trucks and which wheels.
The vocabulary of skating
This is where the glossary is most consistent across borders: none of these words gets translated anywhere. They are the same in Barcelona, Lyon and Berlin.
Pop. The sharp snap of the tail against the ground that launches the board. A deck “with good pop” answers back hard; once the wood fatigues, it has lost its pop.
Ollie. The basic jump: you snap the tail and drag your front foot up the grip so the board rises with you. It is the gateway to everything else (ollie).
Flip. Any trick where the board rotates on its own axis under your feet; the kickflip is the best known.
Grind. Sliding on the trucks, on the metal, along a ledge, a rail or a box.
Slide. The same thing, but sliding on the wood instead of the trucks. A powerslide is a different move: skidding all four wheels sideways to brake.
Manual. Rolling balanced on two wheels, like a bike wheelie, with neither nose nor tail touching down.
Regular and goofy. Your stance: regular is left foot forward, goofy is right. Neither is better; it is like being right- or left-handed.
Fakie. Rolling backwards while keeping your normal stance.
Switch. Skating with your feet swapped, as if you had the opposite stance. It is as hard as writing with your other hand, which is why it counts for so much.
Bail. Letting go of a trick halfway and stepping off before you fall. A decision, not an accident.
Sketchy. A trick that landed, but ugly and barely. Also a spot with bad ground.
What stays in English elsewhere
English speakers get this glossary for free, which hides how strange it looks from outside. The rule in Romance languages is oddly consistent: the things you buy get translated, the things you do stay in English. Catalan and Spanish say taula / tabla for deck and rodes / ruedas for wheels without blinking, but nobody translates grind or ollie.
The exceptions are worth knowing if you shop across Europe. French translates the deck (planche) and the wheels (roues) but never the trucks — essieux is a word nobody uses, so French skaters say trucks, and le nose and le tail stay English too. German keeps Deck rather than Brett, translates wheels and trucks as Rollen and Achsen, and then simply conjugates the tricks: ollien, grinden, sliden. The small truck parts — hanger, kingpin, bushings, pivot cup, baseplate — and the measurements — wheelbase, contact patch, flatspot, wheelbite — stay English everywhere, because they arrived with the product and never got local names. The European brands guide and the catalog do the translating in practice.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a deck and a complete?
A deck is only the wooden plank. A complete already has trucks, wheels, bearings, grip and hardware and can be skated the moment you leave the shop. If it is your first board, the order of decisions is in the beginners’ guide.
Why is so much of this vocabulary English?
Because it was born in California in the seventies and travelled on videos and magazines rather than through dictionaries. Words that already existed got translated; words for new things did not. The timeline shows how the industry took shape.
What does it mean that one wheel is 99a and another 84b?
That both are hard and the 84b is harder still: the B scale reads 20 points below the A scale, so it is equivalent to a 104a. In Europe, 99a is 35% of the wheels on sale and 101a another 15%.
Do truck numbers mean the same thing across brands?
No. One brand’s “149” and another’s “148” are usually the same hanger width. Always read the millimetres, not the commercial number: trucks guide.