There are essentially three types of skateboards out there, all used for different purposes by different users. The first type of skateboard, as you may know, originated out of the surf culture of 1950s California. Back then, there was only one skateboard and it was used to mimic the feel of surfing, but on land. The word skater didn’t exist back then, so a surfer could essentially be surfing to work, home and back to the water.

Today, there is a definite divide between the surfer and the skater, both representing something of a subculture but also inherently different in look, values, lingo and representation. Anymore, it’s not likely that a skater could jump from a skateboard to catch ocean waves, nor is the opposite true. The types of skateboards today even delineate skaters from one another.

The first type of skateboard is the short board. The short skateboard is usually 33 inches or less in length, with varying deck concavity for performing tricks. Almost all short boards have some degree of concavity depending on the difficulty of the trick being performed. This concave feature refers to the curve of the inner part of the deck when compared to the height of the nose and tail. Certain ground tricks don’t require as much as a curve as other, more specialized tricks in a skatepark or on a half pipe. The concavity of the board is referred to as shallow or deep. A skater would really never ride down the road for long distances on his short board that has a deep concavity.

The second type of skateboard is the long board. Longboards do not have the same curved or concave design as a shortboard, but are used for cruising over long distances on smooth terrain. These are often bigger than 35 inches and give ample room for feet positioning. The longboarder wouldn’t use the type of skateboard for tricks, but would use it to ride from one place to another. The longboarder may perform tricks, too, but only when using his shorter board. Just like surfing, the longboard holds the surfer up for a longer period of time, often bringing him into the sand. The shortboard, however, is used to thrash through waves and perform difficult, short-lived tricks.

The third type of skateboard, if it can be accepted as such, is called a flowboard. A flowboard looks just like a skateboard from the top, but has seven specially designed wheels in the front and the back (fourteen in all). These angle upwards following a curved axle. The rider looks as if he is cruising down a mountain slope on his snowboard rather than skating on flat asphalt. The rider can swerve the wheels back and forth and ride angles that would otherwise be impossible on both the short and long board. It will be interesting to see what will come of the flowboard, as it may or may not be accepted into skater culture easily.

All these boards are all, in truth, made of the same materials. When skating first came about, wood was the only material used, often preferred even to this day. All types of skateboards are made of wood, plastic, fiberglass, aluminum, bamboo, resin, Kevlar, carbon, and layered materials. Many skateboard decks are made with a plying of laminated Canadian maple wood. Wheels are often made of polyurethane held in place by the truck with ball bearings. Though there are some inherent differences in the types of skateboards, most are made very similarly but are used for very different purposes.