For cruising you will want softer wheels with durometers around 78a-83a, you have to choose the wheels, depending on your board size. The smaller, top mount boards are usually built with wheels around 60-66mm in mind. That means you can run these wheels with loose trucks and not worry about wheel bite. For drop-through boards, and cut out cruisers, you can go all the way up to 85mm. However, be careful, as the bigger size means a huge increase in weight. If you want to go big, 80mm wheels will usually do the job.

Why would you want big wheels? They will roll over everything and hold speed better. 

Our Favorites are Chubby and Fattie Hawgs, Oj SuperJuice, Orangatang Lovehandles.

For dancing, you will want wheels that roll for a long time, provide you with some traction and therefore allow you to dance on your board and travel distance at the same time. You can choose any wheel between 65-75mm, preferably around 78-83a.

Blood Orange wheels are amongst the favorites, together with Orangatang Stimulus and Fat Frees. 

For freestyle, you will want to choose a wheel that is smaller, with rounded lips. That is because of air tricks and flips, so they can be done easier. Square lips will help you with initiating slides. The freestyle wheels can be anywhere between 60-70mm with Duro from 76 to 90a 

Something like Blood Orange 60mm Morgans

For freeride, you want wheels that are easy to break traction with. Then you have to decide if you want to do long slides, or rather slow down faster. For longer slides, you want wheels with smaller contact patch. To slow down faster, you want wheels with a bigger contact patch. The durometer you should use either according to the terrain you’ll be riding (softer wheels for rougher surfaces) and the speed you are about to get (softer wheels for higher speeds).

Harder wheels have their place in sliding, for example when you are just practicing on a smaller hill, because they are easier to initiate slide on, and will slide longer, giving you more time to get used to that feeling of a slide.

Our Favorites: Remember Hoots, Powell Peralta Snakes, Cult Chronicle

For Downhill, you will want to use wheels with square lip, big contact patch and usually some kind of supportive core. This type of wheels will allow you to grip corners, maintain massive amounts of speed, and slow you down in the shortest time. The size can be anywhere between 70-80mm and durometer from 74-83a

Favorites are Venom Magnums, Seismic Alpha, Cuei Killers.

Long-distance push is a discipline, where you definitely will see and feel the difference in wheels. The bigger wheels will be harder to get moving, but once you will get them going, they will hold their speed for good amount of time. This is why 80-90mm are the most often used wheels for this category. Furthermore, you will want wheels that are soft around 78-82a, so they grip while you pump.

We recommend Orangatang Kegels and Speed Vents From Seismic.

On electric longboard, you can go anywhere from 85-107mm with bigger wheels also improving your top speed a little bit. For Hardness, softer wheels will provide you with a smoother ride, therefore we recommend wheels between 75-85a.

Slalom: Split durometer; hard in front soft in the back (not necessary)

For slalom, you want to consider the concrete discipline, you want bigger wheels around 75mm for longer courses, and giant slalom, and smaller wheels around 66mm for faster, more tight courses. You will always want a square-lipped wheel, with a sharp edge, that is flexible. This will hold traction, and return the energy you’ll put into turns.

The hard wheel in front is usually around 80a-83a and is there to increase roll speed. Soft wheels in the back are around 77a-80a and are softer, so they will provide more grip.

(You will also want to run split angles on your trucks.)

Seismic DefCon, Cuei Killers and other Sharp Edged wheels will work great.

For this type of riding, you will want bigger wheels, that holds speed better. You can go from 54-66mm, for smoother terrains, such as pools choose harder wheels up to 100a, however for pump tracks and ditches we recommend softer wheels around 80a, so they will roll over rough terrain with ease.

Pools -54-66 mm wheel from Bones, Ojs or Spitfire...

Rougher Terrains - Ricta Clouds, Oj Super Juice, Landyachtz Ez Hawgs

Diameter (mm). Specifies the size in millimeters. = A typical skateboard wheel is between 52-58 mm. A typical longboard wheel is 65-76 mm. It is crucial not to take unnecessarily big wheels for your riding style for the sake of saving weight and avoid wheel bite.

How smaller the wheel how faster it will accelerate, how bigger the wheel the higher the top speed is.

If you want to know what fits best for you. Check more of the wheel guide, where we got a guide for every discipline of skateboarding there. 

Contact patch (cp). Specifies the width in millimeters. It can be seen as the surface which makes contact to the ground. Wider wheels are more grippy on a dry surface. Smaller wheels are lighter in weight and are easier to slide.

On a 7-ply, classic street skateboard in popsicle shape, you will want to run hard wheels. The wheels are usually in between 52-58m with durometers around 90-100a. This is because they are meant to be used on perfect or almost perfect terrain in skateparks or on the streets, and are made to be light, so the tech tricks and ollies are easier to do and slide really well, so you can slide and grind far and with ease.

Our Favorites are OJs, Bones and Spitfires

Specifies the hardness of a wheel. A typical hard skateboard wheel is 100a and a typical soft longboard wheel is 78a. Softer wheels are more comfortable and are better for controlling your speed when sliding. Harder wheels are more forgiving when landing tricks and will be faster on smooth surfaces. 

The durometer scale can only go to 100 anything above it is just a marketing trick

Core types:

- Hub: Hard Plastic ring, just enough to connect the urethane and hold the bearings in place. It's the most common type of core. Hub wheels last the longest because you have more urethane to slide with 

- Closed-core: Hard plastic part between the bearings and the urethane. Saves weight in comparison to a hub core wheel and reduces friction during slides.

- Open-core: Hard plastic spokes between the bearings and the urethane to save even more weight in comparison to a closed core. Most common with the bigger 75 mm plus wheels.

Core positions:

- Centerset: The core is exactly in the middle. It allows for the wheels to be flipped. This is the most common type of skateboard wheel. Ceterset has the most grip

- Offset: The core is closer to the inner side of the wheel. These wheels are more common with longboarding because it offers a nice balance of grip and slide

- Sideset: The core is on the inside of the wheel. This type of wheel slides the easiest. The disadvantage is that they wear out much faster

Different edge types gives different experience of course, Here we have a little some up:

- Round lip: best for sliding

- Square lip: best for grip in fast corners.

- Beveled edge: a diagonal edge to decreases the contact patch. this makes it easier to slide compared to a square-lipped wheel.

It is important to choose a wheel with a Round lip. That makes it easier to initiate a slide. In addition, you also want to look for a centre set core. This is because you can then flip your wheels and get the most out of it.  The hardness (Durometer) also plays a role. We recommend a wheel around 80a.   The softer, the smoother it rides and the harder the wheel, the easier it is to slide. For the CP (contact patch), you don't want it too big. Since more CP causes more friction.

Our Favourites: Remember Hoots, Powell Peralta Snakes, Orangatang Stimulus, Blood Orange Morgan