The Best Cruiser Skateboards for Getting Around

Not everyone wants to learn kickflips. If your goal is to roll to campus, glide along the boardwalk or skip the bus for the last mile home, a cruiser is the board you want — and it's a completely different animal from a trick-focused street setup. The magic is in the wheels, and once you've ridden soft urethane over rough pavement, hard street wheels feel like riding on stone. Here's how to choose the right cruiser.

What makes a cruiser a cruiser

The defining feature is soft wheels — typically 78A to 85A on the durometer scale, versus the rock-hard 99A–101A of street wheels. Soft wheels grip, roll over cracks and pebbles, and soak up vibration for a smooth, quiet ride. Cruisers also tend to have wider, shaped decks with a kicktail for hopping curbs, and looser trucks for easy carving. Put simply: a cruiser is tuned for comfort and momentum, not pop. Browse our cruiser skateboards to see the range.

Plastic penny-style boards

The most portable cruisers are the small plastic boards, usually 22" mini cruisers or slightly larger 27" penny-style boards. They weigh almost nothing, slip into a backpack or under a desk, and are perfect for short hops around a dense city or campus. The trade-off is a small, twitchy platform that takes a little getting used to — but for pure portability, nothing beats them.

Wood cruiser and mini-cruiser shapes

For a smoother, more stable ride, a wooden cruiser deck — often a wider old-school or fishtail shape with soft wheels — gives you more foot room and a planted feel while staying compact. Bamboo cruisers add a bit of flex that further smooths out rough sidewalks. These mid-size cruisers are the sweet spot for many commuters: portable enough to carry, stable enough to relax on.

Longboards for longer distances

If your commute stretches past a mile or you crave downhill carving, step up to a longboard. The longer wheelbase and bigger wheels deliver stability and roll speed a short cruiser can't match, at the cost of portability. We cover the category in full in our longboard guide, but for door-to-door commuting a longboard is the smoothest ride going.

How to choose

Match the board to your trip. Short, dense, carry-it-everywhere? A plastic penny-style board. Medium hops with a smoother ride? A wood mini-cruiser. Longer distances and carving? A longboard. Whatever you pick, make sure it has genuine soft wheels and metal trucks — the same warning applies as with any board: avoid the ultra-cheap toys. And consider a skate lock if you'll be parking it outside shops or lecture halls.

Cruiser accessories worth having

A few extras make cruiser life better. Commuter lights keep you visible after dark, a backpack with a board strap frees your hands when you're not riding, and a spare set of soft cruiser wheels lets you refresh the ride when the originals wear down. With those in place, your cruiser becomes a genuine car replacement for short trips.