Gifts for a Skater Boyfriend or Girlfriend: What to Buy

A partner who skates mostly needs the things they wear out: decks, griptape and shoes. What you shouldn't buy blind are the parts that depend on how they skate, like trucks and wheels, and anything that comes in sizes unless you're sure of theirs. If you're giving them a deck to ride, you only need one fact, its width, and you can get it by measuring the deck they already have, edge to edge across the middle, without asking them anything. If the deck is for the wall, with a photo of the two of you, the size doesn't matter. This guide is for anyone who doesn't skate and is going out with someone who does: what they actually need, what not to buy without knowing, how to find out their size without them noticing, and when the deck is for riding and when it's for the wall.

What they actually need

A skater doesn't need much, but what they use, they wear out fast, and that works in your favour: things that wear out are always welcome. In order of how easy they are to get right:

• A deck. The wood chips at the nose and tail, cracks or loses its “pop”, the snap you get when you hit the tail to jump, and then it gets replaced whole. A new deck is almost never surplus, even if theirs is fine: it's the one that goes on when the other breaks. And you don't need to give them anything else, because trucks and wheels move from one deck to the next.
• Griptape. The adhesive sandpaper on the top side that stops their feet slipping. It wears down and stops gripping, and every new deck needs its own. A standard sheet fits any deck of the usual widths.
• Wax and bearings. Wax makes the edge of the deck slide on kerbs and ledges, and it runs out. Bearings get ruined by rain, and new ones make a difference from the first push. Neither needs anything more than knowing they skate.
• Shoes. Doing tricks, the griptape eats the side of the shoe, and anyone who skates a lot gets through them faster than anyone. But only if you know their size and the model: many skaters always ride the same shoe and don't want another.
• Time to skate. When it rains there's no street skating, and in Ireland that's a lot of days. An afternoon at an indoor skatepark is a present few people expect: at Zero Gravity, an indoor park in Sligo, an hour's session cost 16 euros on its price list in October 2026, and it sells gift vouchers online. Other parks have their own rates, so check the one nearest you.

If you're after ideas by budget, from small things to a whole set-up, there are more on our gifts for skateboarders page and in custom skateboard gift ideas. Here we stick to what those lists don't tell you: what you can buy without asking, and what you can't.

What not to buy without knowing

Skateboarding has few parts, and nearly all of them are chosen by measurement or by habit. Whatever bolts to the deck has a measurement, whatever they wear has a size, and whatever is already theirs has years of preferences behind it.

The rule of thumb: if in doubt, give the deck and let them fit their own parts, which is exactly what they'd do with a deck from a shop. What each part does, and why the ABEC number doesn't matter, is in the beginner's guide to your first skateboard.

How to find out their size without them noticing

To give them a deck they'll ride, you only need its width. The length comes with the width and isn't chosen separately. Three ways to get it, from the most discreet to the least:

1. Measure their deck. When they're out, with a tape measure across the middle of the deck, edge to edge, at the widest point. The griptape doesn't get in the way. An inch is 2.54 cm, so the sum does itself: see the table below.
2. Look at the underside. Many branded decks have the width printed in the graphic or on a sticker, near one end. If it's scratched off, go back to the tape measure.
3. Ask someone they skate with. Whoever skates with them usually knows it by heart, and won't tell if you ask them not to.

Our decks come in 8.0", 8.25", and 8.5", all the same price, and you choose the width in the editor itself. Order the same one they ride: changing size is their decision, not the present's. And if there's really no way to find out, which width usually goes with which foot and style is in what size custom skateboard deck to choose, although between partners it nearly always comes out in the end.

For riding or for the wall?

This is the decision that changes the present most, and it's worth making before you design anything, because a custom deck carries the design on the underside, the side that grinds against kerbs and rails.

If it's for riding

• Make the design theirs, not yours. With use, the underside gets scratched until the graphic is gone, and that's how it should be. A photo of the two of you wearing away on kerbs is something they'll feel bad using, and then they won't ride it. Better something that's them: their nickname, the name of their crew (or their band: if they play, band merch decks has the details), a drawing of theirs scanned in, or the trick they've been trying for months, in big letters.
• Big shapes. A design with big shapes is still recognisable once it's scratched; thin text or a photo with small faces isn't.
• No brand logos. Even if they always ride the same wheel brand, its logo can't be printed without permission. What you can print is covered in where to get artwork for a custom deck.
• Order it with griptape and save them a step: it's an add-on at 9.95 € per deck, applied before it ships. All that's left is moving their trucks and wheels across, twenty minutes with a skate tool. If they don't have parts, we sell those separately too (trucks are 39.95 € a pair), but they arrive loose, not fitted to the deck.

If it's for the wall

• Here, yes, your photo. The one from your first trip away, one of them in the air that a friend took (with the friend's permission: a photo belongs to whoever took it), the date or the coordinates of your place. Couple ideas, how to split a photo across two decks and which photo works are in the Valentine's deck with your photo.
• No griptape. The top side stays bare wood, and you can write them a message on it by hand. Try your marker first in a corner that won't show.
• No mount. The deck arrives on its own. How to hang it, with or without drilling, in how to hang a skateboard on the wall.

If you can't decide: both

One with their design for riding and one with your photo for the wall. They're two designs, so two orders. And even if they were the same design, they'd have to go in separate orders: add-ons like griptape go on every deck in an order or on none, so one with griptape and one without can't share an order.

How to keep it a surprise

• Design it when they're not looking. The editor runs in the browser, it's free and doesn't ask for an account. When you save, you get a link to open it again, and that link is the key to the design: anyone who has it can change it, so don't leave it open on a computer you both use. If you only want to show it to someone for their opinion, use “Share it so others can see it”: whoever opens that link sees the deck but can't change it.
• Send it to your own address or to work. A long, narrow parcel fools nobody who skates.
• Order with time to spare. The deck is printed in Spain, and we don't give a delivery date for orders outside Spain, so if there's a birthday or an anniversary involved, give yourself plenty of time. We don't ship to Northern Ireland or the rest of the UK.
• If it's for riding, give it before the weekend. A new deck wants to be skated; give it on a Monday and it'll have to wait.

What it costs

On top of that, one shipping charge per order: 20 € to Ireland, from 15 € to the rest of the EU depending on the country, and free within Spain (where we ship). The deck is 7-ply maple, the same whether it's for riding or for the wall, and it's printed by transfer, with UV inks on a film that is applied to the underside (how a custom skateboard deck is made). And if you're already married and the date coming up is your fifth anniversary, the wooden one, there are ideas in 5th wedding anniversary gifts.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Session prices at an indoor skatepark: Zero Gravity, Sligo, price list consulted in October 2026. The equivalents in the width table come from the exact conversion (one inch is 2.54 cm), rounded to one decimal place. The parts, add-ons and their prices are those of our shop in October 2026.