Skateboard, longboard, surfskate, cruiser... Before making your choice and buying a board, it is important to understand what differentiates all these disciplines.
The Cruiser, as its name indicates, is a board for Cruiser, that is to say to walk, to move in the everyday life.
A cruiser is a utility board for riding to work, college or school! To make it simple, a cruiser is a skateboard, with bigger and softer wheels to ride elsewhere than at skatepark, on sidewalks not necessarily in good condition.
Cruiser : the wheels
The big difference between a skateboard and a cruiser is the wheels. On a skateboard, we use small and very hard wheels, to facilitate tricks, and because we often evolve at skatepark where the ground is particularly smooth and clean. On a cruiser, we find bigger wheels that require less effort to move forward since it is a board dedicated to moving. In the same way, the wheels of cruiser are softer to evolve on surfaces in more or less good condition and to face the nightmare of the skateboarders more easily: gravel and twigs!
Cruiser : the tray
There is no real generalization about boards at cruisers. In skateboarding, for example, most adult sizes are between 7.75 and 8.5" (with roughly equivalent lengths) and the boards all have the same shape (double kicktails). On a cruiser, you can find very different sizes from 24 to 36" long, wide or narrow, with or without nose. In short, the choice is very wide!
The question to ask yourself is what you are going to use your board for. If you want to keep a maximum of maneuverability and make ollies to jump the curbs, the nose will be very useful. If you want to carry your cruiser to school, you might prefer a short and light model. If you use it every day to go to work, you will probably look for a little more comfort, and therefore more room for your feet.
Cruiser: the trucks
According to the models, you will find cruisers equipped with trucks or trucks RKP, like on a longboard. The latter are much rarer and give cruiser a behavior closer to the sensations found on a longboard. They offer more stability at high speed, and the possibility to carve more radically.
In most other cases, Cruisers are mounted with trucks skate type wheels that offer a good compromise to be able to jump curbs, do grinds and benefit from a fairly light board. Combined with larger and softer wheels than on a traditional street skateboard, you get a versatile board that is easy to maneuver but also absorbs road imperfections and other obstacles such as small rocks or branches.