Kicktail

The kicktail is the upward slope at the rear of a skateboard deck. The front kicktail is usually called the nose or kicknose. Since the early 1970s, the kicktail has been an important performance characteristic of a deck, especially in street skateboarding.

History

As the name suggests, the kicktail first appeared on the back end of a skateboard only, when it was patented by Larry Stevenson in 1969.
As street skating progressed in the late-1980s and early-'90s, a kicknose was added to the front of the deck, pushing the sport even further. The first example of this was the Mike V. Barnyard deck on World Industries. The kicktail is also found on some longboards and "indo boards", which are balance trainers.