Griptape

Griptape is the gritty, sand papery layer that's applied to the top of a skateboard deck so that your shoes can grip the board. Skaters often cut patterns into their Griptape or paint it, to make their boards unique, but also to help them easily tell between the nose and the tail of the board. It is common in freestyle skateboarding to apply Griptape under the nose and tail to get more grip for Caspers