I still don't know the right word for this.

So, question. What do you call these things?

I've heard them be called "bushings", and then some people say "cushions". (For the purposes of this picture, I looked up "powerdyne bushings" and the image name says "cushions" so go figure.)

Anyway, whatever they are called, I got these things. (Er, I'll call them bushings for the purpose of this post.) Bushings are kind of like skate suspension, so if you get good ones they really help you with distributing energy and then dispersing it when you need it, like pushing or jumps or whatever. They come in different hardnesses, depending on your weight (so heavier people need harder ones) and also how much control you want, relative to the squishiness of your skates.

When I went to Cruz Skate Shop, I picked up these babies to replace my stock bushings. These are the Powerdyne Magic Hop-Up Kit Skate Bushings. They have four bushings per skate: two regular round ones, and two conical ones, as well as the bushing cups (the metal things). They're a little bit (like, $5) pricier than regular, non-conical ones that don't have bushing cups. But (as Steffin Razor said) they're heaps better because you get more control over your turns and the cups also help with that thing. She also put my bushings in for me, yay.

Protip: Pointy conical end points away from your plate

The ones I got were the medium ones (orange), being factored by my weight and also the wheels I have already (which are quite soft at 88A). The squishiest ones are the reds (78A), the orange ones are around 82A and then there are hard ones (yellows) at 85A. There are also extra hard (purple I think?) ones at 90, and then some other ones (green, black) but I don't know what those ones are. Also, different brands have different hardnesses at different colours, and there are different bushings for different plates, which is kind of annoying. But oh well. I guess that means you just need to do more research.

I had a roll on them tonight at training and there's a subtle but obvious difference on them. Cornering is easier and my wheels feel more responsive. One thing about squishier bushings is that after you skate on them a bit they compress, so you need to tighten your trucks to compensate for that. I think the compression stops after a while, but you get it at first when your bushings first get used. But overall, I felt like I had more control in my laps. Doing jumps in them is also fun because it's not as hard on my ankles.

Overall, they're pretty good. I think that switching out bushings can be a cheaper and probably just as effective a way of gaining more control on the track than buying new wheels, so this might be a way to go if you're finding that you're sliding out a bit on your turns and whatnot but don't want to drop like hundreds of bucks on wheels.