Risers: Risers do two things. They help relieve stress from the trucks, which helps keep the deck from cracking. More importantly, risers help keep the wheels from biting into the board on a hard turn, causing the board to suddenly stop. It's a bad thing to have happen. Most risers are about 1/8" high. If you have extra large wheels, you'll want higher risers. On the other hand, if your wheels are small (52mm), then you might not need risers at all. It all depends on what you want.

Hardware: The nuts and screws to put the board together. There are special colored nuts and bolts available, if you want. This is all just for looks -- if you're on a budget, just get the basic parts.

Those are all of the parts of your skateboard, with some ideas to follow as you pick the parts that you want for your board. If this is your first board, ask for help at the shop to put it together, or simply order a complete set up. Completes are a great way to go when first starting out, and often they allow you to customize quite a bit. Using these guidelines, you should be able to get the perfect board for you. And remember, as you skate, pay attention to what you like and what you don't -- these aren't hard and fast rules, but just good guidelines to start out with. And, always, have fun.