When I saw this on eBay I knew I had to have it. I have never seen this before. Sure, I have seen other ski trainers made from skateboard parts, but I can remember seeing ads for those things back in the day. The Ski Skate is something that just doesn’t show up anywhere on the Interwebs™. Maybe it does, but I haven’t been able to strain through all the pages of more current non-related athletic gear with the same name. The patent was filed in 1974. I have to imagine it took a few years to bring this to market. The trucks have multiple mounting hole patterns in a style that definitely points to the 70’s, and the injection molded plastic reached it’s peak in the mid to late 70’s – (or 010’s if you look around today) and the wheels and trucks certainly have a 70’s vibe to them. They do appear on the Skircle, after all. So it’s a pretty safe assumption that this is from the mid to late 70’s. The bearings are sealed though. I don’t know when that became commonplace. If anyone has any information on this, please come forth. I’m still waiting to hear back from the original owner. It actually rides nicely, and is sturdier than you might imagine. A few of the bearings have seized up, so it’s really slow, even on an incline. Now get ready for way too many pictures. The sun was setting and it creates some hot spots on the edges as well as making the sidewalk look the surface of the moon, but I couldn’t wait to take pictures. Enjoy, and thanks to Matthijs for letting me know about this. UPDATE: See Part 2
Nice logo. I might have to painstakingly make a historical interpretation of the rest of the letters. Some historians like to take the microscopic approach. Others call it OCD.
Massive leftover nubbin called the gate (or possibly the runner) in the process of injection molding.
MPI wheels. Ever hear of them?
Ahhhh, the Marco Polo skateboard trucks.
You can clearly see by the butt wear pattern that this was mostly used sitting down.
Here it is placed to a more or less regular sized board with a 14.75″ wheelbase.
Yeah… so then I ended up taking a bunch of pictures where I stood it up and balanced it before quickly removing my hand and snapping a picture. I couldn’t stop.
The main patent is for the ski training aspect (skate coaster) and the secondary one is for a skateboard having flexible sides.
20 comments
Amber
I have one of these for sale contact me if interested arubin37@icloud.com
Kevin P Sheridan
I inherited one of these from a neighborhood friend when he moved away. He was a heavier set kid and never rode it, but his step dad bought it for him to come out and play with the rest of us young trouble makers shredding it on our Cal-240’s. Same era. Early polyurethane wheels which was a step up from our metal street roller skates. Believe it or not, it handled really well on big hills compared to the Cal-240 and I had hours of fun setting up slolom courses and doing timed runs with friends until the novelty wore off. Also, when the tips of the poles wore out, the became excellent cannons for bottle rocket wars.
Karen
I have 1. Bought it off eBay in 2003. I absolutely love it!! I still own the original wheels but they
Dead diver
Damn, I just replied to a necrothread thst I already replied to.
Dead diver
MPI Marco Polo Industries. That thing looks like it would impale someone if it got away. That thing looks even more deadly than the Banzai “aluminum razor blade on wheels” boards. Fuck I want one.
as_it_is
The trucks look like copies of Bennett trucks.
This ski skate was probably intended to be ridden ski stance.
MC
I just realized, that board has a traditional middle-aged physique.
skaterdave
How are your skills riding a parallel stance?
K.C.
You can use my elephant wrench to loosen those trucks if you want.
Concretin Nik
It’s not OCD, it’s CDO… with the letters in alphabetical order. As they should be.
Bevilacqua
Beautiful !
MPI stands for Marco Polo Industries !
kilwag
Derrr. Winner of obscure skateboarding knowledge.
CS
There was actually some advertising in old ski mags for these
john e
MPI made some decks that sell on ebay all the time that were dead ringers for Fibreflexes, but clearly of inferior quality. Never seen MPI wheels before though.
fossil diver
I have a NOS minty set of those MPI wheels in clear ruby red with open bearing races in them. MPI is Marco Polo Industries. The boards were made in Taiwan, don’t know about the wheels though, probably Taiwan too. They are rare. I have the only clear set I have ever seen. Most of them were the same color as OJ’s and they are all shaped like OJ’s too. The wheels are actually good urethane and even the backs are lathed instead of being all woorply with bubbles and stuff like most wheels were in the early days. I’d bet money the ski board is also made by MPI
talentlessquitter
That regular board is ugly. Is it a toy-board made in China?
kilwag
Haw haw.. You’re hilarious!
Darryl
Speaking as a type nerd, that lowercase k is the craziest k I’ve ever seen.
k-man
just like the k from k-tel records in the ’70 .same style.
MC
interesting similarity between the type on the board and that on the patent. Bulging terminals!