Free Former Safety Set

There was a brief time in skateboarding when it was considered the height of hipness to have a full, color coordinated safety gear set. These days you can still buy a full set of decorative safety gear, but it’s’ all for little kids. These pics come courtesy of Butch Olivier who picked up this near-mint gear a swap sale. California Free Former – Made in Canada! I guess Canada Free Former doesn’t have the same ring to it.

The helmets look very lightweight and fragile, but I suppose the are slightly better than nothing if you’re worried about cracking your skull. I’m not sure these would help much in preventing a concussion. They are highly in demand by a subset of people in the UK who like to use them for hurling. I still get people contacting me, trying to buy these any time I post a pic, no matter how old.

I’m not sure about the pads, but this looks essentially like volleyball gear. My first set of knee pads were volleyball pads that quickly got shredded on a sketchy half pipe.

Here’s some detail showing the pad set in a Free Former advert as seen in the July 1977 issue of Wide World of Skateboarding. You can see the entire ad here.