The Air Borne Freeskate was born in 1984 as a cheaper alternative to sailing in ice boats.  The reason this is on Skate and Annoy is because it appears that early models of the Freeskate may have been outfit with Indy  216’s. The sport is still going these days, but they don’t use skateboard trucks in commercial rigs anymore, although some DIY types have built there own using those extended mountain board trucks with the springs. I’ve seen videos of later model Freeskates that no longer used skateboard trucks as well.  This model is not a fluke however, as there appear to be several out there with this truck setup.  It’s kind of hard to find information about this board, as google turns up a lot of ice skating links. There are various groups that were at one time devoted to it, but most of the links seem to be defunct. These photos come from a guy asking $350 for his set up on Craigslist, Cape Cod. I pulled the date of the invention of the Freeskate from a February 12, 1984 New York Times article that unfortunately does not include archived photos. Freeskate appears to have become an all encompassing name for similar devices, in the same way that…

Like broken glass in the sea, a lot of my sharp edges have been worn down under continuous onslaught. Times have changed, and I no longer burst into laughter when I see things like this skate trainer / ollie trainer called Syck Trix. It’s basically a skateboard with two air bladders replacing the trucks. It’s primarily geared towards little kids and possibly even old men. Syck Trix looks like it came onto market around 2014. It’s really easy to dismiss and ridicule these types of devices, because after all, what better way to learn than actually doing it on a real skateboard? The concept of skateboard training may be foreign to the majority of skaters, but now that parents and kids are seeing guys like Ryan Scheckler, that flying tomato guy, and even Tony Hawk, making a living, many parents and skateboarders are going to find value in something like this. Who can judge the quality of fun that a little kid is having because he used a training device to progress faster than he normally would have? – Thanks to Boy Ipoh at SkateMalaysia.com for the tip.

Coincidentally, this is from the Hanes Big Boys’ Ugly Christmas Sweatshirt collection, but there’s obviously no relation to the seminal skate rock band. The sweatshirt shown here is called Holiday Bones, and is the only one with a skateboard in it. Looking at the bones in the hands, this looks like it might have been a fingerflip handstand attempt. – Thanks to Mrs Kilwag for the tip.

As part of Miami Arts Week, Mana Common has sponsored Infinity Plaza, which is a skateable art installation by Andrew Schoultz. It’s a permanent installation, although some of it appears to be made out of wood, so we all know how long that’s going to last. It opened on December 1st, so if you are in the Miami neighborhood (Mana Wynwood Convention Center 2217 NW 5th Avenue) you can check it out. If not, check out some pictures of the installation after the jump. The wall that looks like the tank has blasted hole through it has an interesting quality. It almost looks photoshopped in most of the pictures, but the detail view reveals it’s just a trick of the eye cause by high contrast decoration.

KOMO News has recurring feature called Eric’s Heroes, and this one is about Bellevue, Washington police officer Craig Hanauma. Craig plays the trombone, teaches jujitsu, and skateboards with the kids. It’s community outreach, but I’m pretty sure he not-so-secretly enjoys it. The pics above are stills from the KOMO video, except the bottom right, which is from Craig Hanaumi’s Instagram feed. About this appearances at skateparks, he says that besides his uniform, he’s just an old guy on skateboard.

Today’s installment of vintage skateboard mag adverts includes 3 more from the July, 1977 issue of Wild World of Skateboarding, with Pro-Am wheels, California Free Former, and Santa Barbara Skateboards, promising handcrafted skateboards that are not “pultruded, molded, stamped, or a dead log!”

Do you want to see a guy in a samurai costume exhibiting professional levels of skills in surfing, soccer and other pastimes, like say… skateboarding? Bowl and street skills, no less. If so, look no further than this Nissan foods commercial for Samurai Noodles.

I added 3 new ads from the July 1977 issue of Wild World of Skateboarding, including some Lan lovelies on a sailboat, dog paw themed gloves from KIP, and one from Torque skateboards hyping a new downhill speed record and the advent of the first Skateboard Supermarket. With these additions, I have cracked the 300 threshold in the Vintage Skateboard Mag Gallery.

Welcoming Session Killer to the site as a new sponsor, that is in no way whatsoever just me with a new paypal account. Help support Skate and Annoy, go buy this shirt that is so clever it will make you want to punch me in the face. If you could buy a miniramp kit from Ikea, you can bet that it would be cheap, look sorta nice, and then fall apart after 6 months. $25 post paid in the USA.

I started adding some scans from a new addition to the Vintage Skateboard Mag Ad Gallery, the July 1977 issue of Wild World of Skateboarding. This first batch includes ads for novelty, foot-shaped skateboards, a generic company called Formula, Brewer Trucks, and Russ Howell Bowlriders with Power Paw.