This was a new one to me. Long time readers know I have a skateboard-based ski-trainer fetish, but I’ve never seen try Ski Trek before, seen here with aftermarket axle extenders on the trucks. The trucks pictured are not original equipment. The Ski Trek appears to be based on the Techni-Ski with the addition of what looks like a front end extension that allows for adjusting the wheelbase. As usual, there is nothing about this on Interwebs™. No amount of adjusting key words, quotes or hyphens seems to help. Check out that bikini girl logo. Yikes. Watch out for road rash! – Thanks to Fernando Linhares for the pics.

Hunter Simms emailed us about a Skircle he had just acquired, and agreed to share the images with us. When I tried to search for more, Skate and Annoy (big surprise) was the site that came up with the most frequency. I did manage to find a couple new (old) images and have compiled them into this post.

It’s only been about 9 years since I first became aware of the Ski Skate, and now at long last, I can add a second post on this ancient relic. Check out this promotional flyer from the toy company that made it. I say toy company, but they seemed to split their product line into the categories of subpar sports-training and unofficial Star Wars glom-on products like the Force Beam and the Force Missile. One is essentially a light saber, and the other is a pneumatically launched rocket that looks vaguely like a TIE Fighter with “The Force” grafted onto the product name. If they love skiing, skateboarding and surfing, they’ll love the Ski Skate™! Trust them, they are from LA.

With the addition of this latest Roller Sports ad from 1975, there’s now 101 vintage skatemag advertisements in the gallery. It’s also easier to sort through the various companies and products available. I’ve added (8) dropdown menus that are visible on the top and bottom of the archive pages as well as at the bottom of single ad pages, underneath comments. I plan on refining the way the previews show up on the archive pages, I’ll probably make the thumbs smaller, possibly ditch the categories and show more per page. Right now they show up just like a blog post, with the latest addition at the top of the page. Use the dropdown menus to sort by company, rider, product type, year, decade, magazine, specific magazine issue, and photographer when credited. At 101 ads, I’m still not finished with the two issues of Transworld and Skateboarder magazine that I’ve taken them from. So far it’s only 70’s and 80’s, but eventually I’ll add some from the 90’s as well. Check out the ski trainer in this Roller Sports ad. I wish there were better pictures of it. I guess I could troll issues of ski magazines from 1975 to see…

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…

I love eBay Watch, but I typically don’t try to by things on eBay unless there is one specific thing I need for a practical purpose. Sometimes during research I find myself on eBay, and there’s split second where I have to make a decision on whether or not to look at something else that catches my eye. If I do, it’s all over. I end up making a bunch of retarded bids. Half of them I know I have no chance of winning and the other half of my bids are influenced by irrational emotional attachment. Sometimes, after I come down, I find that I have won one or more useless items that I paid too much for. I call this phenomenon the “eBay Hangover.” I’ve had a nagging desire to own one of these 70’s era Techni-Ski skateboard ski simulators since I saw my first one in a magazine that was probably 20 years old. Now, unfortunately, I do own one. I’m not going to say how much it cost unless Neil picks it up in his column. More details to follow. I know you are all glued to your monitors…