Freebord

A Freebord is kind of specialist skateboard designed to closely simulate the behavior of a snowboard. They have 6 wheels - two spring locked castor wheels on the central axis, and four slightly raised conventional wheels. The central wheels are able to turn freely in all directions, which allows the Freebord to slide laterally as long as no other wheel touches the ground. By exerting some pressure on the edge wheels, the Freeboarder is able to control the board. The central wheels thus mimic the deck of the snowboard, while the outer wheels mimic the two steel edges [Uncrate.com "Freebord" 04.29.08 [http://www.uncrate.com/men/gear/sports/freebord/] ] .

Older Alpha series decks featured kicktails and were of a longer length (100cm and 112cm). These have now been completely replaced by the newer models which are much lighter and more maneuverable.

Recently Freebord Inc. has released the newest incarnation of their product which they have labeled "G3" (possibly shortened from Generation #3), which hints at this models place in the evolution of Freebord's product line. The most notable change in the design this time around is the centered on the trucks. Previously the caster wheels were attached to the baseplate of the trucks by gluing them into a circular recess which is just large enough to hold the bearing tightly. The problem with this method of attachment was that with the growing interest in Freebording and especially it's freestyle aspects, people began to take them off of stair sets, ledges, or otherwise introducing more pressure on the caster than was originally intended. After enough abuse, the caster and attached bearing would simply fall out leaving the rider to fix the problem. Realizing that the current design was not able to stand up to the abuse it was now receiving it was changed so that instead of having the caster glued in from the outside it was inserted from the opposite side with just enough room for the caster to stick out. Now the bearing is no longer even visable, much less able to fall out. Another revision made was the way the caster wheel is secured to the caster itself. Previously the axle of the center wheel was situated in a slot with grooves in which the axle should rest and then be tightened. Now instead of a slot there is a series of overlapping holes drilled so as to make the possibility of the caster wheel axle slipping reduced. With the G3 release there were a few other revisions to the truck design such as a wider foot print for the baseplate and also an overhaul in the general appearance. The G3 series still uses the Xponent decks, but newer decks have been drilled to match the wider footprint of the new trucks. It should be noted that while you could use G3 trucks on an older deck (and likewise older trucks on a newer deck) you would need to drill your own holes to accommodate the hole pattern on the trucks.

Just like on a snowboard, the rider is able to perform both carve and slide turns.

References

#JoshSpear.com "Freebord" 07.23.08 [http://www.joshspear.com/item/freeboard/]
#EXPN.com "Freebord Keeps on Truckin'" 07.22.08 [http://expn.go.com/expn/blog/snowboard?post=3501055]
#Uncrate.com "Freebord" 04.29.08 [http://www.uncrate.com/men/gear/sports/freebord/]
#Barron, Kelley. "Wheeler-Dealer". Forbes. 05.01.00 [http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2000/0501/6510136a.html Online copy]
#Gromer, John. "Chairman Of The Bord: Introducing Freebord, the world's first snowboard for the street." Popular Mechanics. April 3, 2002 [http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/outdoors/1277831.html?page=1&c=y Online copy]
#Della Cava, Marco. "Snowboard's new terrain: Asphalt Pivoting 'oddity' gains momentum". USA Today, March 10, 2004: pg. D10. [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/574939581.html?dids=574939581:574939581&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Mar+10%2C+2004&author=Marco+R.+della+Cava&pub=USA+TODAY&edition=&startpage=D.10&desc=Snowboard%27s+new+terrain%3A+Asphalt+ Online abstract]
#Hamilton, Anita. "Who Needs Snow". Time Magazine. March 4, 2002. [http://www.time.com/time/searchresults?N=0&Ntk=NoBody&Nty=1&Nr=OR%28p_record_type%3AArticle%2Cp_record_type%3Ablog%2Cp_record_type%3AOther%29&Ntt=Freebord Article excerpt]
#Hua, Vanessa. "S.F. entrepreneur has created a skateboard that works like a snowboard". San Francisco Examiner. October 13, 1999. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1999/10/13/BUSINESS14964.dtl&hw=Freebord&sn=001&sc=1000 Online copy]
#McHugh, Paul. "A new deal for wheels: Breakthroughs are a long way from roller skates". San Francisco Chronicle. August 12, 2004. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/12/SPGGF860CR1.DTL&hw=Freebord&sn=002&sc=462 Online copy]
#Cribb, Robert. "Of jabberwocky and snowboard joy in June". Toronto Star. June 13, 2005: pg. D.05 [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/852916961.html?did=852916961&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Jun+13%2C+2005&author=Robert+Cribb&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=Of+jabberwocky+and+snowboard+joy+in+June Article excerpt]
#Ehringer, Gavin. "Innovative skateboards offer summer snow-free surrogate". Rocky Mountain News.March 23, 2005. [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=RM&p_theme=rm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_text_search-0=Freebord&s_dispstring=Freebord%20AND%20date(all)&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no Article excerpt]
#Regenold, Stephen. "Gear Junkie: 'Snowboard' on pavement with ease". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. August 5, 2004. [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/184849_gearjunkie05.html Online copy]
#Copeland, Michael V. "The New Instant Companies". Business 2.0. June 1, 2005. [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2005/06/01/8263450/index.htm Online copy]
#Piacentini, Louie. "Endless winter' for snowboarders; Pair introduces Freebord to Canada". North York Mirror. April 3, 2005 [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/816576761.html?did=816576761&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Apr+3%2C+2005&author=LOUIE+PIACENTINI&pub=The+North+York+Mirror&desc=%27Endless+winter%27+for+snowboarders%3B+Pair+introduces+Freebord+to+Canada Online excerpt]
#University newspaper coverage: [http://www.thevarsity.ca/media/storage/paper285/news/2005/02/03/Sports/Freebord.So.The.New.Snowboard-850756.shtml?norewrite200607111515&sourcedomain=www.thevarsity.ca University of Toronto] , [http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=11287 Yale] , [http://www.gazette.uwo.ca/article.cfm?section=FrontPage&articleID=220&month=1&day=19&year=2005 University of Western Ontario]

External links

* [http://www.freebord.com Freebord Site]
* [http://www.freebord.com/forum Freebord Forum]
* [http://freebordvideos.com Freebord video site]
* [http://freebordmaps.com Freebord rider community maps site]
* [http://www.snowboardthestreets.com French Freebord community site]
* [http://www.snowboardallyear.com German Freebord community site]
* [http://www.vidly.net/video-freebord-documentary-by-discovery-channel.html Short Freebord Documentary]
* [http://www.freeworldmagazine.com Freeworld magazine]