The Company Freebord was started in 1996 by Steen Strand in Palo Alto, CA, while studying for his master’s in product design at Stanford University. Steen wanted to find a way to bring the snowboard ride to the street and began developing prototypes of a skateboard that could slide, drift and stop just like on snow. He patented his design and began assembling and selling the first “Alpha” Freebords in 1998 out of his garage in San Francisco, CA. Since then, Freebords have evolved to become shorter and lighter, with bindings to hold the rider’s feet while carving and sliding. More info about Freebord’s history: www.freebord.com/about/about/ Freebord’s unique ride is made possible by a 360º rotating center wheel that is mounted to the baseplate on the underside of the board. The center wheels ride lower to the ground than the edge wheels, creating “rocker”, or space between one set of edge wheels and the ground. A Freebord “rocks” over the center wheels between one set of edge wheels and the other. This combination of the edge wheels and swiveling center wheels allow riders to both carve and slide. Progression and innovation is what drives us. Through years of evolution and rider driven design, Freebord has engineered a setup that rides exactly like a snowboard on pavement.