Like a snakeboard, except different:

—

Stern here — That video is pretty impressive. I’ve seen these in the wild a couple of times in New York, but nothing as slick as that. These “drift skates” are only $36 direct from China, but my survival instinct prevents me from ordering a pair.

—

Gary’s turn: This video is truly amazing.  I did notice all of the pavement was high quality smooth.  Not typical street asphalt, but they look great.  In a quick search I discovered:

1- Amazon is selling (what appear to be) high quality Freelance Skates for $100+

2 – Wikipedia seems to think that Freeline Skates is the original manufacturer and has a reference to www.freelineskates.com/store/c-1-skates.aspx

3 – Freelineskates.com is dead

4 – The Freeline Sports, Inc.page on Facebook lists the company as “Permanently closed” and the last posting was in 2014.

The fad was over before it began.  I wonder if there is a serious face-plant that caused the collapse of the Freeline empire.  Could this be the next Hoverboard – an idea without an owner and lots of cheap crappy knockoffs?