Z-flex

In the late 1970's the nature of skateboarding eventually took it`s toll on some of the Zephyr skayeboard team- and in 1976 Kent Sherwood, Jay Adams’ step-dad, broke away from Zephyr and started EZ-RYDER with half of the original Zephyr skaters including Jay Adams, Tony Alva and Jim Muir. 6 months later EZ-RYDER changed it’s name to Z-Flex.
Z Flex has long been responsible for product innovation, being a pioneer in development and testing urethane wheel designs. The standard clay wheels from the roller skating industry did not provide a smooth, fast ride, since they lacked retaining and grip qualities. Z-Flex developed the abrasion resistant Z

Smooth wheel specifically for boardwalk skating, followed closely by Z Grooves, a one-of-a-kind, faster, smoother wheel with a formula which most of today’s wheels are based upon.

 Z-Flex 2nd Generation riders and product innovations continued to think outside the box, maintaining Z-Flex as an industry leader. Z-Flex is responsible for the first skateboard in history to utilize a concave on the board’s top-side. This revolutionized the direction of board design. You will find “concave” on almost every skateboard on the market today.

The 1st Generation of the Z-Flex team consisted of many of the Z-Boys that had moved over from the Zephyr team including Jay Adams, Tony Alva, David Hackett, and Jim Muir to name a few.

Once one of a handful of skate companies finding it’s way during the infancy of skateboarding, Z-Flex has endured to become one of the longest running skateboard companies in existence.