Letter to Evolve Longboards

Dear Evolve Longboards,

First of all, let me thank you. I tweet and instagram about your board constantly. I show it off to kids in neighborhoods all over Florida. I’m one of the first people to commute to work in (or should I say on?) an electric vehicle. I ride every day. I’ve put over 500 miles on my board! Every day someone on a bus or in an elevator sees my board and asks about it. You’ve truly got an amazing product. I just put a deposit down for the Carbon Series. I can’t wait for it!

I always try to ride safe. I’ve got El Wire on my backpack, as well as a red bicycle light. When it’s dark outside, I carry a flashlight in one hand. Sometimes I wear even more cheap LEDs, just to make sure I’m noticed.

But twice now, I’ve almost been run over. Both times, the driver was too busy looking for oncoming traffic on his left, to look for pedestrians coming from his right (in Australia, I’m sure the reverse situation is the dangerous one). It taught me a valuable lesson. If a person doesn’t look, they can’t notice the lights. I’m sure you’ve had a few close calls, yourself.

Which led me to look for a horn. Ideally, a loud horn. One that I might carry in the ‘flashlight’ hand, the hand not busy with your remote. An actual car horn would be idea. Which is when I found out about a product like http://loudbicycle.com/ (which still isn’t shipping).

You’re in a unique position. Because no one is making horns for longboards. But electric longboards are *perfect* for car horns. You’ve got the space for the horn, just under the board. You’ve already got a big battery to power the horn. And you’ve already got a controller with buttons.

Literally, it is a ‘bell and whistle.’ But your board is already the best out there. With the addition of a car horn, it could also be the safest. I don’t usually write letters telling CEOs how to design their products, but this addition is a perfect fit. It can literally save lives and prevent injury. Not to mention, it would be a great way to get me to shell out the bucks for a *third* board from you.

Sincerely,

Justin Diamond

electricskateboardenthusiast.blogspot.com

Honk for Safety

Merry Christmas, fellow electric skateboard enthusiast. It should come as no surprise to you that I am a writer before I’m a skater. For years, I’ve written poems and short stories and even a novel or two. Only to have them largely ignored and unread.

After Sanjay emailed me, I felt something special. Something that, as a writer, I hadn’t felt before. I felt writing take on a form a communication. Not just me, typing words for you. But a two way street. It was a great feeling.

It also made me question the very idea of storytelling. For years, I told stories to the keyboard, to little result. Ah, but write a blog, or a letter, and suddenly it’s a shared experience. An experience that makes a change.

It made me want to devote more of my time to letter writing. Maybe it’s in the cards for me to be among King and Crichton and Rowling. But maybe it’s not. Maybe I can do good in this world, with my writing, through *letters*.

Here, my cause has presented itself. Because the truth is, I got lucky. I could have easily been run over twice. Sure, I could ghetto rig a car horn to a glove, and that would work satisfactory. But there’s a better way to do it. Any electric skateboarder out there already has a board that could have a horn mounted to it. We already have remote controllers that have room for an extra, horn button.

I stand here with you, at the dawn of a new era of skateboards. When the board costs around a thousand dollars, and the horn, a hundred or less, we have to measure the benefit. Adding a horn to our electric skateboards *will* save lives. It *will* prevent injury. And I *will* write letters to the top manufacturers of electric skateboards, in an attempt to save life and prevent injury. Will you stand with me?

Evolve Longboards, Boosted Boards, my letters are on the way. Let’s make the new generation of skateboards not just faster and cooler, but safer than the orthodox boards they’re replacing.

Car horn for you bicycle ... er electric skateboard

So after almost getting run over again the other day, I decided it was time for a change in how I commute to work. I already have plenty of lights and LEDs and flashing things to get attention. The problem is, you can only see these lights if you actually look in their general direction. And from my experience, in this most dangerous of situations for an electric skateboarder, the drivers never actually *look* my way.

The answer then, is clearly, a horn. Not just any horn. I’d need a loud horn. Preferably, a horn that sounds just like a car. Well, it didn’t take much looking around the web to find just what I wanted:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lansey/loud-bicycle-car-horns-for-cyclists

The problem, is that this horn, much like the Boosted Board, is a kickstarter. The company hasn’t actually sold anything yet. The guy wants $100 for the horn. But he doesn’t know when he’ll ship. Oh Kickstarter, how I love and hate thee.

Well maybe there’s a way I could make a horn on my own then? After all, most people are making bike horns. And I need something that I can hold in my hand, or somehow use while skateboarding.

http://lifehacker.com/add-a-car-horn-to-your-bike-so-other-drivers-hear-you-l-493211073

I’ve found a few other youtube videos of people who made their own car horns for their bicycles. But it looks like more work than I’d like to do. And the end product might be messier than I’d like. Have you heard of a car horn that one might use for electric skateboarding? If so, *please* let me know @maulakai on instagram or twitter. Until then, I’ll probably wait for Loud Bicycle to get their product onto shelves.

Almost run over

LED Lights for safety - $25

Electric Skateboard - $1000

Hearing a woman scream when she almost runs you over - Priceless

I was skating to work the other day, when, for the second time, I almost got run over. I guess it’s pretty good that I’ve had so few brushes with death. After all, I’ve rode my board over 500 miles already.

But I have learned a few things about skateboard safety. Interestingly, both times were almost the exact same situation. A car is making a right turn, from a less busy street onto a more busy street. They’re more concerned with looking to their left to see if it’s clear for them to turn onto the street. I’m approaching on the sidewalk, to their right. They never look to their right for pedestrians.

It’s kind of a shame, but I think as car drivers, we’re all guilty of this. We know we should look to our right for pedestrians. But most of the time, there aren’t any. So we look to our left and think, hey, I’ll look right *before* I actually touch the gas. Which evolves into, looking right after giving it some gas. Which evolves into just going without ever really looking.

Either way, my lights are ineffective in this situation, because the drivers aren’t looking to their right in the first place. I’m not sure if I’m going to incorporate an air horn into my safety arsenal, but future electric skateboarders beware. Cars turning right seldom *look* right.

Sanjay of Boosted Boards Reads My Blog!

Last week I wrote about how BoostedBoards.com is being deceptive. How they use a very sexy picture of a longboard, when they know full and well that the product they ship won’t look like that.

Well imagine my surprise when Sanjay, the man behind BoostedBoards, emailed me! Even more surprising, he told me I was *right*.

There’s precious little substance in his email. After I stopped fangirling about someone important actually reading my words, I realized this was more sales pitch than anything. He doesn’t want to lose a customer. And I don’t blame him. But I’m still waiting to see the picture on their homepage change. I’d love to report that. And I’m still waiting to hear the specs on the battery they plan to include. Now that would be news.

About all Sanjay could tell me was that his board will try to balance the look and feel of the board, with the actual battery life. :/

I wrote him back asking what is, for me, the million dollar question. The question that may have started this blog in the first place. How did you get the length of six miles as the range of your board? Were those calculations made by the engineers in the lab? Did you hand the board to a novice rider and have them make a trip? (this is how I would do it)

I’m still waiting for an answer from Sanjay. But if BoostedBoards is anything like Emad, I don’t ever expect to find out.

Can one slide on an electric?

My longboarder friend invited me to skate with him this weekend. The best from our local skate shop would be there. I showed up as fast as I could.

The group of us met in a parking lot on a hill on UF campus. Everyone but me was practicing their slides. These guys wear gloves with hockey pucks velcroed to their palms. They can then slide on their hands, and incorporate that into their skating.

With a remote control in one hand, I can’t even attempt to do what they do. (hint hint electric board makers -- we need a controller we can use while wearing slide gloves)

I watched as they did maneuvers to slow or stop themselves as they rolled downhill. In addition to all sorts of tricks. Balance and flipping, these guys would do more to their boards with their feet, than you or I could do with our hands. It was incredible to watch.

All I could do was roll down, and use my brakes. Or use the motor to skate back up to the top of the hill, passing everyone else who had to walk.

The inevitable question came when I asked, “Can you slide on *my* board?”

The best of the group considered it. He kicked my board with his foot, pushed it around to test the weight.

“No, it’s too heavy, I wouldn’t even try,” was his answer.

Boosted FTL

I have an Evolve electric longboard. The plan was to wait until Boosted finally starts selling boards, and to buy one of theirs. But then I realized something.

Let me rewind to the other day, when I went to a local pawn shop. Instead of pricing their warez, they wound up asking me all about my skateboard. The inevitable question came up. How much for the board?

Keep in mind I paid $1400 for it. The website marked them down to $1200. I now see them going for $1000 as a Christmas special. A thousand, I told them. Mostly in the battery. This board has a 10 mile battery. You can get the board a lot cheaper if you only need a 3 mile battery.

Back to the present, and my girlfriend bugging me about getting her own board.

Now, the Emad board claims 7-10 miles, but only goes 3. The Evolve board claims up to 20 miles, but only goes 10. The Boosted board claims 6 miles. How far would you expect that one to go? Probably three miles, right?

Consider how Boosted has that sexy picture of a slim skateboard on their front page. Then look at their blog and see that all of their current prototype boards are much, much fatter. Boosted is trying to give people sexy looking boards. And it appears they can do it by skimping on the battery. By giving their customers less of the most expensive part.

So I went on the Boosted website to see what kind of battery they were advertising. They don’t even say! Imagine I buy a Boosted board, so that I can ride with my girlfriend. But she can only go 3 miles, while I want to skate for another 7. That would suck, right?

The only conclusion you can come to is that Boosted will skimp on their batteries. At least compared to Evolve they will. They’re certainly being dishonest when they continue to use that sexy pic on their homepage, when they know the final product will be much more bloated.

So it was decided that I would buy another Evolve board. Carbon series, bitch!