Boosted Delivers (to beta testers in San Fran)

BoostedBoards.com, the company that originally got me into electric skateboarding, has made a big announcement on their blog. They’re finally shipping. Yay!

But it’s kind of hard to find. Just head on down to their webpage. You see that picture of the sexy longboard? It’s not that board. Unfortunately, they’re able to update their blog, but not their main page. Click on the blog section.

There are the boards they’ve finally delivered to backers. Of course, they didn’t have to deliver very far. This first batch of boards go to the beta testers living in San Francisco. More of a photo opportunity, really.

For those shy walleted longboarders like me, waiting for real deliver, scroll down to the bottom of the blog post:

Pre-orders begin shipping in April (your delivery date may vary depending on place in pre-order queue, the number of boards we can make per month, and other factors. More info will be available regarding pre-order batch shipping dates in April)

In other words, despite having technically delivered boards to earlier backers, real pre-order delivery won’t begin until April. So if you would like to pay money for a board, and not a pre-order, you’ll probably be waiting until months after that.

I’m going to hold off on pre-ordering until they’ve gotten through their pre-orders. I’m also very interested in seeing when they update their frontpage. But do you see the boards they’re shipping? I’d call the boosted board, the most likely to be mistaken for an orthodox board. It’s the only model that has two motors, one for each rear wheel. And it’s the only model that splits the battery, to better balance the board.

I can’t wait.

More skaters ticketed

I thought I'd post a link to an article in the local paper about how the UF Campus Police ticket skaters on campus. 

This story echoes my own. Except that this guy made the paper for his troubles. The incident gives me very mixed feelings about skating and the law in general.

On the one hand, kids don't get outside as much as they used to. They're getting fatter and less active. On the other hand, when they do go outside, the local police are so bored that they find it necessary to hassle skateboarders for using the bike lane.

As a result, kids are less active and stay in more. Skaters have a less enjoyable experience. Pedestrians are more likely to get into accidents with skaters. It really is a shame.

I've already written a letter to our governor on the issue. But I haven't mailed it. It feels like the work it would take to mail a letter wouldn't be worth the reward of being ignored.

Evolve to ship soon & Golfers eskate!

So today is the day it finally happened. The moment I’ve been waiting for. I checked my email this morning and found a mesage from Evolve USA. They have my deposit. Now they want the rest of the money for my Carbon series board.

According to the email, they are “awaiting the balance of the carbon parts for assembly that we expect to be a week to ten days from now.” Whatever that means. I take it they are close to having all of the parts they need. After that, they will assemble and test each board before shipping. I have one of the first ten boards going out! #todayisagoodday

I suppose that means I can expect the board some time before my birthday on the 19th of March. That date also coincides with spring break rather well.

***

In other news, someone at work who is into golf showed me an interesting article in GOLFWEEK magazine. The title is “Let’s hang 10, er, 18.” It’s about the increasing popularity of using modified electric skateboard on golf courses in lieu of golf carts. The boards are used because they are lighter than golf carts, and don’t damage the grass. Without all of the wated time walking to and from your golf cart, you can get much more golf practice in.

For those of you interested, I’ve got a small pic of the device on my Instagram, @maulakai

Evolve to the Rescue

So I’ve bounced a few emails back and forth with Evolve. They’ve been very helpful. I especially love the way modern technology aids in the process. Instead of trying to describe what’s going on in an email, I can put a video on my InstaGram and simply show them. If you’ve been following me @maulakai on instagram, you’ve seen a few of these videos. My battery appears to be working fine. The problem may be a short in one of the wires, or a problem with the electronics.

Evolve asked me to ship to them the ‘black box’ which is under the board. I’d liked to have mailed it off ASAP, but I haven’t had a chance to mail it off yet. So far, I’m very satisfied with how helpful they’ve been.

In other news, I had a new follower on InstaGram. That’s always a nice validation for me. The user was skatetek_electric_skateboards. I only mention this because, out of curiousity, I checked out their webpage. Have a look for yourself. See anything interesting? Their boards look almost identical to the Emad boards I’ve had so much frustration with.

There’s little doubt in my mind that they’re all made in China by the same cheap ass factory. And while their boards are cheap, they’re still very low quality, and heavy, and all around terrible. Yet, I can’t fully trash them, since my Mom uses one, and they are very good for people with no skating experience.

Houston, we have a problem

The following story takes places after the events of my last post.

So I’m riding home from work. It’s a three mile trip. Everything is typical, save for the fact that I have more battery than usual. Because my remote had broken in the moring, I carried my board to work that morning. The entire round trip is only four miles. I had traveled about two miles when the board lost power.

No bump, or jostle. Nothing sudden or dramatic. I simply rolled to a stop. I hopped off the board and hit the power button. It flashed once, then turned off again. I tried this several times. Nothing. Luckily I was close to a bus stop that would take me to my apartment complex. I waited around, and carried my broken board onto the bus home.

After nearly 700 miles, my board has encountered a problem. I emailed Evolve about it. But after a few rounds, I discovered I had been emailing the Australia branch. I needed to talk to the American branch.

In the meantime, remember the friend I have who makes his own electric boards over at Red Rock Boardshop? Well I took the board over to his house last night. He was kind enough to open it up and test the battery. The results are on my Instagram @maulakai. But the battery seems just fine.

The board flashes one time when I try to turn it on. Which is unfortunate because Evolve’s troubleshooting section has codes for 3, 4, 7, and 8 flashes. But nothing for a single flash.

However, I’m in the middle of emailing the guys at Evolve USA. It looks like the board is going to have to go into the shop. If my two years of engineering school are worth anything, I believe there is a problem in the internal electronics. We shall see.

And in the meantime, I shall walk. Headphones up, gaze down, wishing for my board to once again roll it’s magic for me. Or for the Carbon series to arrive in the mail already.

Oops, I dropped it again

The other day I dropped my remote while I was getting off of the bus. I didn’t think it was too big of a deal. I’ve dropped my remote before, although I do try to be careful with it. But this time, when I picked it up, something didn’t feel right. The trigger was cocked back at an unorthodox angle. From what I could see, a small spring had come loose.

I had to do the unthinkable. I had to carry my skateboard to work, instead of the other way around. There was an awkward moment when I tried to get on the board again. Hoping against hope that it might roll me like we’d once rolled. But it was no use. I didn’t know how to kick a skateboard (I still don’t). Or maybe having to push the board by myself was just too hard. Either way, I walked into work, surprising the many people on the sidewalks who are used to me barrelling past them.

At work, I found someone with a multi purpose tool suitable to open the remote. My multi purpose tool’s screwdriver wasn’t long enough to reach the screws. Neither was the first person I asked. The third person had one that worked.

Inside the remote, I found the spring that had come loose. With the help of a friend and a paperclip, I had it fixed in a few minutes.

I can’t help but notice how much this contrasts with the time I dropped my Emad remote. There was no fixing that one. I had to send the whole schebang back to Emad for them to fix it. And being able to fix my own Evolve remote really felt good. I’m not usually a handyman. But there’s something very rewarding about being able to fix something with just a little bit of tool time.

Early March Now?

I visited the Evolve webpage today. It looks so similar to how it did the last time I saw it, you might not notice one teeny tiny change. Remember how excited I was because it's February, the month I get my new Carbon series board?

CARBONS ARE PRE-ORDER FOR SHIPPING IN LATE FEBRUARY, EARLY MARCH. AS OF SUPERBOWL SUNDAY ONLY EIGHT PREORDERS LEFT!

Now it's late February, early March. My birthday is March 19th. Can I hope to get my board by then? Evolve, I love you so much. But I can't say I'm surprised. You're a lot better at making quality boards than you are at meeting deadlines. Deadlines you got to create, I might add. Until then, all I can do is wait.

Nite Ride, FTW!

It’s February and I’m feeling really happy. I’ve got plenty of reasons. For one, February is the month that Evolve promised to ship their pre-ordered Carbon series boards. I absolutely can’t wait to have a second board so I can take my girlfriend on a ride.

When will I see my board? That’s still anyone's guess. But seeing as how I only put down a deposit on the board, I’d say I won’t be seeing it until at least a few days after they ask for the rest of the money.

Also, last night was the first night skate I’ve had since installing the new green underlights. The result was great. Skating around campus, nearly every group of girls I skated past yelled “I love your lights!” or something to that effect.

As a product, I have a complaint about the lights. If you’ve seen from the picture on my @maulakai instagram account, the entire thing is mounted under my board. But the vibrations from riding cause the battery cover to come partially open while skating. There doesn’t seem to be any good way to avoid this without mounting it on the top of the board. Although the problem would have been solved with a single extra screw in the design. I was going to trash the Nite FX LED Light Riding Kit, but given the number of shout outs I got last night, I’m instead giving it full praise. And my friend riding without lights even had people yell at him -- “You should get lights!”

Another good plus? Our ride last night clocked in at 7.64 miles. That’s about average for our runs. And nearly double my commute home the other day? What does this tell me? That the battery is still working fine. I guess Evolve is right, you do use more battery by breaking.

But not in every situation. Remember one of the properties of electro magnetism. If using the motor makes you go forward and drains the battery ... Then going downhill and using the break will charge the battery. The big hill on campus, Center drive, is a great way to charge. As a matter of fact, I had a low battery light on my remote at the top of the hill. But by breaking all the way down, I was able to charge it back up, and even made it back to my car without the low battery light.

I bet some skaters out there think what I’ve said is blasphemous. That’s probably just the difference between orthodox longboarders and electric longboarders. But that’s part of the style of being an electric skateboarder. You don’t have to make your ride all about speed and going fast. You have a motor to speed up on the slow parts and slow down on the scary parts.

Anyway, I just thought I’d make it clear. If you’re slowing down for pedestrians and then speeding back up again, it really is a waste of energy. But if you’re at the top of a hill with low battery, then using the brakes really can charge your board.