Boosted vs Evolve

So I’ve settled into this routine where I use the Boosted Board for my commute during the week, and the Evolve board on the weekend. Every Saturday, it’s the same feeling.

I feel like I’m skating crooked. Like the board isn’t going straight. The feeling only lasts a moment, and is gone just as soon. But I’m pretty sure what I’m feeling is the difference of the single drive chain of Evolve boards versus the double drive train in Boosted Boards.

Don’t get me wrong. The difference is slight. A couple of degrees or less. As soon as you catch onto a particular board’s charistics, you naturally lean a bit differently to compensate. But the difference is there.

And while I’m talking about the difference between drive trains, there’s something else I have to mention. Remember when I bragged about only the Boosted Board being able to skate up Center drive? Well, it didn’t occur to me until I skated there with my SO, but I’d never even tried to skate my Evolve Bamboo Series two board up Center drive.

That night, she was skating the board. She weighs a good thirty pounds less than me. But I’ll be damned if she didn’t make it to the top of Center drive. So technically, Both Evolve and Boosted boards can make it to the top of the steepest hill around campus.

But the win really is on a technicality. Because the Boosted Board can *fly* up the hill. The Boosted Board makes it fun to skate up hill. The Evolve board really has to try to get you up there. It almost makes you feel sorry for it, the way the motor strains and carries you up at ‘leisurely walk’ speed.

Remember how I said that the Boosted Remote has grown on me? That I’ve come to see the genius behind its design? Well on a similar note, the new Evolve remote has gotten even worse for me, the more I use it.

The problem is that the way you have to hold the trigger, it isn’t comfortable. On long skates, I always feel like my finger is starting to cramp up a bit. Also, the trigger is so sensitive, I’m pretty sure next skate I’m actually going to use the original remote.

I still haven’t fallen using either of the new remotes. But I’m worried about how the remotes will take the fall.

I still dream of the day where I can control my electric skateboard and wear skating gloves at the same time.

Night Skate With SO

So the other night, I decided to go on a night skate with my girlfriend. Before we left, I asked her which board she preferred. She chose the Bamboo Series Two, the one with the all terrain wheels. 

“Why do you prefer that one?” I asked her.

“Because my feet really become one with the board,” she said.

She’s probably not experienced enough of a longboarder to understand how much those wheels help with giving a smooth riding, and correcting flaws in the surface we skate on. But the bamboo series two, unlike the carbon series, is a board she feels stable on. 

I chose my old snubnose to ride on that night? Why? Well I still like to ride it every once in a while, even though I no longer use it in my daily commute. Also, my snubnose is pretty scratched up by now, and I have no problems about banging it up on a night run. But my Boosted Board, well, I’m still babying her. 

You’ll remember an elaborate problem electric skateboards can run into. Where, if you break on a downhill you charge the battery. But if the battery is already full, you can damage the battery if you continue to put power into it. 

For that reason, we started at the bottom of the parking garage, and skated up to the top, first. She took forever. I think she went the whole way up on the slow gear. On the way down, she used the brakes the entire time. 

Her feet hurt by the time we got to the bottom. I skated with her on part of a baby hill on campus before we went home. Not even two miles, but quite fun. The last time I went to that parking garage, I was learning how to skate from a longboarder friend of mine. That night, I was the teacher.

I guess it’s worth talking about the problem my board had. It appeared as though the remote was breaking. This is the big, clunky, original Evolve remote we’re talking about here. I’ve fallen on it a few times, and on some level I think it’s perfectly understandable if the remote was on the fritz.

But part of my problem is the way the board responds to losing connection. It brakes. It seemed as though my signal was really weak. I became scared to skate with my arms out, because with my arm fully extended, I was losing signal. 

I started skating with the remote held behind my board, in my sacrum, to keep it in a good spot. But then, even there, the remote lost signal and the board auto hit the brakes. 

Finally, I examined the bottom of my board. Remember, the screw fittings on this board are long since broken off. The battery pack and electronics are held in place with velcrow and zip ties. But while you skate, the battery pack tends to drift to the front of the board, for some reason. I remembered, when I opened it up, that there was a silver antenna patch under there. I pushed the battery pack closer to the back of the board, closer to its original position, and tried again. 

Perfect signal. I had no other issues all night.

After thinking about it, I realized that a well positioned nail or tack could hold the battery pack in place. Where’s my hammer?

I also discovered a new way to use the board. If you turn off the remote, but leave the board on, it will engage the brakes. This is useful if you want to go slowly down inclines. Say you’re at the top of the hill, but the hill is too scary for you? What do you do? You could carry your board down, like a chump.

Or you can do it in style. You turn off your remote. You skate down the hill like you’re in slow motion, and when you get far enough down that you feel comfortable, you turn on the remote. It’s a nice option, because the brake you get from doing this is more convenient than if you have to hold the trigger out on the remote.

Marbel Board

So yes, it’s true, there is a new brand of electric board on the market. It’s called the Marbel. http://ridemarbel.com/

One of the points about the Marbel that I’m most excited for? The fact that it’s built here in Florida. I’ve already emailed them to see about riding on a demo.

Based on the videos, what’s clear? The design of this board is the greatest yet, to really disguise the electronics in the skateboard. They do this by having the motor mounted inside of the rear truck. And, I assume, the battery inside of the deck.

On some level, I’m going to be skeptical of the design. I don’t know how long you’ve been reading my blog, but there was a meaningful difference between Boosted’s Kickstart and the board they actually shipped.

I’m also going to guess, based on the video, that Marbel uses a single wheel drive. Not such a big deal. Remember, this is a Florida made board, and Florida is a mostly flat place. But still, the skateboard begs to dive down hills. Anyone who owns a skateboard knows it’s only a matter of time before it goes down one. After riding my Boosted, and given the surfaces I ride on, I feel dual drive trains really is the safer option.

You know that I also prefer an electric skateboard that lets people know it has power. Just today, I was skating up a small hill to work. I passed a car, where the man looked out his window and yelled, “Pop a trick!”

My real trick was skating uphill, which he didn’t realize. He mistook my Boosted Board for an orthodox board that you can do tricks on. I prefer the stares of the people on the bus, at the motors and electronics.

When I think about the electric skateboard market today, we have champions in several categories. Evolve sells the best off road board. Boosted sells the best last mile vehicle. Maybe, just maybe, Mabel will have the most affordable board.

Thoughts of an electric longboarder

Saturday morning. Time for my morning writing session at Starbucks. To be a complete hipster, and since the Starbucks is only a couple of miles away, I don’t take my car. I reach for my electric skateboard. But do I reach for the Boosted Board, or for the Evolve All Terrain?

In this situation, there’s no hesitation. I reach for the Evolve. It’s a real door-to-door board, as opposed to my last mile vehicle. Meaning, if I don’t have to throw it in a car, take it on a bus or train, the Evolve board’s size becomes an advantage. There are no hills on the way to Starbucks, but the surface is complete garbage. On my Evolve, I can ride over the worst sidewalk with the impunity of a bicycle.

But this morning, a bonus treat. Blocking my way on the sidewalk was a father and his two sons. Both sons had skateboards. The surface was so bad, one of the sons simply carried his board. It gave me the opportunity to use my go-to line, “Excuse me, pardon me. Can I pass?”

Then I watched their drooling faces as they saw what the coolest kid in the neighborhood was riding. When I looked over my shoulder down the road, I saw them going into the pawn shop. Poor kids won’t be riding an electric anytime soon.

***

At work, I went to sign out. Sunglasses on, Boosted in hand, I entered the room where our supervisors are.

The new girl was there, the hot one. She looked at me and said, “Look at you, the cool guy. With your cool guy hair, and your cool guy sunglasses, and your cool guy skateboard.”

This is how people see me now. But the funny thing is, I had the hair and the sunglasses before. But nobody called me the cool guy before. Somehow the longboard is what really pulls everything together. Thank you Boosted, and thank you Evolve.

***

Riding home from work. Just past the student rec center, there’s a downhill by the volleyball courts. It’s a game day weekend, so the street is clogged with cars. I’m skating past them all on the sidewalk. My Boosted Board lets me take the downhill slow enough to check out the volleyball girls. When I pass them, I release the brakes.

Then an RV turns right -- in front of me.

I hit the brake button. I roll the wheel back slightly, and come to a complete stop on the hill. I shake my finger at the RV, he probably can’t even see me. When he’s clear, I skate on.

Had that happened with an orthodox board, I would have had to jump off, and likely the board would have gone flying, maybe even run over.

Had that happened with an Evolve board, I would have been able to slow down enough to hop off and retain control of the board.

Braking

After having a few weeks to use my Boosted Board, I feel like there’s one important point left to discuss. Breaking.

Let’s start by talking about the history of breaking on skateboard, and work our way to Boosted.

For orthodox skateboards, there were no breaks. Because you had to kick the board, you didn’t want much resistance. Most of your rides were about getting speed, not losing it. Skateboarders had to use their skills to break. They had to use skate gloves, turns, and a maneuver called a Coleman to slow themselves. In other words, orthodox skateboarding is kind of dangerous.

Then came Evolve. They had breaks. For me, this was a great crutch. I’d compare Evolve’s breaks to training wheels on a bicycle. I could slow down the board. While those breaks didn’t stop the board, they allowed me to slow the board to a speed where I could probably jump off without an issue.

But there was some skill involved in stopping. I still had to be able to run my board into the grass, or hop off, if need be.

Then Boosted came. At first, I trashed their remote control design. And for that, I am sorry, because the remote is designed brilliantly. Due in part to their dual drive chain design, a Boosted board can break, similarly to the Evolve board. But even on a hill, it can bring itself to a complete stop. It can even go back uphill if you want to. That’s the genius of the ‘mouse wheel’ remote design.  

Boosted brakes don’t just slow you. They’ll stop you, or reverse you. That’s a trick Evolve has yet to learn.

And one other thing about the breaks. When you’re going downhill and need to stop, is where the dual drive trains add safety.

When I took my girlfriend to the Payne’s Prairie bike trail, she got into trouble on a downhill. She was riding the Evolve Carbon Fiber series. She used the brakes. But with only one drive train, braking at speed can be very asymmetrical. She fell off that day. Of course, I had her wearing full safety gear, and it wasn’t much of an issue. I believe that if she had been riding their dual drive wheel board instead, she wouldn’t have had a problem.

Boosted took the braking system on Evolve boards and … evolved it into something superior in every way.

I’d like to end this post by cursing Sanjay Dastoor, the man behind Boosted Boards. At first, I had planned to buy one of their boards, test it, and return it. But he knew me better than I know myself. He knew that I was just like Frodo. I could take the magic ring to Mordor, but I’d be unable to throw it away. I’m keeping my Boosted Board.

All Terrain Bamboo

I feel guilty about yesterday. It was a holiday, and the buses weren’t running. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, practically the reason why I bought the Evolve Bamboo series with the all terrain tires. Because if I have to skate all the way to work and back, it really is the only choice. Especially with the nastiness of construction that I have to skate through.

But I checked the weather report, remembered that on holidays I can park in the garage for free, and took my car instead. It didn’t rain.

So when I got home and saw the sun still in the sky, what did I do? I reached for that All terrain bamboo series, of course. Joyride time!

For yesterday’s ride, I did a little more off roading than usual. I took the grassy footpaths that couldn’t even be attempted with normal skateboard wheels. The board handled great. About the only thing I didn’t want to ride over, were big tree roots. I guess its worth saying that skating over grassy, sandy areas isn’t nearly as fun as skating on asphalt. But the board did get me through it.

The area with the shortcut where the road isn’t quite connected? The Bamboo series with the all terrain tires went right over it. No issues, where normally I’d have to walk a board with regular skateboard wheels over.

Once again, I can’t help but feel such a difference in how you skate depending on what wheels you use. With regular wheels, you’re dodging cracks in the sidewalk. You’re avoiding rocks and branches. Half the fun of skateboarding was learning how to avoid those obstacles. Learning how to swerve around them and look cool doing it.

The all terrain wheels take that away. And in a small way, it makes skateing less fun, because suddenly you don’t have all those obstacles. But in another way, it makes it more fun. Because now you can carve to your heart’s content, and it’s all about style.

The other thing is the surface. The all terrain wheels make the bumpy surface skate like a dream. When I ride a board with orthodox wheels on my commute, there is a one block stretch of sidewalk that’s perfect. That I ride down smooth as a summer wave. The rest of the ride, I’m working around the conditions. The all terrain wheels make every surface smooth as a summer wave.

I have to compare this point in electric skateboards to the early stages of the automobile. At first, it was a horseless carriage. They added a motor to a carriage, and got around just fine. It took years before someone realized that carriage wheels worked, but not as good as an inflated tire. Even after tires, it took longer for the designers to arrive at the modern tire we know today.

Similarly, electric skateboards have started life using what they inherited from orthodox skateboards. They added a motor to the regular wheels. I think its safe to say that at this point in time, we’ve already made wheels and tires in every shape we could want. It’s just a matter of time before we ditch the usual wheels, for the more modern wheels that are better.

The all terrain wheels let you skate with the impunity that you would ride a bicycle. And that’s a great thing that our sport needs if it’s going to attract a new generation of longboarders. If you want to have a carving session that’s all fun, no obstacles, grab a board with all terrain tires. You won’t regret it.