Rain and Compare

Today the gray clouds are in the air and the sky is as gloomy as can be. The weather report says that it should have started raining an hour ago. But outside, the ground is still dry, and the air still has a slight chill to it.

According to the weather report, it should rain for the rest of today and tomorrow. Normally, I would leave my skateboards where they are, put on some headphones, and walk/bus to work.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I asked myself, it today were the last day of my life, would I walk to work, or would I ride my board? It’s a silly question, because if today was the last day of my life, I wouldn’t even go to work. But despite the faulty logic, I rode my board to work. Our time in this world is limited, and you never know how much you have left. The weather report can be wrong. And besides, I can always leave the board at work and walk home, if its raining this afternoon.

I want to mention the ride I had on my boosted yesterday. Now, with the upgrade, the board has three speed modes, up from two. On low gear, the board is pretty tame and great for beginners. The old low gear was so slow as to be useless.

I had used the medium gear to skate to work yesterday. It was unremarkable. I intended to use the fast gear home. If there’s one fault to Boosted’s speed switching system, it’s that it’s really hard to hit the remote button three times *just right* to change the speed. That being said, you’re probably not going to change the speed setting that many times.

I *flew* home. Yeah, it wasn’t so much faster than before, but it was fast enough for me to feel. As always, the brakes are the best part of the Boosted board, and a great thing to have when you’re sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians unaware.

I want to talk about this review I found:

http://ego-cruiser.com/en/vs-boosted-boards/

But I’m out of time to type. In the meantime, have a look.

Yuneec Cameo

Much has happened this weekend. First of all, I went  back to my old stomping grounds in Miami. For whatever reason, it’s the perfect place to skate. It has flat roads, plenty of shade, decent surface, and little to no traffic. Plus, my grandma lives just a short skate away from my dad.

I don’t think I’ve ever skated so much in my life! Trading between my boards, my knees and joints hurt from skating so much. It was awesome.

During my time there, my original Bamboo series Evolve board did something it hasn’t done before. It died, suddenly. I was only a block or two away from my house, but I had to kick home, which is always a weird feeling. Kicking a skateboard is one of those things that is completely backwards for me. I probably haven't kicked a skateboard even a mile. But after skating electrics all this time, I felt like I was kind sorta getting the hang of it.

The biggest problem is that skating with a motor is so fast, such a free and liberating experience, that if you are forced to kick a board, it’s always slow and dull by comparison.

Of course, Evolve mailed me back a new truck to replace the one which had broken. I’m not sure what to think about it, because they mailed me back only a single truck. I was under the impression that they would send me a new set. One of the Evolve guys said that those trucks had been recalled. If that’s so, why do I still have to skate around on a recalled truck?

But I didn’t have the time to install it, so my Bamboo series two is still on the all terrain wheels. Which turns out to be a good thing, because they’re repaving one of the roads I take home. So the all terrain wheels are quite useful at the moment.

Then Boosted returned my board after fixing that loose part. They also gave me a speed boost, and they changed my belts for free. Yay Boosted!

So imagine this morning, when I’m getting ready to catch the bus. There are my two best boards, the Boosted and the Evolve, side by side. Which do I reach for? I really should take the all terrain Evolve, because of the road construction. But I took the Evolve. I just wanted to ride her again, after our long separation. I wanted the easy board to hold on the bus.  And besides, I could skate around the construction.

So here I write to you, using my Boosted as a foot rest, and I’m happy to have her back.

Oh one more thing. My mom sent me a message on instagram. She never uses instagram. Either the armageddon is coming, or she had something important to show me. She had stopped by the Ron Jon Surf Shop, the biggest surf shop here in Florida. And she saw the Yuneek board on sale there. I’ll try to get pics on my instagram. But yeah, electric boards are now officially on display in Florida. And it’s neither a Boosted, nor an Evolve. Man do I want to give that board a test run.

Race and Range Anxiety

The story so far.

If you haven’t been keeping up, one of the parts on my Boosted Board came loose. I put a video of it on my Instagram @maulakai. Shortly thereafter, I was contacted by Boosted, who invited me to return the board for a repair. They even furnished me with a return mailing label, so it didn’t cost me anything.

I was very impressed with their customer service. Remember at the same time, one of my Evolve trucks broke. They asked me to ship the broken part back to them, at my own expensive. After a wait and another email, they finally said they’d be sending me a new set of trucks.

I’m still waiting for both the Evolve trucks, and the Boosted Board. It’s a strange waiting game. It’s almost become a race in my mind. Which company’s return will reach me first?

In the meantime, I’ve been taking my old Evolve Snubnose. I can’t say enough about what a good board it is. To this day, I really love the way that board can carve, the way it rides. It’s so much fun, and its been very good to me.

Yesterday was such a perfect day, I decided to ride around a little extra. My usual commute is approximately four miles. Maybe I added a mile to that, going down a nice road, and doing figure eights in a parking lot.

I was kind of surprised to see the low battery light come on before I got home. I’d always estimated the battery life of that board closer to eight miles. The board completely ran out of battery just as rolled to my front door.

It’s hard to say what’s going on here. But probably, the battery is old, and losing some of its range. Which isn’t really a big deal, but its the kind of thing you have to keep in mind. So I realized that electric skateboard might also get what Tesla owners get: range anxiety.

I mean, if you’re using your board to commute, you probably know what you’re capable of. And if the battery loses range over time, you’d know it before it would ruin your day. But if you just want to take the board out for a joy ride, then sure, range anxiety comes into play. Because no one wants to end his ride by kicking his board home that last mile.