Balance, Evolve, and Boosted

So I’m riding with my longboarder friend again, trying to master the art or riding downhill without hitting the breaks.

The secret, he tells me, is to lock my legs in a funny position with my feet very close to the front of the board. I’ve seen him do it a million times, but for me the technique seems to need some work.

No matter how close I inch my feet to the nose of the board, no matter how I lock my legs, I hit about 20 miles an hour and I feel the wobble, and puss out and hit the brakes.

After the run, I let him try my fancy new Evolve Longboard and guess what? He felt a bit of a wobble, too. Then a lightbulb goes off in my head. Maybe it’s not my technique that’s wrong. Maybe its the board.

While he was riding my board, I took a few kicks of his board. I couldn’t help but notice how balanced it was. My board almost can’t be balanced. It has this asymmetric brushless motor and truck on the rear wheel. Inherent to its design, it really can’t be balanced.

Then another light bulb went off in my head. Boosted Boards. They’re currently the only electric skateboarding company that I’m aware of which has both rear wheels motorised. At first, I wondered why they would go with such a radically different design than their competitors. Supposedly, if you have two motors, it gives some kind of elaborate engineering problem with turning.

But what about balance? Supposing they fixed the turning problem, their board would be perfectly balanced. It makes even more sense when you consider that they’re based out of San Francisco, where there are downhills a plenty.

Now, suddenly, I want my boosted board. Of course, they’re not even shipping their first run until next year. By then, I could have an Evolve Carbon Fiber, if I wanted.