Two AM Skate

We were skating at almost two thirty in the morning. There’s a couple of strip malls by the Krystal that have a perfect, gentle slope to them. During the day, their parking lots would be filled with cars and business. But at night, if you start up by the bowling alley, you can have the run of the place.

Now the first question, for me anyway, was which board to bring to this location. True it wasn’t my first time skating there. But because we were skating at night, and because I wasn’t too familiar with the place, I decided to bring my Evolve Bamboo Series Two, with the all terrain tires.

With orthodox skate wheels, there are many things that can crash you, especially in the dark. The best advantage of those all terrain wheels is that they can handle just about anything a bicycle can, which makes me much more comfortable skating in the dark.

My friends were both on orthodox longboards, of course.

One of the guys there had never seen an electric before, and asked if he could ride mine. I set the remote to the low speed and let him make a few turns, while I tried out his board.

Let me tell you, as an electric skateboarder, his longboard sure felt like it had some kind of magic to it. Probably because of the friction of the drive train, I’m not used to boards rolling like his did. It rolled like a banana peel over butter. Because of the slight and perfect tilt to the asphalt, simply pointing the board in the right direction would cause it to roll -- magic!

While skating, we encountered several speed bumps. That’s one of the things you learn to do as a skateboarder, is to judge speed bumps. Because in a car, for the most part, all speed bumps are created equal. But on a skateboard, you sure learn to see the many different varieties. There are some bumps that I can go over with no trouble whatsoever. But there are also some other speedbumps that could scrape against the bottom of my board. Which is something I *really* don’t want to happen.

Have you ever watched a youtube video of someone puncturing their lithium battery? The result doesn’t look good. The battery, when exposed to the air, essentially becomes a tiny bomb. You wouldn’t want your phone to be in your pocket when that happens, and you probably wouldn’t want to be riding an electric skateboard when that happens.

So avoiding damage to the battery is a good thing. As a result, whenever I come to a speed bump, I hit the brakes, hop off my board and let it take the bump all by itself, then hop back on. Every time I did that, the board cleared the speed bump. Yet I’m too chickenshit to stay on the board over a speed bump, for the aforementioned reason.

And of course that makes me think that as electric skateboarding becomes more popular, as more and more of these boards go on the market, eventually, somebody is going to puncture their battery. Right?

I mean that’s a headline right there. Man skates of flaming board.

Old Battery and Fiik Boards

So my oldest electric skateboard is the Evolve Snubnose. It’s served me well, and you can tell when you look at the bottom of it. It’s all scratched up. But those scratches are love, they represent me learning how to skate.

I thought it might be a good time to write about what happens to the battery, at least on this model, after a year or two.

For the most part the board is still fine and working just as it did on day one. With a single exception. As I was riding around the neighborhood, I saw an old couple on bikes in front of me. I wanted to pass them, I *live* to pass people on bicycles. And pass them I did. Just slow enough for me to hear the man ask his wife if I had a remote for my board.

I have to hand it to that old man on his bicycle, he spotted what others easily overlook. He saw that I was using a remote. I guess the big clue, with that board, is all the duct tape I have wrapped around the battery to keep it attached to the board.

If there’s one thing I love more than showing off on my electric skateboard, it’s showing off in front of people who *know* my board has a motor. People who can recognize that they’re looking at something they’ve never seen before.

But the problem came a few miles later. I had an internal tingling sensation, my spider sense, if you will. I felt like the batter was almost drained. But I was constantly checking the low battery light, and it never came on. One more time around the neighborhood then, I decided.

It was the wrong choice. A mile or so away from the house, the board lost power. No low battery light. No more juice after it powered off. It was flat dead.

It sounds minor, but to me, this issue really is an annoyance. Because riders really do rely on that low battery light. Now I’ve always said that of all the electric skateboard companies, Evolve most needs to improve on its remote design. And I’m not really sure what the issue was here. They say the simplist answer tends to be the correct one. Probably the battery is getting old, and simply doesn’t report being in low power before it’s out for the count.

But something also tells me that the same thing wouldn’t happen with my Boosted Board, which features five lights that slowly count down the battery power.

Needless to say, I pushed that board home, kicking a skateboard more than I’ve ever pushed in my life. I learned a lot about orthodox skateboarding on that journey home. Kicking is physical effort, something I’m not used to doing while riding a board.

The entire time, I was remembering a colleague from work who said he had gotten hip problems from kicking a skateboard so much. So I would vary which leg I used to kick. Even though I’ve been riding boards for years, I haven’t pushed boards enough to have a favorite leg, or the muscle memory to prefer one over the other.

But the worst part about that journey home was passing the neighbors. In their yards, on their balconies. They had been watching me skate all weekend, wondering who was this new man on the block zipping by. But for that shameful ride home, they got to see more of me, as I passed them much slower, with only my leg to propel me.

***

I also want to mention that a new brand of board maker has come to Florida. Fiik. They’ve opened an office, and while they’re currently waiting on more inventory, they’ve contacted me and told me that soon they will have more in stock. It sounded to me like they’re going to make the rounds in Florida. Meaning they almost have to come to Gainesville, and our Freeride Surf Shop. So if you’re reading this and you’re anywhere near Gainesville, follow me @maulakai so you don’t miss out. A free electric skateboard ride *at* Freeride? Oh yeah!

Wait a minute. I just checked their webpage. I only see the older model, heavy lead battery type. Let’s reserve judgement until they get some of those new, lithium battery models in, as I don’t condone those fat boards (Street Surfer, Big Daddy, Shortii) that ride more like a war tank.

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.

Update

Alright, so it’s been a while since I’ve written about the world of electric skateboarding. There’s a part of me that wants to call it motorboarding. Is that too far out? I dunno.

First off, my Boosted Board broke. Well, broke is such a strong word. Especially since it still works. But one of the motors is loose. Despite realizing this at work, I was still able to ride the board home. A friend thought I could just use a hex wrench to tighten it up. But when I got home and took a hex wrench to it, it didn’t tighten. I took a short video of it on Instagram, but the upload failed. I’ll have a video of it up on Instagram @maulakai shortly. But the bottom line is that it’s a minor issue that I expect to fix easily.

That said, there’s also the matter of the belt. Which still looks perfectly skatable to me. But I still plan on buying a new belt and replacing it.

Because my Boosted was broken, yesterday I rode my Bamboo Series two to work. Yes it’s big, but I was able to take it on the bus without issue. Once again, I marveled at how well the board did over the unforgiving terrain of our campus. And once again, I found myself craving the carve.

It’s like, a large part of skating on orthodox wheels is knowing which parts of the sidewalk to skate, and which parts to avoid. Much of it involves carving around the bumps, and hitting your marks. And all of that fine tuning, all of that finesse is lost when you skate on the all terrain wheels.

Which is why, nowadays, I think of the all terrain wheels more as beginner wheels. They’re what I’d give my SO, or mom to ride on. But for me, the skill and speed of orthodox wheels is preferred.

Which is why today, to ride into work, I reached for my old Snubnose. Man is that board fun, even after all these years. I still prefer the old remote, which allows me to break with higher precision. I love the way she turns on a dime, the way she can stand up all by herself, and the way she’s smaller than the other boards.

The only real flaw in Evolve boards, is the fact that the new remote doesn’t allow you to precision brake. I’m thinking a simple remote redesign is all they really need.

I went on Facebook the other day and found a group called Evolve Skateboard Owners. https://www.facebook.com/groups/evolveowners/ If you are reading this blog, then you probably want to join that group. It is a great resource, and I can’t believe I didn’t find it sooner. After skimming the comments, I’ve learned that perhaps the number one complaint with Evolve is that they don’t seems to respond to emails -- basically their customer service. I’ve had a very similar experience.

However, I *did* get a response from them the other day. They received my broken truck, and are sending me a replacement. I can’t wait to get that and tell you how it goes.

I also want to mention that I’ve stopped logging the mileage on my boards. I know, I know, it was kind of a big deal for me. And it was a great thing to do -- when I  only had the Snubnose. But now, with three boards, and multiple riders, it’s just too much. Suffice it to say that if you buy an electric skateboard and commute with it for about three years, it should pay for itself. But honestly, it’s worth buying, just for the fun factor.

The Trouble with Trucks

Let me explain the situation with Evolve. A long time ago, sometime last year, if I remember correctly, I bought a Carbon series from Evolve. Now any electric skateboard you buy today is going to take a long time to actually ship, and the carbon series is no exception.

When I finally got it, I only used it a few times before the electrics on it went dead. Bummer. I wound up returning it. They send me another Carbon series, which also went dead. The Evolve representative asked me to do some work on the board, opening it up, checking wire connections, etc. At the end of it all, they told me to return that board, too.

At that point, it was public knowledge that Evolve was coming out with a new Bamboo Series Two. I asked them for a Series Two, having been soured on the carbon series. Also, the Carbon series was a bit long for my liking. Since the Carbon series cost more, they offered to refund me the difference. Sounds great.

Fast forward to August of 2014, when I got the Series Two. I rode it a few times with the regular skateboard wheels, before putting on the all terrain tires. I skated it like that until recently, when I put the regular wheels back on. I estimate I only rode the board about a dozen times, total, before I went to take a picture of it. And noticed the metal was damaged.

Now I put the picture of the broken truck on my instragram @maulakai. Would you believe Evolve responded on their official account to contact the distributor for a replacement?

I contact the distributor. He isn’t the same guy I had been doing business with in Michigan. Now it’s some guy out in California. I check one of Evolve’s email newsletters and see that they have changed their American base. New location, new management. Awesome.

But the guy I’m emailing asks me to mail the part to them, says he thinks a replacement is $40. It cost me $20 to mail the damn broken part, but I did it.

Meanwhile, Evolve on Instagram says I should have been issued a new set of trucks a long time ago.

So now I’m stuck in an awkward place, wondering what’s going to happen. It’s a bit like a good cop / bad cop routine, where the guy on Instagram says everything you’d want to hear, that it’s all a big misunderstanding that they’ll take care of. While the guy writing their email says how much more money he wants from you.

All of this, and I never did get the difference in cost between the Carbon and the Bamboo Series Two. I’m not sure if the prices have changed, but we’re talking a difference of $450, according to the Evolve webpage today.

So Evolve on instagram says I should email him. Of course, I don’t have his email address, but I’m going to see if I can’t get a hold of that man, who may or may not be Jeff Anning (the CEO of Evolve).

I hate to write such posts that shed a bit of a dark light on the situation. But when I started the blog, I promised to chronicle the journey of an electric skateboarder, so that people new to the sport would have some idea of what to expect. I want to make it clear that despite all of the bumps along the way, I absolutely love my Evolve boards. If I could do it all over again, I would have purchased their boards even sooner.

But I’m trusting you, Evolve, to make this right.