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http://online.wsj.com/articles/no-longer-for-punks-skateboards-cater-to-yuppie-commuters-1401847791
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No Longer for Punks, Skateboards Cater to Yuppie Commuters
Ever Heard of a Boosted Board? Contraptions Aimed at Professionals Who Don't Want to Drive to Work
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Here in Silicon Valley, inventors are tinkering with a revolutionary transportation technology. It's called a skateboard.
Witness a sampling of new electric skateboards and skateboard-like contraptions: There's the Boosted board, whose feisty motor can rocket up hills. Also the ZBoard, which is slower and wider but has big fat wheels to plow over pebbles and debris. Then there are oddballs like the Onewheel, a "self-balancing electric skateboard" that looks like a teeter-totter, works like a Segway and isn't really a skateboard.
There are roughly a dozen companies making electric skateboards, versus just a handful a few years ago, according to people in the nascent industry. There are skateboard lights, skateboard locks, skateboard storage racks, and boards made from recycled fishnets. The skateboard, it seems, has become a hotbed of innovation.
None of this stuff is aimed at what you might call real skateboarders. Instead it is for the growing number of urban professionals who don't want to drive to work. Kyle Doerksen, inventor of the Onewheel, illustrated this distinction while touting his contraption's powerful brakes.
"You can ride down an incredibly steep hill and go one mile-per-hour," he said.
When people think of skateboards, they think of skate punks jumping stairs and sliding handrails. But much of the sport's recent growth has come from people who have never popped an ollie and see skateboarding as a means to get from point-A to point-B. This includes college students on longboards and yuppie commuters with their laptops and their shoulder bags. The result is a slew of new gear aimed at skateboard commuters.
Park A Bike, a Sacramento, Calif., maker of bike racks, has the SkateDock, which is essentially a bike rack for skateboards and has been installed on dozens of college campuses including the University of Utah and Arizona State University. Light Bohrd, a Round Rock, Texas-based maker of LED-illuminated longboards, has a model called the Urban Commuter. It boasts a "headlight and taillight for added visibility."
Core skate companies are also catering to commuters. NHS Inc.—the venerable manufacturer of Santa Cruz Skateboards and Independent Trucks—makes between 15 and 20 "cruzers" for the commuting market, said Jeff Kendall, a former pro skater and NHS's vice president. Some are longboards, others are short, skinny boards that look like skateboards from the 1950s. Until five years ago, the company only occasionally made boards for transportation, instead of for getting radical.
"Skateboarding has been around long enough now that there's this older demographic. It's more acceptable to see a 30-year-old or 40-year-old riding a skateboard," said Mr. Kendall, who is 46.
Skate commuters could just ride a bike. But bikes are heavy. Also, everyone hates the guy who tries to cram his bike into a train during rush hour.
"The idea is to build vehicles that are light enough that you can carry it on another vehicle—a bus or a train—but also have enough power to go up a hill," said Sanjay Dastoor, co-founder of Boosted. "Bikes. You have to carry them to the second floor and they block part of your doorway."
Colin Sebern, a 38-year-old Google GOOGL +0.16% engineer who lives in San Francisco, used to spend as much as two hours each way driving the 40-or-so miles between his house and Google Inc.'s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. He got a Boosted board about a year ago, "and my cars have been parked ever since."
In the morning he rides the board on the street about two miles to one of Google's private buses, then the reverse on the way home. Somewhere in the middle he charges the board's battery at his desk.
It may take a while for Mr. Sebern's gas savings to make up for the cost of his board. The Boosted board costs $1,995. The Onewheel costs $1,499. Zboards start at $649.
Another problem: Motorized skateboards are illegal in California, which is where many of these boards are made and sold. California's ban on motorized skateboards—which includes riding them on sidewalks, bike paths and equestrian trails—goes back to 1977, when they ran on what were essentially gas-powered lawn-mower motors. Penalties and enforcement vary from city to city. A spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said any action against an electric skateboard would be "complaint driven" and at the officer's discretion.
Laws against skateboarding have never been much of a deterrent for skateboarders, but electric-skateboard makers are handling the problem a little differently than your typical skate rat.
Instead of posting stickers that say "Skateboarding is Not a Crime," Mr. Dastoor argues that California's transportation laws are "antiquated" and says the Boosted board helps to reduce carbon emissions by getting people out of their cars.
Ben Forman, co-founder of Modesto, Calif.-based ZBoard, is getting political help. In March, California Assemblymember Kristin Olsen—a Modesto Republican—introduced a bill that would repeal the motorized-skateboard ban. Ms. Olsen said "one of our more innovative industries is limited in its growth potential because its product is illegal in our state."
Skateboarding started sometime in the 1950s as an extension of the tribal-like surf culture, and skaters are a bit like tribesmen themselves. They have exotic names for tricks ("Stalefish" "Noseblunt") and strange customs such as an unwritten law that you can't carry your skateboard by its truck, or axle, which is derisively called a "mall grab."
Also like tribesmen, they have a deep suspicion of outsiders bearing new technology. Most of the sport's innovations have come from within the core skateboarding industry, such as the urethane wheel. But lately not much has changed. "Most of what we're doing is throwing marketing dollars at dudes," said Mr. Kendall, from NHS.
Given the four-digit price tags, electric boards carry a stench of elitism (a regular skateboard costs about $150 or less). They're also fairly easy to ride, one reason why many hard-core skaters aren't on board with the commuting trend.
Josh Robertson, a San Francisco teacher and skateboarder, is using technology to make fun of technology. He has a Tumblr and Instagram feed called WhyIDontSkateboard, which often ridicules skateboard commuting.
"Nobody who's actually skated is like, 'You know what? I want an electric skateboard,'" he said.
[youtube]Gka-FXoU5-g[/youtube]
(+ wsj radio & video)
No Longer for Punks, Skateboards Cater to Yuppie Commuters
Ever Heard of a Boosted Board? Contraptions Aimed at Professionals Who Don't Want to Drive to Work
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Here in Silicon Valley, inventors are tinkering with a revolutionary transportation technology. It's called a skateboard.
Witness a sampling of new electric skateboards and skateboard-like contraptions: There's the Boosted board, whose feisty motor can rocket up hills. Also the ZBoard, which is slower and wider but has big fat wheels to plow over pebbles and debris. Then there are oddballs like the Onewheel, a "self-balancing electric skateboard" that looks like a teeter-totter, works like a Segway and isn't really a skateboard.
There are roughly a dozen companies making electric skateboards, versus just a handful a few years ago, according to people in the nascent industry. There are skateboard lights, skateboard locks, skateboard storage racks, and boards made from recycled fishnets. The skateboard, it seems, has become a hotbed of innovation.
None of this stuff is aimed at what you might call real skateboarders. Instead it is for the growing number of urban professionals who don't want to drive to work. Kyle Doerksen, inventor of the Onewheel, illustrated this distinction while touting his contraption's powerful brakes.
"You can ride down an incredibly steep hill and go one mile-per-hour," he said.
When people think of skateboards, they think of skate punks jumping stairs and sliding handrails. But much of the sport's recent growth has come from people who have never popped an ollie and see skateboarding as a means to get from point-A to point-B. This includes college students on longboards and yuppie commuters with their laptops and their shoulder bags. The result is a slew of new gear aimed at skateboard commuters.
Park A Bike, a Sacramento, Calif., maker of bike racks, has the SkateDock, which is essentially a bike rack for skateboards and has been installed on dozens of college campuses including the University of Utah and Arizona State University. Light Bohrd, a Round Rock, Texas-based maker of LED-illuminated longboards, has a model called the Urban Commuter. It boasts a "headlight and taillight for added visibility."
Core skate companies are also catering to commuters. NHS Inc.—the venerable manufacturer of Santa Cruz Skateboards and Independent Trucks—makes between 15 and 20 "cruzers" for the commuting market, said Jeff Kendall, a former pro skater and NHS's vice president. Some are longboards, others are short, skinny boards that look like skateboards from the 1950s. Until five years ago, the company only occasionally made boards for transportation, instead of for getting radical.
"Skateboarding has been around long enough now that there's this older demographic. It's more acceptable to see a 30-year-old or 40-year-old riding a skateboard," said Mr. Kendall, who is 46.
Skate commuters could just ride a bike. But bikes are heavy. Also, everyone hates the guy who tries to cram his bike into a train during rush hour.
"The idea is to build vehicles that are light enough that you can carry it on another vehicle—a bus or a train—but also have enough power to go up a hill," said Sanjay Dastoor, co-founder of Boosted. "Bikes. You have to carry them to the second floor and they block part of your doorway."
Colin Sebern, a 38-year-old Google GOOGL +0.16% engineer who lives in San Francisco, used to spend as much as two hours each way driving the 40-or-so miles between his house and Google Inc.'s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. He got a Boosted board about a year ago, "and my cars have been parked ever since."
In the morning he rides the board on the street about two miles to one of Google's private buses, then the reverse on the way home. Somewhere in the middle he charges the board's battery at his desk.
It may take a while for Mr. Sebern's gas savings to make up for the cost of his board. The Boosted board costs $1,995. The Onewheel costs $1,499. Zboards start at $649.
Another problem: Motorized skateboards are illegal in California, which is where many of these boards are made and sold. California's ban on motorized skateboards—which includes riding them on sidewalks, bike paths and equestrian trails—goes back to 1977, when they ran on what were essentially gas-powered lawn-mower motors. Penalties and enforcement vary from city to city. A spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said any action against an electric skateboard would be "complaint driven" and at the officer's discretion.
Laws against skateboarding have never been much of a deterrent for skateboarders, but electric-skateboard makers are handling the problem a little differently than your typical skate rat.
Instead of posting stickers that say "Skateboarding is Not a Crime," Mr. Dastoor argues that California's transportation laws are "antiquated" and says the Boosted board helps to reduce carbon emissions by getting people out of their cars.
Ben Forman, co-founder of Modesto, Calif.-based ZBoard, is getting political help. In March, California Assemblymember Kristin Olsen—a Modesto Republican—introduced a bill that would repeal the motorized-skateboard ban. Ms. Olsen said "one of our more innovative industries is limited in its growth potential because its product is illegal in our state."
Skateboarding started sometime in the 1950s as an extension of the tribal-like surf culture, and skaters are a bit like tribesmen themselves. They have exotic names for tricks ("Stalefish" "Noseblunt") and strange customs such as an unwritten law that you can't carry your skateboard by its truck, or axle, which is derisively called a "mall grab."
Also like tribesmen, they have a deep suspicion of outsiders bearing new technology. Most of the sport's innovations have come from within the core skateboarding industry, such as the urethane wheel. But lately not much has changed. "Most of what we're doing is throwing marketing dollars at dudes," said Mr. Kendall, from NHS.
Given the four-digit price tags, electric boards carry a stench of elitism (a regular skateboard costs about $150 or less). They're also fairly easy to ride, one reason why many hard-core skaters aren't on board with the commuting trend.
Josh Robertson, a San Francisco teacher and skateboarder, is using technology to make fun of technology. He has a Tumblr and Instagram feed called WhyIDontSkateboard, which often ridicules skateboard commuting.
"Nobody who's actually skated is like, 'You know what? I want an electric skateboard,'" he said.
[youtube]Gka-FXoU5-g[/youtube]
