Seems like a lot of people are moving on from esk8ing to other things or are just now realizing how much it took over their lives. I heard Muirskate closed down because longboard sales weren’t enough to keep the doors open (possibly due to the esk8 market). It seems like there’s a limit to the DIY esk8 hobby since once you have several boards under your belt, there’s not much else to do from there on out. Obviously riding the boards themselves is a huge part of it (though some enjoy building more), but once some folks build a super reliable board, they don’t have much more reason to stay engaged with the community. I don’t know, this seems pretty simplistic or unimportant since esk8 isn’t the only hobby out there, it just seems like esk8 is going the way of the tablet (i.e. dropping sales and general decrease of use). Premade boards are flooding the market so people are less inclined to go the DIY route (I, for one went DIY because it was less expensive than Boosted). What do you all think about the DIY esk8 community at the moment? Am I out of touch? Any future predictions?
Builders are like car guys there will always be an ongoing project. DIY I dont see going down, may be true for the premade market.
In my opinion, esk8 will only be on the decline if technology is on the decline (which will never happen btw). They have a direct correlation. Proof? look at boards and builds from 2016 and look at builds today. Look at the type of tech being implemented. BT modules springing up left and right, the ability to program vescs without physically touching the vesc, the creation of new BMSs, VESCs etc. There is no decline whatsoever, this shit is on the rise.
As for muirskate closing down, I don’t understand how you came to the assumption of more esk8ers buying decks = poorer sales lmao.
Lol what? How does that factor in? You still need bushings , decks, bearings and wheels for an ESK8. All of which you would get at Muirskate. WHat killed Muirskate is amazon and probably the decline of skating in general.
Deck swamps? Wheel upgrades? Drive train upgrades? The search for the best Bearings? We’re still not that far out form the parent sport.
More and more people are entering the DIY scene (just look at the New members or noob thread) and probably a bunch of DIYers out there who have yet to discover this hobby (i can hear the screeches of B264). But you are right that more people are inclined to Premade boards because you have a company there to fix it up for you and some just feel good.
If anything, it is picking up steam (for DIY). I think that the longboard market is a ‘niche’ market so that is why you might see shops open and close, there won’t be a TON of people interested, but they are there. Plus with the whole thing about chinese makers making less expensive boards (and them becoming more and more reliable) people are just going the premade board since they are a little cheaper than the ‘cheap’ builds you see on here.
Either way, DIY will stay around for awhile. People will buy premade boards and those will break and they will then try to make it again or fix it. Honestly I have a premade Meepo that I replaced my DIY board that wasn’t all that reliable. I can now ride without worry that something might go wrong (and it is my fault). I will ride it til it either dies or I make a new board.
I am still planning another build, but for the winter months. I just like seeing all these boards pop up. Like Ebisane said, once the tech starts dwindling, interest will go down as it will be the same 4 builds again and again. For now though, so much new stuff is being integrated into ESk8
I think that most people enter (including myself) buying a pre-made production board. All boards tend to develop problems that need fixing that gets people to a forum like eSK8 or riders get tired of going slow and look for alternatives. I am developing my own quiver of boards. The first was a Yuncee eGO that is now my 8 yr old daughters board. Second is a eMTB/AT board that can run in any weather conditions. The last is a street salmon board I am currently in the process of building. It is like the car industry you can buy a fast production car or you can build an even faster custom.
My thoughts is the industry is still ramping up…
Kevin
Miurskate was a great asset here that is sorely missed.
motorized skateboarding has barely even started!! most people dont know that they even exist, and are always shocked by their range/speed
just over a year (and thousands of dollars) ago it took me all of one day to pull the trigger and buy a boosted once i realized that that sort of thing actually existed
i wonder if the admins have access to the site traffic on google analytics/are willing to share it - id bet money that the numbers rise every single month
I think it’s still a growing market. Which will continue to grow and get better with battery technology
I am at a loss for words here, wtf…
so I will just answer the question…
No, its not…
esk8 is just getting started. Ebb & Flow to those who look to just get their board built to ride and off they go only to return when an issue arises that keeps them from riding. People who like the latest and greatest in parts, and people who like to innovate & create parts. You have daily riders, daily commuters, and leisure riders (weekend warriors). Some people who know how to build and others that have no option but to buy prebuilt and everyone in between those. Taking an analytics report from a DIY site isn’t going to judge the overall involvement of esk8ing. Getting the word out about esk8ing and having events would greatly increase the sports popularity along with lower cost’s. Just last night was thinking about those funny looking solar cars they’d race in the southwest and now we have the Tesla cars just hitting the market in the last couple years. Along with any sport or anything in general the safer you can make it, the more will be willing to try it out (Safe Equipment & Safety Gear)
you can see the rise of esk8 on the reddit-metrics http://redditmetrics.com/r/ElectricSkateboarding 7k on the start of this year, over 12k now
I think it’s going to be a slow INCREASE if anything. I usually ride alone in the early mornings, once in a while I would bump into a Boosted or Evolve rider who asks me about my board, after hearing the cost, specs and seeing me riding off faster than they could imagine, I think the DIY aspects pops into their heads. When those Evolves start failing, I see a lot of them asking about the DIY scene.
You just described my coming to be here.
My d* is on the decline when I read this 
Ask jason for the forum click and user statistics… Strong growth for years. Why do you think he couldnt resist placing huge ads on the login page and a small one in the header nowadays?
It’s the longboarding industry that is suffering, but not Esk8.
The longboarding industry has seen a big decline over the years. You can see it in some of our favorite names.
There will be some that shift their focus on Esk8. You all saw it with Shredlights. Before my initial Shredlights group buy they were all about Marketing to longboarders and Skateboards. Esk8 was not on his radar. But now…its all marketing towards Esk8. He saw the writing on the wall and he adjusted.
Hopefully we will see some companies switching over as they realize how big Esk8 actually is.
I feel that this is problematic by the way. Sure, its “his” forum… He founded it and is paying the bills but it would be easy to crowdfund and nice to keep clean from official ads. This is driving enertion competitors away because they dont wanna give him even better google ranking and traffic by creating valuable content for him. Creators and Vendors like chaka and lhb being on the forum is/was what makes it so nice tho 
anyway … off topic. Back to declining
“longboarding” as an industry or subject shouldn’t really exist in the 1st place, because it’s all skateboarding and their 1st mistake was trying to create something apart from it and going against it instead of joining it, lets hope eskate doesn’t make the same mistake, maybe they can learn from longboarding (long skateboards) lol…
i wonder if esk8 will surpass the popularity of longboarding
i think it will for the same reason that there are many more downhill skiers than there are cross-country skiers
on the other hand, there might more more bicyclists in the world than motorcyclists… although this might be because theres still gearing involved with a bicycle
people just like to go fast
I believe it will. I believe people from other board sports will find their way to Esk8. Snowboarders, kite surfers, pretty much any board sport.
As the tech gets better, the quality of the boards get better, distances increase…Esk8 will be a viable extreme sport alternative.