There you go!! eskating is a boardsport, no matter how you think of it, it’s root is the board itself…Surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, wake boarding, any board…it’s basically a “electrically powered board” and it’s funny that California law defines them as exactly that…they are new yet highly related to all board sports…and they do appeal to all people who enjoy board sports…while the onewheel and other new similar electric devices (unicycles, balance boards, onewheel and escooters) ARE NOT A BOARD…so we should easily be guided by our heritage and past, we have defined influences coming from board sports…while longboarding was a niche or form of skateboarding trying to be a thing. I am reminded of the freestyle conspiracy when “street skating” tried to be a thing…lol and successfully did…go figure…
Seems all the *board searches are in decline. Bicycles are kind of in the same ‘space’ so thought I’d add them in, and the seasonal differences in bicycle and snowboard are quite evident which is kind of cool .
Search term volume for “electric skateboard” are quite small, so can’t show them on the above.
Seems eSk8 has really only picked up in the last couple years, bit too early to judge long term trends.
Ha ha, coming through with the cold hard stats. It’s clear I’m out of touch. I guess as the hobby gets more complex and the tech gets better, it starts looking different (in a good way). Long live eSk8, and happy riding!
when I started this hobby, all I wanted was sub $500decent single motor belt drive. 1yr later now I have, possibly, one and only suspension dual motor that has 20 miles range XD. and and fastest eboard in Ontario, Canada.
now I just started secondboard building and I want to have hub ver, mini ver, eMTB in the future.
I really don’t think it will decline lol.
Especially Eastern Canada, longboarding is ever popular. I see more boards evry week pass
There might be a fad phase thats in decline, I mean there was that whole eskate blogger thing.
But long term I see nothing but growth for a while, because they’ll only get more reliable, more capable, and more practical, opening them up to be legitimate for more and more people.
I mean there are new vesc comming like evry 3 month now. I’m waiting for focbox unity for my next eMTV. this yr will be the hit and people will start buying.
my local shop alone just sold 20 inboard this summer
for some reason boosted was declining they prob sold like 80 for past 2 yrs.
But people starts looking into the mini and some of the boosted guys wants to build themselves now.
But I can say that I’m going down the same path. Once I have finished my build and dialed everything right down to the “T”, I will be done (no more visiting or posting here etc), as I will only be replacing parts and battery as needed. No reason to make another one and then another one etc.
I would put it down to other things in life being more important / different stages of life.
Aye, there is a lot more ready made boards available now for all kinds of categories, so I guess that will have some noticeable impact.
As for future predictions on this esk8 community, it would be a bit like a revolving door, as people leave, new people who want to try building will come in to replace those who left, rinse and repeat.
@jess.t.moody while that may be your perspective based on who you interact with the most, no measurable evidence suggests that esk8 or DIY is decreasing in popularity or continued engagement.
You’re right that some folks join the forum, build their own boards, and then become less active. Howevee, the folks who have been here since the beginning are still here, and there far more regular contributors than ever.
My post earlier this year shares some early 2018 forum stats.
Industry trends inevitably follow the money. Are there more or less companies producing esk8s than 1 year ago? Are there more or less companies producing goods and services to support the DIY esk8 market than 1 year ago?
IMO the DIY esk8 market will always have a niche in the industry. How big of niche will depend upon the cost and replacement cost of pre-built boards. If in 2 years the Chinese esk8 companies are producing boards that satisfy most consumers at $200, the DIY will suffer…that’s seems unlikely now, but look at what happened the cost and quality of flatscreen TVs (yes, I’m old).
yeap in 2004 my fam bought 720p 42 inch lcd for $5K. now 4k 55inch for under $500.
but the chinese board is far from good now. battery cost is a lot. seems unlikely go satisfy most us at the moment. and the trucks are terrifyingly bad too. so I don’t know when will that be.
I would say esk8 is not on the decline it is actually on the rise. Driving home one day last week I saw 2 different people riding electric boards within a few blocks of each other. One a riptide and the other a kooswheel or something similar. Skating/longboarding is in a decline but I have a feeling that skating will get a big boost from the next Olympics when they have skateboarding as an event.
I’ve definitely noticed a decline in how much fresh reading material I could find over the past 2 months. I basically chalked it up summer coming and people focusing on finishing up their builds and going out and riding. My guess it’ll pick back up in the fall when riding conditions are less favorable.
I have 2 boards right now about 90% finished and I sure as hell will be riding them before I post any build logs even tho I have pictures of 90% of the build I wanna get out and ride dammit.
Posting this from work the only place I can’t work on the boards lol
Esk8 is in transition from Wild West to Lego. Not that long ago if you wanted to build an esk8 you had to source or manufacture all the parts yourself. But now you just go to an online store, choose which motor you want, which mount, which battery pack, etc. and bolt it all together.
So that’s a big (and inevitable) transition. It will bring a lot more people into the sport because they don’t need a lot of tools or know-how to build their own skate.
Soon buying a competent board will be so inexpensive that it won’t be worth the time and money to build your own.
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It’s clear I’m out of touch. I guess as the hobby gets more complex and the tech gets better, it starts looking different (in a good way). Long live eSk8, and happy riding!
