Taking hiatus from e-skate Industry

General Discussion
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Hello eskate community. The last couple of years have been a fun ride, and while I love skateboarding (electric skateboarding in particular), I need to divert my energy into finding a full time Software Development job to support myself. I can not invest into new designs when I don’t have money to even pay the rent.

When I started working with hummie, I was in my 2nd semester sophomore year of undergrad. I was hoping that by the start of my senior year, we would be pushing new and improved motors out the door. Due to many reasons, this didn’t happen. 2 weeks ago, I finish my Bachelors in Computer Science, and I’m not in a place where the hummie motor project can support me financially in any way (it’s actually the exact opposite).

With all of my colleges and classmates finding jobs starting at 120k+, I have to make a decision about where my time is best spent. I have decided that the best choice is to study AI and Machine Learning algorithms, build a few personal projects with autonomous driving algorithms, and aim for a job developing self driving car algorithms and technology. I have an interview lined up with UBer next week, and with most of the self driving car companies around here (either in SF or the Bay Area), and the great experience I’ve had in this community build personal electric vehicles, and some research, I believe I can be a strong candidate to work on a self driving project.

Thank you everyone who has supported me, taught me, and helped me get to where I am today. I would be where I am today without this forum and community,

Anyone who has a pending order, your order will be shipped tomorrow morning. I will be closing down my shop in the coming days. This industry is a lot tougher than it looks like to make any profit. Appreciate the hard work everyone puts into products. In my case, everything just lead to lost time, lost money, with the only gain being knowledge (which is hard to put a price on).

I will be back one day in the future to build again, but for the time being, I need to focus on my career. Hummie will continue on building great hub motors. I have faith in him to get them together and shipped, though I have no idea when.

Thank you everyone again and best of luck in your new builds!

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Best of luck to you mate!

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Thanks for ur services so far. I’m also gettin into different path, film production by next month. So I feel ya, esk8 is still developing and has lots of hurdle to overcome. I thought about doing business here in toronto but there are little to no margin for me so I did not go that path.

I wish u a good luck!

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A junior position that pays 120k? I need to move to America lol.

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Don’t be a stranger, come back and get into argument, etc.:slight_smile:

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silicon valley is a silly place full of funny money.

but good on you if u can catch that wave.

also that salary will barely get you a normal standard of living in the bay area.

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Good luck man. If you’ve ever got any more bits to sell. Give me a shout!

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All i need is a hippiebus and an electric outlet so I can charge my boards :smiley: :wink:

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Damn! So sad to read these words.

People seem to be abandoning the hobby.

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I actually figured out that I’m living on 35k a year right now. And my quality of life is not bad. The problem is people in SF in my field usually spend 4K+ per month on housing and have kids. I chose not to and I cook most of my food, so I can live pretty cheaply, even buying organic food. i even spend $100+ on a dinner at least once a week. Having kids in SF is what breaks bank accounts. That and having a stay at home spouse. I look forward to having some extra spending money though. I will be back in eskate one day. It is the ultimate combination of skateboarding with practical long range transportation.

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It’s a tough hobby to be in. Things break a lot and it’s all trial and error. Just because one part works on build (a) doesn’t mean another copy of that same part won’t fail on build (b).

I recently had this happen also. Around 3k gone like that. Derek had the life in eskate. No kids, ton of money, he could buy any part he wanted. All vendors know the other Derek’s in this community and thank you to all the people here who support the eskate industry. It’s a hard environment and a few people can really make the difference between success and failure.

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How did that happen?

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The 9th p in the 12s4p must have shorted. I had an experimental mehod of assembling the battery that would allow for higher amp discharge then possible with tradition spot welding with nickel strips, I made 2 mistakes. While the copper string one the + side had the cell insulation and a layer of quality electrical tape between it, I didn’t consider how vibrations could eat through this and the balance wires also had a place where they could have made contact with the 9th p if it cut through the silicon wire (it was good quality silicon wire). One of those two cases had to occurred and 1 cell lead to the next cell and to the next cell. A chain thermal runaway. Lucky, I had time to stop and jump off before the flames started. About 6 seconds of venting (I heard a loud hissing sound) and I jumped off and flames went crazy. Had to have the fire department put it out cause it burned for over 30 minutes.

Moral of the story, be careful with batteries. I’ve built many boards for over 3 years now with no battery fires, but if you are not careful with an in proven assembly method, you need to be super careful and expect this kind of thing to happen so it’s not a surprise if it does

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Good luck in your future endeavors. Go change the world. But then come back. And let’s skateboard. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Can this be the site motto?

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This industry is a lot of fun to be a part of. Seeing the reactions and excitement the community over new developments is a priceless feeling. It’s also a tough time to compete if you don’t have a foot in the market and a lot of investment money. This is why so few vendors actually create anything themselves, and when they do, usually 1 or 2 things at best. Most go to the china market, find cheap suppliers of parts and resell State side or in Europe at much higher prices, for doing nothing but receiving and pushing back out the door.

In SF lately, we’ve seen an explosion of electric scooter sharing companies, like Lime or Bird. I believe the same can happen in the eskate world also and will happen. It’s a great time to be in eskate, but you also need to be in it with the right people. Because it’s hard to innovate a new product on your own.

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the 4wd life is a tough one I made two mistakes too and now we both don’t have 4wd :rofl:. It was a pleasure never got race u but one day

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120k!!! The’re lying to you :slight_smile:

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wait a second, you make 35k a year and live in San Fran and also involved in this hobby? How the F? Dude I have to live in Sac just to survive and I make a lot more than that, granted I have a kid too, but we are dual income…I would love love to live in the city, hell, or anywhere in the bay area, like my home town in Pleasanton where I can only dream of one day buying a house. the place is stupid expensive and anyone living in San Fran has made grave sacrifice to live there…or they are made of money…I know the opportunity is greater, but damn dude, make some money yo, come back to us…

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Unfortunately not as good as it sounds. In the bay area this barely pays the rent. Around here, with this salary you better be single with no kids…