For me it was three kids riding around the neighborhoods near my house. One had a meepo, one had a boosted, and another had one of the other hub motor boards. I was riding my OG DH board set up for mild carving… Sweating my butt off pushing a mile and a half from my residence. I thought to myself… as an adult, these kids are flying around effortlessly and here I am holding onto pushing. I knew I needed motors, and I knew I needed to be able to tune things to my liking. Google let me to the VESC and researching the VESC led me here and to the Electric Skateboarding discord channel.
That’s how I got here, I’m curious… How did you all end up here?
I Wanted something fun to commute on, thought i would build one to save some money. Reasearch led me fast to this forum since it has answers to most questions. Then also ending up spending alot more beacuse i loved building
Ugh… ashamed, shall i really tell you?
All the way Casey Neistat. I did street skateboarding, but did not pursue it for years. Watching Casey riding the boosted stroke me. A bit of research led me to Enertion and then on to here. In the beginning i read the reddit content too but got bored of the bad vibe over there.
Fast forward, now i am a fuck.ng addict, man I really did not anticipated how much fun and how awesome this community is!!
really clichè this is, but got into casey neistat, saw him riding boosteds, and then saw a video titled like “make your own electric skateboard” and i was like hell yes it can’t be too expensive. So i impulse bought a long board, and researched the prices and was like hell nah. So the board sat in my closet for about 2 or 3 years. Then, i had a major work i needed to make for electronics at school. So i saw this as a prime opportunity to build an esk8. (my parents also contributed to the cost which was awesome). Now, i have this, and way too much read time on this forum
It started with watching the Casey Neistat videos on YouTube. I showed my 14 year old the videos because he was into skateboarding and interested in mechanical engineering. Then we stumbled across this forum when researching how to build one. My son did all the research, put together the budget numbers, secured funding from the CFO (aka mom), and I helped him build it. When he left for summer camp I decided to ride it. I hadn’t been on a board in 25+ years, but it came back to me fairly quickly. I put 20-30 miles on it the week he was gone and knew I had to build one for myself. Now it’s just over a year later and we have 4 DIY builds in the family (3 longboards and a Trampa mountainboard).
I typically ride a push board or a bicycle to and from work during the summer and I started working a lot of overtime and my wife surprise me with a Riptide R1. My knee started giving out a few years ago and I couldn’t really do street/park sk8ing anymore. And the town we moved to a few years ago lack’s Hills worth riding.
So I instantly fell in love with a new form of being on a board. But after about a week of killing my battery way too quickly, not going as fast as I wanted to and hating the power sag I found this place.
I had watched Casey Neistat riding the Boosted board and thought “that looks cool! I want to get one of those!”. I went to the internet, searched “boosted board” and my dreams got crushes. “$1300 AND YOU CAN ONLY GO 7 MILES DAFUQ!”.
I started looking for electric skateboards on kickstarter and indiegogo cause they were cheaper. I found the Huger Tech campaign and saw their small classic board and bought it for $450. A week later I realized I needed more range so I got my classic board refunded and bought the bigger travel board for $650 with 22 mile range. Weeks go by and the delivery date gets moved further and further away from the original. 3 months after I bought the board and hadn’t received it I was sure I had got scammed. I had asked for a refund but never got it. But then I though “I wanna build my own electric skateboard”.
I started reading and it became an addiction. 3 months later and a lot of reading I got a package. Guess what. It was the board I bought 6 months ago! I opened the box and took the board for a ride. I loved that feeling of not having to push and go 20mph but the board was shitty, stiff and hard to turn. IT WAS AT THIS MOMENT I KNEW I HAD TO BUILD AN ELECTRIC SKATEBOARD. So that’s what I did.
I started ordering parts, reading and reading. I knew I had to sell my Huger Tech board cause I wouldn’t need it when I had my new board finished. So I put it up on a local site and meet 3 different people luckily the 3rd person bought it (which saved my ass. I had no money to pay import taxes).
Fast forward the time to now, I have all parts, tools and skill to build an electric skateboard just need to put it together.
Casey over here as well. But then he started to smash everything he has, not caring about any equipment or boards. So then I stopped watching him. 10 broken cameras? C’mon…
Anywho, discovered that boosted are 1500$ and gave up on the idea. 4 month later discovered that people were building DIY so 6 month after that, made my own
I have been an electric rider for over 10 years (not sure how many)
First ebikes, then scooters and then esk8.
Actually my first attempt for an esk8 was 10 years ago but it was really difficult and undeveloped those days… Nowadays it’s plenty of pieces for sale at many stores. Li ion
got cheaper and better, we got vescs and there’s no need to weld the motor mounts anymore.
Saw a Kickstarter advert for the M1 three years ago and thought “one day I’ll have that”. Even thought at the time 10km range sounded impressive. Put the idea to bed for two years thinking I’d wait for the tech to mature, but around Xmas this year I found this forum. Too much to take in all in one go, so lurked around for a bit. Finally took the plunge in Feb, buying a kit from Street Wing. With their guidance and support I ended up with a rather special eboard, and now I’m planning at least two more projects - one cheap, one expensive. Love building things, and love skating again now I’m too old for vert !
Skateboarding all my life. I have taken a few 5 year breaks always seem to come back when new stuff comes out . I have always dreamed of e-boards being possible, now they are finally here. Leaned how to make my own DYI board but it can be frustrating so I just buy them complete. I used to be on a site called NCDSA Northern California Down Hill Skateboard association. I have been riding since 1975. Got into longboards in 1996 yet I had a long Makaha in the 70s. I maybe one of the first people to introduce bamboo to boards maybe even carbon fiber I made them in the early 1990s and posted it on this site and mentioned combinations as well. I did this because maple was said to have the most pop and I knew other materials could be better. My name was the Kanoa Kid
All the way Casey Neistat. I did street skateboarding, but did not pursue it for years. Watching Casey riding the boosted stroke me. A bit of research led me to Enertion and then on to here. In the beginning i read the reddit content too but got bored of the bad vibe over there.
Fast forward, now i am a fuck.ng addict, man I really did not anticipated how much fun and how awesome this community is!!
