Longboardian supports skating, but I think a lot of folks would agree that the electric vehicle wave as of late has been kinda cool and kinda lame.
Skating is dangerous.
A lot of us joke that skating often becomes suprise parkour.
Bleeding a bit is just part of the Art.
These electric devices have a tendency to attract people who aren’t experienced with the fundamentals of skating since the computer can do some of the work of balancing.
Namely falling and knowing how little speed is necessary to ruin your day.
I’ve seen more than a few folks get taken off the boardwalk with a neck brace because the rider didn’t know that sand may change the riding experience.
I’m not suprised to find that these things are killing people, you can see the fear in the shoulders of even experienced riders.
I think more generally any device that comes down to a single point is just inherently not stable.
Hoverboards, One Wheels, e-boards and the ones that hink me out the most, those electric unicycles like the eWheel.
So much of skating is Proprioception, that feedback you get from touching a thing like ‘road feel’ in a car.
These devices lull their newbies into trusting a computer and keeps them from learning that type of feedback.
I’m not suprised it’s getting folks into trouble.
I bet these devices will get better, like specifically I’ve heard some folks say that One Wheel doesn’t have a high capacity capacitor to give extra torque when needed.
I just can’t help but feel they ruin the vibe (especially their shitty headlights at the boardwalk at night), so I’m just going to shake my fist and politely yell that they get off my lawn.
Read the recommendation from the CPSC here.
Stay safe y’all!