I got into this addictive mess when I saw the Zboard demos on Youtube. WOW, I thought…Those look cool. So I did what I always do when I find something I like. I eye-guzzle every shred of information I can get my paws on until I find what I consider to be the ultimate. I’m a classic “purchase justifier”, so everything has to have a good reason for being selected. The more I looked into the different offerings, the more I kept wanting more. Then I found the Enertion website. BOOM!! Mind blown…I kept looking and found DIY…Sweet, a stateside vendor!!..Decided to start ordering some parts and get my build on. Collecting hobbies is sort of my forte. I can tell this addiction is going to be one hell of a ride!! No pun intended…
also, i would like to point out that this is definitely a part of my midlife crisis. My boards are basically my dumb blondes and corvettes. That keeps my wife happy… -er. She’s still worried about me killing myself on these things, but like i always say… if you gotta go… go doing something you love, and i’m not going to feel or look this good forever, so NOW is the time to ride fast.
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I’d spent the last 10 years of my life absorbed in bike racing and then got some mysterious injury and not only missed the thrill of speed but no longer could even ride to commute.
Weird how the info sneaks up on you but as soon as the possibility was found on the web I was all in
Now I add to the commute for fun and still get the thrill of racing the bikers. It’s not a fair race anymore. I fly by and turn around to see them all out of the saddle chasing. Awesome.
The only games I’ll play are chess, a lot, or asteroids or pacman.
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I saw a gas powered Goped at a county fair when I was around 10 (currently 33) and always wanted to build one with bigger wheels that I can take off road. Early 90’s is when I started skating and only had the money for cheap popsicle boards but always wanted a longboard and some bigger wheels. In 2003 a friend found a Tom Shanahan Powerboard at a garage sale and we made some deal, I think I traded a vintage sony turntable, so I ended up with that. 15mph, six wheels, four of which I still have, 115mm, and more fun than I had ever had on a board! The rear axle melted on it and it didn’t last more than 60 miles. I kept it for about a year but didn’t have the resources to fix it. I actually quit skating in 2008ish because I realized everyone I knew with a board was either a junkie, a child, or had children, no body was in it for cruising and having fun, it was all just flips and grinds in a single place and talking about how much they hate EVERYTHING (because skating is what you do when you can’t afford drugs). In 2010 I took a “vacation” (nervous breakdown) to Albuquerque and Roswell NM (from Ohio) and discovered that longboards aren’t just some novelty thing to own, so after some much needed sunlight and downhill therapy, I went back to Ohio and started buying longboards. “Hey, look at that retard with the big-ass deck! Do a kick flip, retard!” There is no place for me in Ohio, so now I’m in Vegas, and after two years of research and blowing up ESCs I have a board that makes me happy. I can remember the exact moment I saw the Alien Drive motor mount in 2014, my entire life did this epic carve to get back on the path I didn’t realize I had chosen 23 years ago. Most are into e-skate just for entertainment/hobby, this is a lifestyle for me, this is almost a religion.
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I spent most of my 20’s directing music videos for every rapper around at the time. I also shot some commercials, was nominated for some MTV/BET awards and was in a Sprite commercial once. I eventually got jaded by the entertainment industry and of being pigeon holed as a music video director so I started my blog RunPlayBack as a way to share my DIY video experience with others and to create a conversation for anyone who shares a passion for storytelling and filmmaking. As a native New Yorker, the creative scene got pushed to the side by the finance bro’s and that eventually led to an opportunity to work with a tech startup in Ann Arbor, MI. With a much greater quality of life and plenty of space to ride, I got into eboarding to sharpen my DIY skills and to also have a way to create video content that doesn’t involve storyboarding a treatment or waiting to get approvals. I think eboarding to me is about capturing the emotions of riding more than anything.
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Also esk8s make killer camera dollies. With a solid gimble or even just a steady hand you can capture some killer action footage of other people on bikes, skates, and boards.
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yeah exactly…it’s the infinite track dolly 
I was visiting my now ex in Australia. She said they had to walk everywhere because they didn’t have a car. I replied with walking is for chumps and decided to skate. But she told me there were a lot of hills and that would suck to go up. So I said. " don’t worry. I’ll just put a motor on it." Then I googled how to do it. The rest is history.
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