It's 12:30 PM on a beautiful day in the San Francisco Bay Area. Perfect to be outdoors enjoying the sunshine, and nice sunny breeze. I had just finished having a teleconference meeting down the street from Google HQ, and was on my way to Boosted Boards HQ.

Working at Starbucks across from Google Campus, computer history museum. - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

Yesterday I had reached out to them via their website link and asked for an in-person demo since I was in town.

It was just a short trip over from the Starbucks I was working at. I walked in to their head quarters, met with an empty lobby. No person in sight; not even ‘the bell’ to ring which a sign to the right indicated. A few moments go by, and I waved someone down who was walking past the hallway. He motioned me to come on in.

I followed him towards the back, walking past a bunch of skate boards. I immediately recognized them from the bright orange wheels - the unofficial color of boosted boards. All seem well used, and tested no doubt. What struck me was they pretty much looked like any other mid to high end long board with just a hint of some mods done to it.

Through the short hallway I went into an open warehouse space filled with personal electric vehicles of all sorts and types. I went straight up to the first person sitting closest to me whom I recognized from some video interviews as Matthew Tran (co-founder of Boosted Boards). I greeted him with a firm handshake, briefly introduced myself, and asked if I could try out one of the boards.

I suppose he was taken by surprise since I had been communicating with Christina yesterday about dropping by for a test, but he recognized me from a post on Facebook about some tickets they had for tonight’s California Academy of Sciences event.

Short on time because my earlier go-to-meeting event had run longer than anticipated, and I had to pick my GF up later that afternoon— I got to the point and asked to test ride one of the boards.

Matthew walked me to the demo boards I saw earlier, picked one up with a controller, and a skate helmet, and we walked out onto the driveway. He set the board down, helped me to adjust my helmet a bit and gave me about 2 minutes of instruction. I mentioned that I skateboarded a long time ago, but that I also snowboard from time-to-time so he showed me the simple to use grip controller and let me get on-board and get going.

@boostedboards HQ trying out their production electric long board for my first time. #theta360 - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

He had me setup on beginner mode for safety reasons, which effectively toned down the power, torque, top-speed - you know, most of the fun things people think about trying, but don’t realize just how dangerous that power could be if used recklessly… and I proceeded to slowly roll the trigger controller throttle to a comfortable fast-walk pace and started rolling down the driveway.

The sound that came from the board reminded me of the Xootr ex3 I used to own and love. A thoroughly electric motor sound that was smooth, mid-high pitch, but definitely present. You definitely won’t be speeding along with the throttle on and pass for a regular skateboard. You can however just kick the board and stealth on by. I was relieved to find out that there was very, very minimal drag when kicking the board with no motor. I suppose one could conceivably kick and turn on brake regen to charge up the battery a little bit - but my own experience from EV use is that any range boost from doing this is very minimal—maybe a few percentage points, unless going down-hill.

I’ll admit it was a little wobbly for me since it had been a while for me on a long board. I quickly got up to the maximum speed in beginner mode though - zipping up and down the driveway and parking lot.

What seemed like 5 minutes later, Matthew had finished up his quick lunch and offered me a chance to try the advanced mode. I happily obliged. During the remote setup, he cautioned me to roll the throttle slowly going forward as well as reverse.

Moments later, I jumped on and did as he advised. And wow, what a difference the advanced mode felt. The smooth power delivery felt like the difference between a 110 hp sedan and a 200 hp sedan in responsive torque and top speed. If I had any doubts about the acceleration and top-speed limit (electronically controlled), they were quickly gone- as was the asphalt I left behind me and Matthew.

If I had to guess, it probably took me (weighing in at about 160 lbs), from 0 to 20 in about 5 seconds at a fairly comfortable pace. I didn’t ‘floor’ it-so-to-speak. That’s pretty fast in my book. I don’t feel a need to accelerate any faster than that, but I’m pretty with the specifications on the 40V battery system, and dual drive motors, its capable of faster…

It should be mentioned that the skateboard is speed limited, with no end-user over-ride available. It’s simply too dangerous to allow it to run unleashed; and also in most states the speed limit is 20 mph for electric vehicles without a license.

I took several spins around the parking-lot ‘track’ going pretty close to full throttle for a few seconds at a time before the turns. I got faster and faster at it, and felt more and more comfortable making the turns. It was pretty exhilarating, but also scary at the same time knowing full well that if I hit a rock, or a pot-hole going that fast it’d be a quick and dirty slide to the pavement.

I asked Matthew about how the ride was on rougher pavement, and against some of the competition. He didn’t really have a good answer for me - and honestly, what does one expect? It’s a skateboard - a long board, just powered.

I also asked about the regulations for these here in California and what people have been experiencing. Naturally, Matthew kept it positive. Its clear, to me at least, that the regulations against skate boards are really about protecting skateboarders from themselves, legal liability, protecting against property loss etc. so if a cop wanted to stop you, they pretty much can throw anything from the book at you. Luckily, most buyers of a $2000 electric skateboard aren’t about to ruin it for everybody.

I wanted to ask him some more about the price but really its out of his domain, and there’s already an explanation about the price increase from the original Kickstarter $1299 and how it made it all the way to $1999. They do need to make money after all!

Definitely do take note of the warranty though. At 90 days only, I feel the company doesn’t stand behind their product enough. Personally, I feel it should be at least a minimum of 6 months on battery, 2 years on everything else (with the regular fine print) at the $2000 price point. And there’s definitely room for waterproofing it in some epoxy. BTW, I ruined my Xootr ex3 one day by accidentally running over a puddle of water :(.

I asked about getting more chances to try one for a longer period of time to see if the range and style was right for me, and other prospective buyers.

The answer:

There is a 30 day guarantee on the product + restocking fee. Seems they haven’t had to charge a re-stocking fee yet for early adopters.

And they have a ‘demo’ program in the works where one could pay perhaps $50 a week to ‘try’ the board out to see if they like it. I'd check out their blog for more details and updates on this though.

And finally, they have events and test rides available such as the one happening next week in Santa Monica.

I didn’t have any more time for questions because I had to run. Perhaps next month I will have more for you if I get another chance at riding the board some more…

When I returned the board I had a sense of excitement for the future and where things are going for personal transportation. Yes, the price of admission is high for their Boosted Board, but the quality and craftsmanship have certainly hit the mark.