Snowboard for the street

[Andrew]

I always looked with envy at the skateboard/longboards which were modified to ride like snowboards. I love snowboarding and wanted to do it year round.

But the problem was that, at least in my town, there were no groomed and graded (green/blue/red/black/whatever) asphalt or concrete runs and no ski lifts. Instead there are flat roads with CARS on them?! If my favorite ski resort was:

1. Mostly flat
2. No ski lift
3. Had cars driving all over it

then I would like snowboarding a heck of a lot less.

Snowboarding is more than just the board and feel of the ride, it is a ton of infrastructure.

I looked at every electric powered board that came out (to solve the flat/no lift problems) and I bought none of them. Then I saw OneWheel on Kickstarter and decided that these were the people who had gotten it right.

OneWheel captures the essence/feel of snowboarding about as well as it can be done allowing you to realistically tackle the terrain you are likely to find. It is all about that one big wheel. Brilliant.

[forzabucks]

For me it's like snowboarding....in Miami....without the lift lines...or the cold.

[eish]

@forzabucks what are lift lines like in the us - in the french alps we get pushing with an ounce of ketteling, in Scotland the most british of queues, I mean when it gets too long (single file no pushing) the queue breaks and starts an adjacent queue b, and then queue c and so on, when a gets to the start level of B, all subsequent queues move over one queue segment!

[BradK]

You can ask my friends and family and they would say, "He is always riding that thing around"! Because I snowboard in the Winter and the season only last all but 2 and a half months at the local resorts around where I live.The Onewheel makes it so when I get the urge to want to hop on my snowboard, I can just rather hop on my Onewheel and go. It gives you that feeling of carving very similar to snowboarding and I love it because, it works my calves out all year around so that first day I do jump back on my board this Winter season I won't be sore the next 3 days afterwards. The Onewheel to me is my 4th snowboard that I can ride all season long whenever and where ever!

[BradK]

@eish Depends what Resort you are at but my local resort can have lift lines that take 15-30 minutes to get through on weekends because it is the only local resort closes to a bunch of big cities that are all but 1 hour and 30 minutes away. Week days are awesome though because not a lot of people are up. Our local resort also has lights so it is open at 8:30 AM to 10:00 PM.

[Franky]

the kickstarter has the title "self balancing electric skateboard".
Obviously fm has dropped this comparison but the wording stuck with me as I first started answering questions about what I was riding. But each time I'd say it, it made less and less sense so now I've been saying self balancing board that works like a Segway but rides like a snowboard.

Onewheel cannot be compared to an electric skateboard. It's way better than anything of its size.

[DocBlock]

@Franky, excellently stated. I plan on rolling first thing in the a.m. and will use your description at my first inquisition. I'm tired of 'electric skateboard that is self balancing' which is my default answer. It seems to leave them even more dumbfounded.

[dicorci]

let's just be honest; snowboarding sucks

i love snowboarding but you really just can't ignore how inefficient it is

you're cold, setup is expensive, you spent massive time to get there, you spend more than half your "riding time" riding the fucking lift, it's cold, you rent a hotel room, you pay to get to the mountain, it's so fucking cold that you have to buy special clothes, it's super dangerous (i never ride my onewheel with a helmet, i would never snowboard without one) you basically get like 30 rideable days a year if you went every weekend for both days for 5 months...

and on top of all of that it's so goddamn cold

RIP snowboarding; long live technology

[Franky]

HAha, no snowboarding definitely does not suck and there are many advantages over any other board sport besides the cons. I'll grant that the cons you speak of are real but it's also a ton of fun. Here in WI our options are limited but I love going out west even as costly as it is.

My onewheel in two months has gotten more use than my snowboard in eight years which says something. But mt wife and kids love the slopes and I love spending time with them while on my snowboard every year any chance I get.

[Andrew]

@dicorci said:

i love snowboarding but you really just can't ignore how inefficient it is

No argument there, it is inefficient. All your points about snowboarding are valid. But I still plan to go this season, maybe I'm just stupid?!

I'm wondering whether OneWheel will improve my boarding.

[Franky]

We now have electric surfboards and onewheel. My kids love to sled in the winter but walking up the hills are a pain. When will we get the electric sled or electric snowboard? I did a search recently and found video for electric jet engines used to propel a snowboarder. I'm sure there must be something better that can be done.

[eish]

@BradK said:

You can ask my friends and family and they would say, "He is always riding that thing around"! Because I snowboard in the Winter and the season only last all but 2 and a half months at the local resorts around where I live.The Onewheel makes it so when I get the urge to want to hop on my snowboard, I can just rather hop on my Onewheel and go. It gives you that feeling of carving very similar to snowboarding and I love it because, it works my calves out all year around so that first day I do jump back on my board this Winter season I won't be sore the next 3 days afterwards. The Onewheel to me is my 4th snowboard that I can ride all season long whenever and where ever!

do you find that you are missing bindings? I snowboard, hate skateboarding, but like mountainboarding - the lack of bindings throws me (or it could be wheel size) I think

[eish]

@dicorci snow is amazing - a cold holiday is so much better than a hot one, if your cold just add another layer, if your too hot theres not much you can do once you get down to and acceptable amount of skin :p

also falling into fresh powder is quite nice and soft, I have had some spectacular wipeouts and have no broken bones - but I fall off a mountain board once and bang broken arm . . .

Skiing is evil - so many splits and ankle injuries, not to mention one leg either side of a tree, but snowboarding your legs stay together and the board helps keep you together.

Re danger one of the worst broken arms I have ever seen was the kid opposite me when I broke my arm, he tripped up a curb taking a video back to blockbusters - both lower bones broken, one twice and clean snap on the upper one.

[Andrew]

@eish said:

do you find that you are missing bindings?

Question not directed at me, I know. I think the angles involved in snowboarding are much greater. I'm far more willing to crank my snowboard right over. I ride the OneWheel much more mildly, don't need the highbacks to push it over. I snowboard with the expectation of taking risks and usually crashing a couple of times a day, but I roll on my OneWheel with the expectation of zero incidents.

This is not me and I don't crank it over this hard, but it illustrates my point (albeit rather extreme example).

[forzabucks]

This is not me and I don't crank it over this hard, but it illustrates my point (albeit rather extreme example).

This is exactly how I Onewheel.

[Andrew]

@forzabucks said:

This is exactly how I Onewheel.

I don't even snowboard like that. But I'm willing to give it a shot this season!

I'd never take this kind of risk on a OneWheel.

[forzabucks]

@Andrew I was kidding. Please don't try that on your OW or snowboard. You will probably lose all your teeth.

[BradK]

@eish I have thought if there where bindings on the board how much more of a carve I could get without my foot coming off the sensor. Then again though if your foot don't come off the sensor, the board is going to keep going lol.

[eish]

@Andrew that looks more like the start of a wipeout than a carve, but still fun :p

[eish]

@Andrew more this kind of bindings - not strap in bindings, more stop your toes lifting too much bindings - like on a mountain board, it would give you control on a jump (i know skate boarders can olly (I'm sure there is super glue involved) and a bit more control on carving/turning perhaps

I mean this is all academic speculation iv got a 4-6week -2 day wait until I can have a go one one! - also they might stop grip tape moving about so much as feet are not moving about so much! also how is there such a problem with the grip tape - my mountain boards grip tape is fine after years of abuse

[eish]

@BradK said:

@eish I have thought if there where bindings on the board how much more of a carve I could get without my foot coming off the sensor. Then again though if your foot don't come off the sensor, the board is going to keep going lol.

not following - surely you want your foot to stay on the sensor throughout the carve

[SkateFirst.SamT]

let us know how it goes! ive been thinking about putting bindings on mine aswell

[eish]

@SkateFirst.SamT having not got it yet - how would screws interact with the electronics in one of them? Doesn't one foot pad had pressure sensors in it? I suppose it could be done windsurfing style and just have the back leg bound

[eish]

also what about these style bindings? http://store.freebord.com/s2-bindings/ they look cool!

[kbern]

@eish said:

http://store.freebord.com/s2-bindings/

I really don't think that having foot clamps/hooks of any sort is a good idea. If the board stops via nose-dive, instead of flying off and possibly being able to run it out or possibly flying but not getting too beat up, instead all of your forward motion will get converted into downward motion and your body (and head) will smash straight into the ground like a faceplant (picture a the water-drinking bird toy drinking from the glass at super high speed... ONCE: http://smile.amazon.com/Drinking-Bird-4975-The-Famous/dp/B000JSGLBK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440053945&sr=8-1&keywords=bird+glass+drink+tip).

[veryous]

There's no way in f'ing hell I'd lock myself into this board, ever. I know Sam has looked at those half bindings that are on those downhill/drifty board things, but he's a pro skater, I'm not. @eish if you want to die or severely injure yourself, mount those on your board.

[eish]

@veryous said:

if you want to die

I love the drama - I only seem to like board sports where I am locked into the board, but hopefully the motor will make all the difference and I wont feel the need to bind in

@veryous is the Sam you mention @SkateFirst.SamT ?

I did try my old snowboard bindings on my dirt surfer with my kite - now there was a mistake . . .

[veryous]

It is one in the same. He's way crazier and a better skateboarder than I ever was. =)

[SkateFirst.SamT]

ahahah thanks guys, im a bit crazy I guess but ill never shoot down a new idea for this board. because it is so new I believe we should expeiriment with it as much as possible to see what works and what doesn't.. Im 70% confident that you could bail from the freeboard bindings fairly easily in an emergency, especially once we get badass fenders to keep our feet from hitting the wheel when bailing. I plan on buying a spare set of foot pads in case the bindings dont work so I can try them and easily revert back to free stance if I hurt myself. and though Im not technically a pro skater I do run a skate company ((SkateFirst) www.skatefirst.com) and would be happy to distribute free stickers to the OW fam!

[SkateFirst.SamT]

re: why my peers call me crazy

[veryous]

@SkateFirst.SamT I'll give you that you maybe freeboard bindings will work, but never full bindings where you can't escape an impending face plant.

Modesty from the guy that probably can ollie impossible switch with a late flip. :smiley: (late flips, holy crap just saw these)

[Polle]

@veryous wow, didn't even know latd flips existed! Just looked it up on YouTube, too crazy!

[veryous]

@Polle God, me either until I started looking again last night then came across that. I landed that trick once in my life. Should've quit that day. haha

[Andrew]

My worry now is that I am learning some awful awful habits on the OW which will kill me on a snowboard. Probably spent more time on OW than I ever have on a snowboard at this point.

I can see myself instinctively leaning back on the snowboard to "brake" and we all know how that will go. Probably crash into the lift line on the bunny slope on my first run.