zboard

Like all great innovation, the ZBoard was created to cater to a genuine and specific need – in this case, the need for a faster, easier, and more portable way to get around Los Angeles. The designers of the ZBoard were students at the University of Southern California, who grew weary of having bikes stolen, and pushing their skateboards up the notorious hills of LA. The creators, unable to get the project off the ground without sufficient funding, setup a Kickstarter in March of 2012, which quickly raised $US278,767, far more than their initial goal of $US10,000. Their creation is the latest in electric skateboard technology; rather than using a remote control, the ZBoard has front and rear foot pads, which use sensors to evaluate the pressure applied and hence dictate the speed of the boards electric motor. This design allows the user to simply lean forward to go forward, and lean back to stop, and this system creates a feeling of independence, and authenticity, that other electric skateboards don’t provide. The board can travel up to 30km on one charge of 5 – 7 hours, and reaches speeds of close to 30km/h.