Photo: Ciaran McCrickard/PA
(Some) electric bicycles have made pedaling redundant, while e-scooters allow riders to go out and do their stuff without having to worry about needing to push themselves forward. Why shouldn’t the electric revolution come to skateboards, as well?
Charlotte Geary, a 13-year-old girl from Bournemouth, England, took it upon herself to answer that question: there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t happen. If anything, a motorized skateboard would have all the advantages of a regular skateboard and then some, and zero downsizes.
Charlotte is just one of the kids who took part in the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)’s Sports of the Future competition, whose stated goal was to try and make an existing sport even better, the BBC reports. They sent in their designs, which they had worked on during lockdown, and the winner got to see a prototype made after it. In this case, the winner was Charlotte, and the gallery above includes photos of her riding her very own Electrodeck.
The idea is not new, aside from the fact that it comes from a teenager. Putting a motor on a skateboard is far from a novel approach, an even variations on the theme have been done before with more or less success.
The Electrodeck is a regular skateboard fitted with a 400W hub motor and a battery, operated by Bluetooth remote control. The rider uses it to select speed and control the direction, similarly to what is being done in electric surfboards. The biggest pro of a motorized surfboard, according to Charlotte, is that, by not having to think or worry about having to touch the ground, riders would be able to focus more on doing tricks and having fun.
“The Sports of the Future competition seemed like a massive opportunity to put an invention I had been coming up with for a while into action,” she adds.
Charlotte hopes she will be able to see the Electrodeck in specialized stores one day. In the meantime, though, she got to ride on a prototype created as part of the big prize.
Charlotte is just one of the kids who took part in the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)’s Sports of the Future competition, whose stated goal was to try and make an existing sport even better, the BBC reports. They sent in their designs, which they had worked on during lockdown, and the winner got to see a prototype made after it. In this case, the winner was Charlotte, and the gallery above includes photos of her riding her very own Electrodeck.
The idea is not new, aside from the fact that it comes from a teenager. Putting a motor on a skateboard is far from a novel approach, an even variations on the theme have been done before with more or less success.
The Electrodeck is a regular skateboard fitted with a 400W hub motor and a battery, operated by Bluetooth remote control. The rider uses it to select speed and control the direction, similarly to what is being done in electric surfboards. The biggest pro of a motorized surfboard, according to Charlotte, is that, by not having to think or worry about having to touch the ground, riders would be able to focus more on doing tricks and having fun.
“The Sports of the Future competition seemed like a massive opportunity to put an invention I had been coming up with for a while into action,” she adds.
Charlotte hopes she will be able to see the Electrodeck in specialized stores one day. In the meantime, though, she got to ride on a prototype created as part of the big prize.
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