Michael: Hi, it's Michael Senoff with Michael Senoff's HardToFindSeminars.com. In this next series of audio interviews, you're going to see a demonstration of how I use audio interviews to sell a product. This client was a gentleman who's a manufacturer of a high end electric motorized skateboard. The first interview is with him about his company and reasons why someone should consider his skateboard over his competition. This collection of interviews is a time saver because it allows Dave to pre-qualify his prospects. Instead of spending time on the phone answering the same questions over and over again, all he has to do is send the prospect to these audio interviews where they can download them into their iPod or into their phone and play them on their time. By offering interviews in a downloadable format in transcript form, you are able to close more sales, you are able to qualify better, and you are able to grow your business without spending time on the phone. I hope this gives you a good example of how I use audio interviews to promote a product or service. Now let's get going.

Interviewee: To get adrenaline induced acceleration in speed, power, torque and range, you have to have battery capacity. There's no way around it. You can buy a smaller board with a less powerful motor with less battery capacity, but it won't have the acceleration, it won't have the torque, it won't have the top speed and it won't have the range. And all these different models that you see people offering these 100 watts, 200 watts, 300 watts, all that crap they're offering, nobody buys that stuff. If they do, they end up selling it for nothing because it's slow, it's gutless, it's unexciting, and an adult doesn't want to ride it. And there's nothing more boring than a slow electric skateboard. In the beginning, I thought this product would be for children. And I was looking at lower powered electric skateboards. And it didn't take long for me to realize that the people that are buying these boards are grown up and they love these. It just gives them something that they don't have to get on one of these boards and have an absolutely smooth, quiet ride anywhere you want. Just stand there and cruise. It's a fantastic feeling and it doesn't go away. I mean, our guys don't put these boards in closets. They ride all the time. The guys come home from work, they want to get out of the house from the wife and the kids, and they go out for a half hour, 45 minutes. I get guys whose boards don't work in a panic. They're almost like heroin addicts. They gotta get their board working. You don't understand. I need it. I don't know of anything that you can buy that will give you the enjoyment. And for a long time now.

Michael: Are you the founder of the company?

Interviewee: I am. It's my business.

Michael: And take me back to where this whole first idea generated four years ago.

Interviewee: I was in between looking for something to do. My 8 year old son wanted an electric skateboard for Christmas and there was really no such thing except for this 1300 X-skate.

Michael: How did your son find out about it?

Interviewee: He didn't know there was anything. He's very into that. Electric cars, electric scooters. He wanted an electric skateboard and it seemed like a very simple thing. And there's really nothing out there. I'm not a skateboarder. I'm 54 years old. I've ridden probably over 2,000 miles on these boards. These are more of an electric vehicle. They're bigger than a skateboard. They have much bigger tires than a regular skateboard. They're much more stable than a regular skateboard. And it doesn't take much to be able to ride one of these. They're user friendly. They are not hard to ride. You don't have to push. So therefore both feet are on the board full time. Your feet never leave the deck. And it's a completely different thing. It's more of an electric vehicle than a skateboard. Truly it is.

Michael: Talk to me about the board I saw on your website. You've got very well known Madrid.

Interviewee: Our decks now come from Sector nine and Watson Laminate.

Michael: And who is Sector nine within the skateboarding industry?

Interviewee: By far the biggest skateboard manufacturer in the world. They are bigger than everybody else put together. But we also have our own boards made by Watson Laminates who is the biggest mix to sector 9 deck manufacturer in the country. And they produce boards for sector 9 as well as Arbor and just about everybody else.

Michael: So what's important about a deck?

Interviewee: The difference is it's a long board deck in that it's 40 inches or longer and a little bit wider than your average deck. And the reason for that is it's a more stable platform and you don't need to put your foot down and push. So you're on the deck all the time.

Michael: Okay, and tell me the concave where it flares up on either side. What's the benefit of having a concave?

Interviewee: When you carve, you have the lip that catches your foot instead of Pointing downward. If you have the concave coming up as you lean, it holds your foot in place and allows you to balance and stay on the board.

Michael: Alright. Now, do your boards have a curve like a kicktail?

Interviewee: Yeah, we have different types. Most of them have kicktails or pintails down, but everything but the pintail has a tiptail and blunt nose.

Michael: Is there an advantage to having a blunt nose?

Interviewee: It's just rider preference. A blunt nose gives you a wider platform for your front foot so you have more stability.

Michael: You're working with Goodyear for your actual wheels?

Interviewee: We are. Well, we have standard polyurethane wheels that come standard on the board. But then we have a optional wheel which is made by Goodyear for us. It's a hard rubber wheel instead of a polyurethane, which is a hard plastic wheel. And the Goodyear wheels are vibration absorbing and they're quiet. So basically you have no noise and you have no vibration. We sold 5,000 of these in the last year. Mostly wood of mount. Everybody wants these wheels, regular polyurethane wheels. They make a ton of noise as you go down the street and they vibrate. You feel everything. It's transferred right through the wheel, right through your feet. The good year being that it's a hard rubber, it's shock absorbing and it's absolutely quiet, absolutely smooth. It's like riding on glass. Just unbelievable. Goodyear tires are much more forgiving on rough and irregular surfaces. Because they are shock absorbing and forgiving. They just smooth out the ride considerably and make it much more enjoyable. You might have roads where you won't even ride your regular board because it's just too much vibration and noise. Where the Goodyears, you'll think nothing of it. By using the Goodyears, it gives you more options as far as riding surfaces and a much, much higher quality of ride.

Michael: So your philosophy, you absolutely want the best riding experience for your customers. You went out and source a better wheel than what was out there in the skateboard industry.

Interviewee: Absolutely.

Michael: Is this rubber softer than a street board?

Interviewee: Softness or hardness is measured in durometric rating and the durometer rating is about the same, except being that one is a hard plastic and one is a rubber, one is absorbing and one is not. So it's not so much hardness as it is material.

Michael: How long will these wheels last?

Interviewee: They'll last a long time, obviously, depending on how often you ride and the style of riding. You can rotate them also.

Michael: By rotating can you make them last longer?

Interviewee: You can. They will rotate the drive gear comes out and you can swap them around. A lot of guys do that. Everybody with other boards wants these wheels, but we only make them for ours.

Michael: Okay. Do they come in different colors?

Interviewee: No, just black.

Michael: And they're in one size.

Interviewee: One size.

Michael: Is it one of the largest wheels out?

Interviewee: We're using 4 inch wheels, and the 4 inch wheels is about the biggest non pneumatic wheel offered.

Michael: What is non pneumatic?

Interviewee: Non airfield.

Michael: And what's the advantage of having a 4 inch wheel compared to a 3 inch wheel?

Interviewee: When you go over rocks or cracks, it will go over easier instead of just stopping.

Michael: What is a truck?

Interviewee: Well, a skateboard truck is the bottom of the board, the part that the deck attaches to the top. And then it has an axle with the wheels attached to on the bottom, and it makes the board turn. Without a truck, your wheels or axles were solid to the bottom of the board. You could not turn it. The truck gives it the flexibility to to move sideways for carving and turning. The torsion tricks that we use give you high speed stability and they give you low speed carving flexibility. And they're also hard enough, whereas they prevent high speed wobble.

Michael: What is a wobble?

Interviewee: Some of the newer riders with really soft bushing may experience a high speed wobble where the boards gyrate a little from side to side. It happens with regular skateboards too, at high speeds. And these trucks and wheels are much larger than a regular skateboard. And they're designed to keep board stable at high speeds. The trick is to be able to get it to carve, but still maintain a soft enough flexibility for carving. And that's the key, and that's what we have.

Michael: These aren't standard skateboard trucks, are they?

Interviewee: No, they're bigger than standard skateboard trucks. They're a torsion truck.

Michael: Torsion. What does that mean?

Interviewee: Well, that means that the truck resistance is based on the durometric rigidity of the torsion bumper, which is a rubber unit in the truck that twists. Basically have pins from the top and pins from the bottom going into a rubber membrane. And the twisting creates torsional resistance where you get the tension on the truck, making it loose or making it stiff. So in other words, the higher the durometric value of the bushing, the stiffer the board will be. The lower the durometric value, the softer the board will feel.

Michael: If you're going down a hill on one of your boards, can it go into a coast mode?

Interviewee: No, you don't want that. And I'll tell you why. Power controllers work is as you release the trigger, the board will slow down and it will actually lock itself into an rpm. If you release the trigger, it feels like it's coasting. It's what we call a simulated coast. But the problem going down a hill, and this is the problem with the wireless boards, is when you hit those brakes, they go in as the electronics heat up, the board releases the brakes, and all of a sudden you're going down a hill and you find that your board is going in and out of brakes pretty bad. You really don't want to go down a hill braking. You want to go down a hill controlled with controlled power, which is what our board does. Our boards are way superior to anything else on the market as far as going down hills. It's a much, much safer device and it's just reliable.

Michael: What is regenerative braking?

Interviewee: Regenerative braking is when the electric motor turns into a generator when the brakes are applied and actually starts producing electricity which goes back into the batteries.

Michael: And what's the benefit of that?

Interviewee: Well, the benefit is the motor can be used to slow the board down so you don't need mechanical braking. And at the same time you providing a charge for the batteries when you do apply the brakes, it makes it for one trigger to enable to do everything. So you don't have to have a separate braking mechanism for mechanical braking. So one trigger controls forward motion and braking.

Michael: Where does actual braking occur? On the board.

Interviewee: The board has one drive wheel. The electric motor acts obviously as a motor to propel the board. But when you pull the trigger forward, the motor actually turns into a DC generator and slows the board down. It also charges the batteries.

Michael: Which wheel is the drive wheel?

Interviewee: It's the rear left.

Michael: Tell me the rider experience one could experience going down a hill with one of these controllers.

Interviewee: On a wireless.

Michael: Yeah, on a cheap wireless.

Interviewee: Another thing you got to realize, the wireless controller is Chinese and it's a complicated system. You have a gun, which is a transmitter, then you have a receiver PC board that receives the signal from the gun. And then you have all of that that's relayed to the main PC board, which is very complicated in Chinese. And when you combine that on a skateboard with no suspension and hard wheels, it's no wonder they don't last.

Michael: Give me some examples of what real life things can cause signal interference on a wireless board.

Interviewee: Power lines, electric doors, areas where there's intense radio frequencies.

Michael: I read somewhere that on the wireless board, your body somehow acts as the antenna. Is that true.

Interviewee: No, and the reason that you can dispute that fact is you can stand next to the board with the gun and pull the trigger. It will still work.

Michael: Let's talk about the motor. Underneath the actual deck you have attached. What do you call it?

Interviewee: A motor. A motor? Yeah, an electronic motor, 24 volt direct current motor. It's a 400 plus watt motor, but we've had it tested and it peaks out at 800 watts.

Michael: Is it possible that the imports can get motors rated favorably for them? Can that be deceiving for consumers who are interested in power boards?

Interviewee: Well, you know, anybody can say anything they want. Our motor has a peak wattage of 800 watts at peak power, but we advertise it as a 400 watt motor. People can take those numbers, they can use different values to say what their motors are. But we know for a fact that competition 600 watt motor is slower and does not have as much torque and is not nearly as durable as our motor. Smaller motor, smaller magnets, smaller wiring, slower on top speed, it's slower in acceleration and it doesn't have a torque.

Michael: So put that into human terms. Can one of your boards tote around a 250 pound guy?

Interviewee: OK, no problem. More than that, he might not be able to go up a steep hill, but he'll be able to fly on the flats. We got guys 300 plus pounds riding these. I mean people tow people with these.

Michael: What about those X gate boards?

Interviewee: Well, the X gate boards station, they're using what they call a 600 watt motor, but it's half the size of ours and I don't know how to get away with rating it at 600 watts. We have the motors here, we've tested them. X gate and all these other guys they're getting with the Chinese are offering them whatever they can buy cheap. And it's a really bad motor that doesn't last. Wires burn up, it doesn't have the power, it doesn't have the torque and it's just a very chintzy motor. It's got about a quarter of the magnets our motor has in it. Our motors are basically a car starter motor, Very, very heavy duty motor. And they last. Big magnets, heavy casings. And we've been using these same motors for four years because it's the best motor that we found.

Michael: So what is the actual weight on these boards?

Interviewee: It's two pounds. So that's battery weight. We use four motorcycle batteries wired in series and in parallel and we're getting 24 volts, 15 amps which gives us with our motor an unbelievable range. No board has ever had the range of our power board. We're getting 12 to 15 miles honest. 12 to 15 miles. Pretty incredible.

Michael: Now, are you offering the wireless remote and the wire remote?

Interviewee: We're not offering wireless because there's nothing out there that's any good. We keep getting stuff from China. We tested it. It's just pathetic.

Michael: So yours does have a wire coming out of the back?

Interviewee: Yeah, absolutely.

Michael: I mean, have you had any feedback where that creates a problem?

Interviewee: No, actually, you know, people think, oh my God, you know, how can you ride this with a cable? But once they try it and they realize that the cable just not even in the way, what it gives you in terms of precision throttle control, reliability and quietness. You see, the wireless boards all make a really, really loud humming noise and man drives people nuts. I mean, you can hear it coming a block away. Yeah, I can imagine. And the guys get our boards after they've experienced the wireless. You go, it doesn't make any noise. And especially with the Goodyears, absolutely quiet.

Michael: Why does it hum like that?

Interviewee: It's a frequency transmission of the electronics.

Michael: And because you had a direct cable. You don't have that?

Interviewee: We don't have it. The only noise our board makes per the motor.

Michael: Are these things street legal?

Interviewee: No, they're not street legal. What they've done is they've categorized gas powered skateboards and electric powered skateboards and they've grouped them together and they've called them motorized skateboards. But let me mention this to you. We've got thousands of them running around here. Police come up here all the time and buy them. And it's not an issue. I mean, if you ride around Santa Monica for an hour, you'll see at least one guy riding a E-glide around town. They're all over. Louis Finkel started EXAC 10 years ago and he was truly a revolutionary at the. And back then it was new. You know, movie stars bought the board, it was $1300. Now this was going back 10 years ago, but even then it was not reliable. There's a lot of problems with it. We get a lot of the old X gates through here and we convert them to our own system now. So XK8 was sold to a guy named Dave Kaplan and he went over to China and knocked himself off with the Chinese stuff. Brought in a bunch of it. It was absolute garbage. Ran the company into the ground, finally sold it to a new group of guys and they didn't do anything for about a Year and a half. And I guess they figured, well, there's nothing we really can do except get stuff out of China. So they brought their first container in for Christmas, and it's been a disaster. Everybody else comes and goes. You know, they get in this business and they realize it's just a nightmare. And I went a different route, man, I just keep going and making it better and better and better. And to give you an idea, you can buy a comparable Chinese board out of China for 150 bucks. My board for just the components I use cost me almost twice that. And that's not including my labor and just components. That's the difference.

Michael: Can you burn out the electronics by riding the board too hard?

Interviewee: Not our electronics, you cannot. I mean, for instance, if you were to go up a steep, steep hill, and it would be so steep that the board wouldn't move and you're trying to go up it. Our electronics have a thermal switch inside that will shut the controller down after it reaches a temperature of 110 degrees. And then it'll station out till it cools down, usually about a minute.

Michael: So I'm on a competitor's board, it'll burn out. And then what do you have to do?

Interviewee: Then you have to ship it back and get it fixed.

Michael: So if I order a board and a board comes to me, the first thing I need to do is charge it up.

Interviewee: No.

Michael: How would I know when the charge is going to be down? Does it progressively slow down or does it just all of a sudden?

Interviewee: No, you'll notice about 45 minutes into your rider, depending on how you ride it, all of a sudden you don't quite have the acceleration that you had. You still have top speed. You still have a couple miles or more to ride it.

Michael: Some of your competitors have low battery level indicators. Do you think that's overkill?

Interviewee: They don't work. And I'll tell you why. We tested the same battery level indicator that the competition boards use, and we found that they were not at all accurate. You use four 12 volt batteries. You cannot, with one battery gauge, accurately measure the whole thing. It doesn't work that way. Battery gauges are not reliable, especially the Chinese ones. Our boards have such a long range that you still have about three miles when you notice the power being reduced, you know, by the length of time you've been riding. It doesn't take long to get the feel of your board, and that feel is much more accurate than any meter.

Michael: I think anyone who's used batteries over the years has experienced that instructions say you got to wait till your battery's totally empty before you can charge it up again to preserve the life of the battery. Is that the case with your boards?

Interviewee: Just the opposite. That doesn't pertain to silver lead acid batteries. Silver lead acid batteries do not have a memory. Basically, four things to remember about the batteries. Don't run them down dead. Number one. Number two, after you ride, recharge them as soon as possible. Number three, if you don't ride the board for a couple of weeks, throw the charger on overnight. And above all, the batteries want to stay charged. And if you follow those rules, you should get at least a year out of your batteries.

Michael: Is there a certain number of charges I should be able to get out of these batteries before they need to be replaced?

Interviewee: We say 300, which is probably pretty accurate. But we use a really high quality battery. We use batteries from BB battery companies, renowned for being one of the highest quality sealed lead acid batteries available. And all of the top electric vehicle dealers carry usually only BB batteries because of the reputation and the quality. They're much more expensive than comparable batteries that don't have that recognizable quality name. But we found especially in our application that we need the best quality battery we can find. And if one battery goes bad, it will bring down the other three batteries. So you've got to start off with top notch batteries or one bad battery can ruin the whole pack.

Michael: Where do you see the future of battery technology?

Interviewee: We've been testing it. It's the lipo four batteries that's the future. This new style, it's called a lithium iron oxide battery, as opposed to the cobalt lithium batteries they've been using. This new technology is less expensive, safer, and has longer life.

Michael: Are these batteries all made in China?

Interviewee: They're made in Taiwan right now. All of them. None of them are made here. Not even the A123 battery system. Batteries that are being built for Chevy, even those cells are made in Taiwan. Don't mistake Taiwanese products for Chinese products. The Taiwan plants are now producing stuff in China because of the cheaper labor. But they're using Taiwanese management.

Michael: There's another competitor who's got a wider board. Aside from you getting a new battery and a lighter one, can you turn the weight into a positive rather than a negative?

Interviewee: Let me put it this way. To get adrenaline induced acceleration in speed, power, torque and range, you have to have battery capacity. There's no way around it. You can buy a smaller board with a less powerful motor with less battery capacity, but it won't have the acceleration, it won't have the torque, it won't have the top speed, and it won't have the range. And it's a very boring ride. There is no way to get all of that without battery capacity. And the boards are heavy at 52 pounds. And half of that weight is the battery. Unless you go to lithium, which is five times as expensive, you, cannot reduce the weight. We've experimented with nickel metal hydride batteries. They're less expensive than lithium, but they don't produce the amps on demand as the silver acid batteries do. They fall flat. They just don't work when you need the speed, the torque, and the power. We have two options. First option is, we have available a new battery with new battery chemistry. It's called a Lipo 4 battery. It's the safest and most durable lithium battery ever introduced. It's the same battery chemistry they'll be using on the new chevy bolt. It gives our boards a 27 mile range. The battery weight is reduced from 25 pounds to 12 pounds and the battery should last three years. We can provide you with this battery when you purchase your board, if you're so inclined. The other option that we have is we have a lighter weight board called the DC36. It's a shorter board at 36 inches. It only has two batteries, and instead of four, it still has the same power, acceleration and torque. It only gets half of the range, but there are people that don't need the longer range. They can combine with a 6, 7 mile range. And they're looking more for convenience, for subways, for buses, for lockers at schools, things like that, and they opt for that board. Those are two options for a lighter weight.

Michael: Talk about safety. A guy who's never ridden one of these and he's worried about going 0 to 20 in four seconds. And in his mind, he's like, man.

Interviewee: You don't have to do that. And you know what? I don't do that anymore. I'm 54 years old, man. I ride all the time. But you don't have to go balls out. You don't. You can have fun, hit the speed once in a while. But you know you're going to go down sooner or later on one of these. And you're going to go down on a regular skateboard sooner or later. You're going to go down on roller skates sooner or later. And that's just the reality of it. So I tell my customers, it's not a matter of if you're going to go down. It's a matter of when you're going to go down. And I always tell them the same thing. Looks you're going to be on this thing after an hour and you're going to think you've mastered it because it's very user friendly. You're going to be zipping around and all of a sudden you're going to be flying around at 20 miles an hour and loving it until you go down. And I tell you, you don't have to ride fast, realize the danger and anticipate it. So I cannot stress enough that especially if you're going to ride these at the higher speeds, you do need safety gear. You need a helmet, you need knee pads, you need elbow pads and you need wrists and long pants.

Michael: Tell me about the guarantee.

Interviewee: We have a 90 day warranty on our board. But if you are a customer and you have a problem with our board and it's something that shouldn't have happened, we'll take care of you. Even after 90 days, we want you happy. And that's the key to this, keeping our customers happy and letting them know that we back our product. And that's why they buy our boards. The electronics we warrantee for one year. And our electronics are bulletproof. They just are. There's nothing like them. So now we have a board with 90 days on the board and a year on the electronics, which used to be the weakest link and I was the strongest. It's really a matter of abuse. Truly it is. If you don't abuse your board, it's going to last and last and last and last and last. My board, I've been riding for three years. I have a classic, you know, I change controllers over as we've got better controllers. I changed the battery over, now I've got Goodyears on it. It's not a throwaway board by any means. You just change the parts and the parts keep getting better. And every part that we've ever improved will go on the very first board that we ever sold. We take our hardest customers and we turn them into our best customers. And that's almost a personal challenge. I take a guy that's having a problem with the board, he's just so frustrated. And by the time I get through with that guy, he is just so happy and so happy with the way we take care of him that he tells his friends about us and that's what propels our growth. You know, the fact that we offer a one year warranty on electronics that tells you something right there. The fact that we build the boards in the US and we're the only people that do that. Look at our product, compare it, write it, test it. I tell people that if they want to know about the wireless, I say, you know what? My best advice to you is to ride one of our competitors boards first and then ride one of ours. That's the best comparison I can give you. One ride is worth a million words. And they can't stand up to us, the competition. When you call up those guys, they say, oh, they have a cable. Cable gets in the way. That's all they can say. It's not true anyhow. But that's all they can say. We're wireless. We're the original wireless and this and that and this and that. We've got patents on this and that and that. Yeah, well, it doesn't mean anyone can come to our shop at any time during shop hours, Monday through Friday from 10 to 5, and they can try out any one of our boards with regular tires, with Goodyear tires. And they can visit our shop and see how we build the boards, check out the components we use, and ride a board for as long as they want.

Michael: So when someone calls Xgate and they say we were the original and we own the patent and E-glide's infringing on our patent, what do you say to that?

Interviewee: Well, it's not true.

Michael: What kind of patent they have on patent?

Interviewee: They have two patents. They have a patent on the wireless technology, which I know the guy that actually got the patent for him, Jason Solas, and he never should have gotten that.

Michael: It's a utility patent.

Interviewee: Then they have a patent on the torsion truck to claim that they're inventors of the. This torsion truck was invented by a guy named Alan Krone in 1956. He took up the original patent. All X gate's done is they put an internal stop on an existing patent and claim that they're the originators.

Michael: So they have a truck with a different component in it and someone else may have a truck without that component.

Interviewee: We sell the same truck because it's a good truck.

Michael: So separate the motor and the electronics. Which is the real important stuff that you're getting in Europe.

Interviewee: Exactly. The stuff that we use works and it lasts. Not only the components that we use are way beyond what the Chinese people are using, but the assembly that we do here is completely different than the way the Chinese do it.

Michael: All right, let's talk about the importance of assembly.

Interviewee: Everything has to be checked before it's put on the board and we do that. And then of course, we're using quality components within the board. It's like we put 1500 degree fiberglass shielding over the motor wires just in case they do melt, so that they won't melt together and stop the motor dead. You know, a lot of little things that nobody thinks about that we do, that makes our boards last. And every component on that board is something that we have changed and evolved. Except for the motors, everything else is pretty new. We use wire from Deldon, we use Molex connectors, we use 3M components. All the components are important. It just takes one flaw for the thing not to work. We found everything that we get out of China doesn't stand up to the quality US products that are comparable. The wire's different, the connectors are different. The nuts used on the wheels, the lock nuts, are completely different, not of the same quality.

Michael: What could happen if you're on maybe a competitor's board and the motor freezes up? How does that actually happen?

Interviewee: What happens is under extreme use, motor wires heat up. The negative and the positive coming out of the motor. Most of these Chinese boards, the wires, they're actually encased in a piece of plastic together, and they melt together. And that stops the motor right now, freezes it up. Some of the Chinese boards have that problem. We get around it by separating the wires, putting thicker wires on first of all, much heavier gauge wire. And then we insulate them with a fiberglass insulation that's been tested up to 1500 degrees. So first of all, the wires, we've never had a wire melt with the thicker wire we use. But even if they do, they won't melt together because they're separated by fiberglass insulation that would have to reach 1500 degrees on each wire before it would melt. But of course, the reaction with the electric skateboard is you fly off the board if the motor locks up. So we do that here with this material. We do a lot of stuff like that here.

Michael: Take me through some of your quality standards or testings or procedures.

Interviewee: We start with the batteries. We get them delivered from BB battery and we, we assemble the battery packs here. We weld up the wires ourselves, check the voltage. We take our off the shelf motor and we take it apart and we check everything on it, check the axles for straightness. We make sure the bearings are as they're supposed to be. We check the gear, the belt, make sure everything is correct and not off. We build our guns here in house. We do our own wire Harnesses and then our guns we make in house. We take our potentiometers, we test each potentiometer.

Michael: What is a potentiometer?

Interviewee: A potentiometer is what makes the gun work trigger on a potentiometer shaft. But I mean all these parts, we test them here, they have to work exactly right before we build them up into the wire harnesses and put them in the guns. We test all that stuff before we build it up. We test our guns five times through assembly. Finally, when the board is finally assembled, we put it on the bench. Every board is bench tested and we know what to look for. We fire it up, we run it, we make sure everything is smooth. And before the powers, we can just move the drive wheels. We can tell by motor noise if there's any clicking, if there's any broken magnets, all that stuff. We know what to do. We've been doing it for four years. And that's what you have to do to get out a reliable electric skateboard. You really have to put out a tested product with quality components. And this is why the Chinese have failed. They're inconsistent. You get Chinese stuff, the wires come loose, the soldering quality is non existent, everything, you wouldn't believe it. Inconsistent.

Michael: Why do you guys bother with all this testing?

Interviewee: Because if we don't, it won't work right.

Michael: And if it doesn't work right, what could happen to the rider?

Interviewee: Well, he's going to have a problem. It's not going to work right. It's not going to be happy. You have to imagine how a Chinese factory operates based on volume, not quality. The workers are paid by what they produce, not the quality of what they produce. And I have talked to them over and over and over about this, trying to make them understand that people are willing to pay more for a quality, reliable product. They're not interested in the cheapest product. They're interested in a product that will last. I can only explain that their thinking goes back to the communist era where production was based on volume and performance, not quality. And they still think that way. They know they're shipping out junk electric skateboards. They know they're going to have a lot of problems, but that's just the way they do business. It's the same thing with their electric scooters. It's the same thing with all this kind of stuff that they sell with the pocket bikes, with gas skateboards. It's cheap, they throw it together quick and it doesn't last. You'll find young girls, young guys that are expected to do a multitude of jobs, soldering on one bench, grinding something down not far away. The workers are underpaid. A lot of times they don't get paid. They don't care about producing quality. They don't even understand the concept of high quality. They don't care about the rider. They don't ride your electric skateboards. They don't even sell these in China. They're not into them. They don't understand them. When I go over there and I take them riding, They've never ridden them before. To produce it cheap, they have to be that way. Mike when I brought in my first 300 boards and they were all garbage. And the problems you get with the customer, if a customer is going to spend a few hundred bucks on a product and it doesn't work, he's going to want his money back. You can't stay in business selling a product that first of all you can't make any money on because it doesn't work. Right. After a short amount of time you get chargebacks from customers, they want to return them. It's a nightmare. And nobody who has brought in the Chinese boards, be it Dave Kaplan, who was the ex skate owner before the current owners, or be it anybody else that you might have seen over the years, they all go away because they cannot stay in business selling Chinese electric skateboard. The only way I can stay here and be in business, especially after four years, is by producing a product that works that I can back up that when a customer has a problem, they can call up with that problem and I can resolve that problem. And I'm not talking about having them shipped it back and shipping them a brand new one. It's always a simple problem that can replace by just a part. And that's what we've got it down to. Nobody else can do this. Nobody else has a product like that. I don't believe anybody does care like I do or they would have done what I'm doing. Keep in mind one thing. Most of our sales, probably 90% come from word of mouth and referral. I've been in this business for four years. I've tried a lot of different things and we've been on the Leno show, we've had a lot of high profile promotion and really what I've seen people that buy them tell their friends and the guy buys one, his brother buys one, his son buys one, his father buys one. And that's what makes a product move. And we build a hell of a product. There's nothing like what we build and there's nothing more boring than a slow electric skateboard. And all these different models that you see, people offering these 100 watts, 200 watts, 300 watts, all that crap they're offering, nobody buys that stuff. If they do, it's. They end up selling it for nothing because it's slow, it's gutless, it's unexciting, and an adult doesn't want to ride it. Adults buy these boards. I mean, by far, 95% of our sales go to adults. I don't know of anything that you can buy that will give you the enjoyment and for a long time that this product will. And I hear that from my guys all the time.

Michael: Because riding one of these is the closest you're going to get to doing a magic carpet ride. The smile that it throws on your face and the power that this thing puts out as you're just gliding down the road and you're fully controllable with the dynamic braking that it has on it, it's just a total blast, man.

Interviewee: Tell me, what's your full name?

Michael: Samuel Edmonds Townsend the Six.

Interviewee: Now, where do you live?

Michael: We're here in Fullerton, California.

Interviewee: How old are you?

Michael: 43.

Interviewee: How did you first hear or see anything about an electric skateboard?

Michael: The founder of the GoPed and the founder of the X Skate met at the Extreme Expo down in del Mar in 1992. And at that time, that was the only game in town. And the X Skate was a high end, niche market wireless skateboard that kicked everything's ass. This thing rocked. You, you get on it. It had a thousand watt motor and it would just like literally do a burnout on it. I had to have one for myself. Everywhere we went, any race we went to, I was prowling the pits in this thing. But because of its price point of $1,000, it was a niche market. And I mean, people would get on this thing not realizing the power that it had and they'd go to give it throttle and they'd literally, the thing would just shoot out underneath them and they'd fly up in the air and land on their ass. My dad did it even, you know. Yeah. Louis sold the company at some point and it moved up to Northern California. And those guys were working with it for a while. Louie did everything down off of Cherry Avenue down in Long beach is where they originally made the X Skates. Then they went up to somewhere, I think it was Sausalito, California somewhere. And the second owner, I think the guy's name was Jim, he actually started looking at taking stuff over to China and have it made. And they came out with the Raptor series. They had the raptor 4.0, the raptor 3.0, they had a 2.2 and they started selling them. And this is the same time the power sports industry was embracing the motorized scooters. And it got really difficult because the people that knew the X gate wanted that and they wouldn't settle for a raptor 4.0. Just wasn't enough power. Like an X gate. You could take it down into my loading dock where my shop was, and at the bottom of the loading dock you could give it the gas and the thing would accelerate you right out of that hole.

Interviewee: So the first X gates when they were being made here in the us they were pretty damn good.

Michael: Oh they were really good, dude. And it was like celebrities were on them, you know, I mean I was selling them to like I had a shop down at the Irvine Spectrum and the comedy guys that were playing the improv would come over and pick them up. We had like professional drag racers that were picking up Ricky Gadson signed a poster for them. And these were going to like people that were like in the know, but they had money, you know.

Interviewee: Alright, so when the company sold, the guy went cheap and went to China because he wanted more.

Michael: Exactly. And so you could get a 4.0 and it kind of went mainstream a little bit more with that because they were now affordable, more people could get their hands on them. They were limited, they weren't as fast, they didn't have as much range, but they were still wireless and they were decent and that's what was available. So that's what we sold. Fast forward to about two, three years ago. So I'm looking around and at this point X Gate has been sold again. We haven't been able to get an X24 since Christmas of like year before last. So all you can sell is the cheaper ones and everybody's starting to sell them. Back in the early days we were the only game in town selling these things. There were very few shops that came now. There were a few people. You got the Internet now since 1992, so everybody is selling the Raptor series on the Internet. Those guys sell that company a third time and it actually is brought back down here to Southern California to Rancho Santa Margarita. They still haven't gotten their shit together. It's a mess. 2 couple years ago I was going to Las Vegas to the Interbike show. Largest bicycle convention in the world. It's a one week convention in Las Vegas for bicycles. But I'm not going there to look at bicycles, I'm going there to check out motorized bicycles. I'm looking for like electric bicycles with lithium ion batteries, nickel metal hydrate, lead acid. And I saw quite a few different things. And as I'm going around there goped's there and lo and behold there's Dave local right out of Santa Monica. You got to be kidding me. You're in Southern California. Cool. High five. Checking his stuff out. We're going to do business.

Interviewee: Was he sharing the booth with Goped or he had a separate booth, Separate.

Michael: Booth, but just down away from him, like literally like four booths down. There's Dave I'm checking out his skateboards. Cool. You know, I'll check out your skateboards. So I get his skateboards in and the price points are right and the things handle better. With the E-glide. He actually uses real skateboards like Dewey Weber and Sector nine and they've actually got the built in convex decks.

Interviewee: What's the benefit of that?

Michael: It's totally more controllable. When you're on it, your feet just like mold into it. You know, the thing about E-glide is he always improves on his product. He's totally passionate about his product. He stands behind the product and the rapport that I got going with him as someone that sells them and all my customers that get these things. He's got a warranty on it, but he goes above and beyond his warranty with the product. If you've got a problem with the product. And I started to have to tell Dave, hey man, you have to start charging customers. Like if they had a problem with something, he'd send out a free part. I mean, for like a year he never charged me for anything. And I had to start telling him, Dave, you've got to start charging the customers, man. He just was passionate about his product though. And that's what a successful businessman is going to do. He's got to be passionate about his product. And he's totally in there. And at this point, I was still carrying both boards. I was still carrying the Raptor series from the X Skate as well as the E-glide. Within a year's time, I completely dropped the X Skate. Don't even stock them anymore. Because Dave's done so much to improve on his product line. He's constantly evolving it and he's got innovation, new ideas, he's sourcing out new parts for it. There's not a single product in my shop that gives you more than a 90 day warranty on the product. Dave found a new control board out of Europe that he's put on his board and gives you a one year warranty. Unbelievable. There's nothing else like it out there. The range and the power that he gets out of the motor is more than you would expect from the wattage of the engine that he uses on the E-glide. And the power on it is almost comparable to that of the thousand watt motor on the X24. Because riding one of these is the closest you're going to get to doing a magic carpet ride. The smile that it throws on your face and the power that this thing puts out as you're just gliding down the road, and you're fully controllable with the dynamic braking that it has on it. It's just a total blast, man. And I literally have customers come in my store, and they're just like, this is my release. I get done doing my college classes, and I bust out my e and I go cruising down the street on it. I mean, some people, this is their main transportation. They get around town on it. It's like a dope attic. If it breaks on them, they're, like, going through withdrawals. They've got to have it back.

Interviewee: Do you have to have known how to ride a skateboard?

Michael: Not. No, not at all. And actually, people that ride skateboards and even people that surf, it kind of takes a minute for them to get to the hang of it because they're old school where you have to put your foot down and push with it. This thing is all about balance and muscle control. And you just stand on, you get your stance, you bend your knees, and you have to learn how to like. Because a skater has never had a skateboard that will break for him. This thing fully breaks, and it slows down faster than it accelerates. So they don't have the muscle. They don't have that. You don't understand how to, like, control your muscles because you're slowing down so quick. And it actually throws them right off the nose of the front of it. You know, they've got to, like, step off, and they're like, whoa, wait a minute. So it's just like, practice your figure eights in the parking lot and get the hang of it. And within a week, everybody's got that development of how it works. You do not have to know how to ride a skateboard. You don't have to know how to surf. It's just get on it and just take it easy While you're getting the hang of it, Just learn how to stay on it, what the turning ratio is. And once you get those factors down, then you've totally got it, and you'll start to increase your speed. And the cool thing, too, is because of the size of the tires on these, unlike a normal skateboard, you have to be really cautious. You got to lift the front end up. It's like a video game. So you're watching for everything out on the street with these. You're just gliding down the road and you see a rock. This thing's so big, it'll just pop right over the rock, and it won't even throw you off. You just barely feel it as you're going over it like going down a sidewalk and you got the cracks in the sidewalk, no problem. You know, you have to have a certain awareness of while you're riding it, but you don't have to be totally focused in on it. You know, you can like kind of chill out. And when you get that groove down with it, you're just kind of like still got your knees bent, but you're just like sliding along, man. And you just kind of straighten up a little bit and the wind's blowing in your hair and it's like freedom riding one of these. It's a form of freedom. You've got that blast of air blasting past you and you've just got your little hand control there. And that's another point that I want to make too. A lot of people and I as well, totally like, man, it's got a cable, it's got a cord on it, it's tethered, you know. Ah, that sucks. I'm not going to like that. And everybody else, and especially those that have ridden the X skater life, you've got to go wireless, man. Wireless is the way to go. It totally gives you that freedom to where you can throw your hand around. Well, you kind of learn how to use your hands and where you can go with it. And once you learn it, you don't even realize it's tethered anymore. The hand's back there and the one hand that's got the power with the tether on, it's usually behind you and the other hand is slightly in front of you and you just sidewalk surf down the sidewalks with it.

Interviewee: Tell me your two stories of your coolest riding experiences on the E-glide.

Michael: Every time I took it down to the beach on the boardwalk. And a lot of people know of this up in the Venice Santa Monica area because that's where they're manufactured and they've got that local crowd out there where people know them. I'm down in Huntington riding it. And as I'm going down the way it was right in the downtown area, just underneath the pier. Lots of people on the boardwalk there. And as I'm coming through there, everybody starts to stare at you and everybody just moves out of the way. And I felt like Moses parting the Red Sea down the boardwalk.

Interviewee: Yeah, that's awesome.

Michael: It was great, man. That was the greatest feel too. At 6 foot 4 and 250 pounds. There's only a couple skateboards that I can get on that are motorized and that will actually pull me around with decent power. Literally, if you get onto something that's smaller, like a Raptor 3.0, it won't do it. I mean, you can do it on the flats, but you're going to be breaking belts and things like that. I get calls from Dave all the time, and he's like, hey, we got this new thing we're trying out and we're going with these Goodyear tires. And I'm like, I got to try them out. And I threw them on my board and I started riding around, oh my God, night and day, from going to the polyurethane to these rubber Goodyear tires.

Interviewee: Tell me the difference.

Michael: You literally have to ride it to understand it. Like you're riding along with a polyurethane and you feel those little bumps in the rocks and cracks. But with the rubber tires, I put those on there and it smoothed it out so much it felt like suspension. And it just boosts your confidence level that much more while you're riding it. There are so few people that ride electric motorized skateboards that it's a novelty and you get away with murder on it. And it totally reminds me because I've seen this happen with the motorized scooters. In 1988-1998, I was the only game in town selling motorized scooters. There was no competition. But once they become popular and everybody starts riding them, the party's over, man. Because then it becomes mainstream and they start really cracking down on what the laws are. And the laws are black and white. You're the only one in your area that's got one. You get away with murder on it. Nobody says nothing. Another thing is there's two types of scooters. You've got your gas power and your electric power. They fall under the same VC code. And the same laws apply to both gas and electric power powered. But with the gas powered scooters, it's the noise that kills it. Anything that's electric powered, electric skateboards, electric scooters. These kids, they get away with murder on them because they're totally riding them around and they're not making any noise and they're not infringing on anybody's. I'm watching the game with my family in here. Can you shut that thing off? I'm trying to have dinner. My kid's trying to take a nap on an electric board. You're not making any noise. You're under the radar. You're stealth. You're invisible.

Interviewee: Tell me about the future of electric power.

Michael: I was the very first person to tell everybody electric is the future. Here's a perfect example of why electric is the future. You can't take hazardous material on public transportation. Take a gas powered scooter, try to get on Metrolink with it, they're not going to let you on. Roll up with an electric scooter or electric board, Boom, no problem. Can take it right on there. The future is lithium ion and the battery technology is coming more and more. Imagine a board that will go 20 miles an hour with at least a 20 mile range that weighs somewhere around 30 pounds for a dual lithium ion battery powered one.

Interviewee: Why don't you tell me the negative experiences you were experiencing with the ones out of China. When the X gate was sold to the second guy and he started going cheap with the china, how did you handle the complaint? What was that experience like with the cheaper boards?

Michael: As a retailer of someone that's sold the Raptors, you find that after you have a few complaints and you can't get parts for it, you just drop the line. As someone that's selling stuff, you don't want to have customers coming back that you can't take care of. I sell myself more than the product. If you bought it online, you were screwed. There's nothing you could do. So I would jump up and down and I would be the middleman that was calling that manufacturer. Like, I need this part. Take it off of a new scooter, do whatever you have to do to get this customer taken care of. And that's what we do. But you're only going to do that so many times, the last thing you want. And that's why we don't carry cheap stuff. I don't sell junk because junk stuff is going to come back and you've got drama in your shop and I don't like drama. You want to educate the customer before you make the sale. And then when that customer comes back, you've got a good rapport with them. And if you've got issues, especially with a product like E-glide, you know the manufacturer is standing behind that product and has got your back. And Dave, as passionate as he is and he can see the future with these motorized skateboards, he knows what it's going to take for him to take it that next level. He's right there, man. He's right at the cusp and the competition is falling by the wayside and he's just streamlining it and making it better all the time, man. He's innovative and he's coming out with new stuff always. He's pushing that envelope E-glide products.

Michael: Tell me, what's your full name?

Interviewee: My name is Gregory Barr.

Michael: And where do you live?

Interviewee: We live in Chatsworth, California.

Michael: How old are you, Greg?

Interviewee: I am 49 years old, and my son is 15, and my stepson is 13.

Michael: How did you guys first learn about an electric skateboard?

Interviewee: We saw someone riding down the street on one at night. My boys were skateboarding at the hotel that we were staying in in Dana Point, California. And I was standing out there watching patrol for them, making sure that, number one, the managers wouldn't get upset, and number two, a car wouldn't come into the carport and hit them. They were actually riding various ramps and areas around the hotel and shooting down. And then, of course, they'd have to get on the elevator and ride back up. And then I saw this person coming down the street. I thought he was on a bicycle at first, and all of a sudden, he went right by me on a skateboard, silent as could be. And I yelled, hey, you, stop right there. And he stopped, and I yelled at my boys to come back. They got to see this. I was completely blown away. I saw him ride by, and I was completely blown away that he was just tooling down the road on this electric skateboard.

Michael: Yeah. So what did you say to him?

Interviewee: Do you enjoy the board? Are you having fun? And I think he owns two of them, and he was just as blown away after many months of ownership.

Michael: How old was the guy?

Interviewee: The guy was, I'd say, in his late 30s, early 40s.

Michael: Okay, so he was an E-glide customer.

Interviewee: He was an E-glide customer. And he told us all about E-glide, that he got it from E-glide, and it's a company up in Santa Monica, California. And we were on vacation halfway down, or better than halfway down, to San Diego. And we said, you know, Santa Monica is in our backyard. We definitely want to hook up with this guy. So the kids, the minute they got home, they went online and found out all about E-glide and made arrangements to go over and meet with Dave. And after seeing the product, and not only did the gentleman I was talking about at the hotel let us try his, Dave was also very accommodating and letting us try a couple of them on the street and see what we thought about them. And I walked out that day with two boards. We were just all fired up. And then he told us about some of the progressions that were coming down the pike. And we were very interested in being kept in the loop for all of that. And then as time came by, we had a couple minor little repairs that needed to be made, and they handled them amicably. There was no problem at all with that. And then they had the new rubberized wheels coming out and things that made it not only quieter, but I thought, safer and more enjoyable to ride.

Michael: So you were able to compare the original wheel to the Goodyear rubberized wheel?

Interviewee: Yes, it did.

Michael: Big difference.

Interviewee: Huge difference. Huge difference. Like I said, silent as can be and just a joy to ride.

Michael: Who rides the board more, you or your son?

Interviewee: We have three boards and we all ride them just as much as one another. And in fact, my stepson's friends all want to come over and ride his electric skateboard all the time. And we literally have to tell them no.

Michael: So tell me, when you and your son and your stepson want to go out riding, where do you guys go ride?

Interviewee: We typically ride in the neighborhood area, but we've gone down to the bike paths in Santa Monica a few times down at the beach, and we really enjoy that as well.

Michael: Have you had any problem with police or tickets? Any hassles like that?

Interviewee: No, we have not had any problems or hassles with the police. The only problems that we've had per se, and they're not even problems, is jealousy from people that don't have them. The people on the bike path, the only naysayers that I was experiencing were the ones that were jealous that we were having fun and not exerting an incredible amount of physical exertion to get ourselves around the bike path.

Michael: Was safety a concern for you?

Interviewee: Safety is always a concern for me. It's always a concern for me. Safety of a product. And that's why I like so much the disconnect handle that when you do fall off, you can completely separate yourself from the board and not worry about being tangled up in things. But no, safety is a huge concern for me. We always wear helmets and always wear proper footwear and such that we always take care to be safe. And I found that the E-glide board is extremely safe.

Michael: After you got it, I'm sure you looked around and you've seen a wireless model, not by E-glide, but by another company. Is the wire at all inhibiting or get in the way? Any feedback on that?

Interviewee: No, the wire is not inhibiting in any way, shape or form. In fact, I have not dealt with the other product on a wireless basis, and I couldn't imagine where it would be a huge advantage or disadvantage to have a wireless. The wired cable is just fine and it's not in the way at any given time.

Michael: How do you guys ride? Do you ride fast? Do you ride slow?

Interviewee: Medium to fast? We typically ride medium to fast. The boys will constantly open them up full speed up and down clear areas of street, sidewalk or bike path. They will constantly open them up to full speed. I would say I am more of a half to three quarter speed rider. So just being a little older and just a little bit more cautious about the environment where I am at and knowing that at any given moment something could happen. The change of terrain,

Michael: Right. What does riding an E-glide do for you? What do you get out of it? How do you benefit?

Interviewee: I find it extremely relaxing to get on the E-glide and ride around the neighborhoods, ride up and down the streets. It's kind of a freedom of sorts that you can just get on the board and propel yourself around the neighborhood, propel yourself up and down a bike path, enjoy the scenery. Like I said, it's a sense of freedom that you can totally relax and be a little bit more at one with your environment as you propel through it than you would, let's say, exerting a lot of effort on a bicycle or running or other physical activities.

Michael: Let me ask you this now your son's a skateboarder. Were you yourself a skateboarder?

Interviewee: I have ridden skateboards for many, many years, but I was never an aggressive, acrobatic type of a skateboarder. We'd have fun now and then, do a little bit of ramping stuff, but nothing major and nothing that was as dynamic as the environment as what kids are using today.

Michael: Other than riding around in the neighborhoods with your son and your stepson, what is the coolest thing you and your kid has done with the E-glide? Any rider experience like you guys drove somewhere went to a certain area that was just awesome. Anything like that, I would have to.

Interviewee: Say the bike paths down at the beach areas, they're just really neat. And there are various little areas that you can do little trick things and my boys do little trick things and push theirlimits a little harder. But I just really enjoy getting out there and riding the board and havingfun with my son. And the two of us standing next to each other and sharing the experience, it's wonderful.

Michael: What advice would you give to a first time E-glide rider, someone who's never even gotten on a skateboard?

Interviewee: The first piece of advice that I give every person that rides our boards is be careful, relax. And you're going to love it. You're going to walk away wanting one even more than you thought you did before you got on the board. Because the experience of seeing it is kind of enthralling. And then once you actually do it, everything you dream of and then some, it's a ball.

Michael: Tell me your full name.

Interviewee: Rene Bruce.

Michael: And where do you live, Renee?

Interviewee: Newport Beach, California. I own a site called LongSkate.com and in 98 I actually launched a longboard brand called Fluid Skateboards. How I found out about that whole thing is I actually helped the original guy that developed the whole electric skateboard crate. I actually kind of helped him invent and develop the board. Because I was buying the torsion style truck from this guy Louise. I fell into it a little bit differently than most people, I guess you could say.

Michael: So you were there from the beginning when Louie was developing the X Skate?

Interviewee: Yes.

Michael: Really?

Interviewee: Yeah, I helped him develop the X skate truck. I've been in the sporting goods side of things for 20 years.

Michael: So you have been around skateboarding and you were instrumental and had a part in developing the original X Skate?

Interviewee: Yeah. My background prior to meeting Louie and getting involved in longboard skateboard skateboarding went from originally in the bicycle world. I was the mechanic for the Olympicteam in the 80s in the Olympic Training center for 85 86 in Colorado Springs. So I did that and then I segued into the rollerblade thing through a friend of mine, a guy that was on the 711 cycle racing team. And then from the rollerblade thing, I fell into snowboarding and wakeboarding. So I kind of had that background of snowboarding and wakeboarding because I grew up in the desert in Arizona. So I really didn't have a skateboard background, considering. So I ended up kind of falling into that. And then when I started developing my own longboard skateboard brand, that's when I met. But I was the first guy to really put together a longboard skateboard program that had a skateboard truck that carved and kind of simulated snowboarding and surfing. Skateboard trucks prior to that were basically roller skate trucks that didn't turn very good. So people weren't able to really pump the board. With torsion trucks, you can literally make, I think it's about a six to eight foot circle or U turn as opposed to the other stuff that was like 20ft

Michael: As the boards got longer and wider. You need a bigger truck, right? Correct. From my research, I understand that the X skate, the first one, was pretty good. And it's kind of gone downhill over the years because the company's been sold and sold and what's going on with that do you know?

Interviewee: As far as the electric skateboard goes? Yeah, yeah. The original stuff was pretty, pretty good because Louie developed it himself and he's a really smart guy. He originally came from an alarm company where if you're in a building and you go to pull the red switch, that's what his company does. Originally, his father started, and then his father passed away and passed it on to him and his sisters. So the thing is, when he had his hands in the pot and was doing really good, then he sold it to this guy named Dave Kaplan that just didn't have a clue or I don't know what the guy's deal was. So that guy pretty much ruined it because he took it all to China. And I developed a brand called Vapor, and I actuallywas one of the first guys, along with a couple other smaller companies that did Vapor electric scooters. I still ride to this day from time to time, run to the liquor store and that kind of stuff. And with transitioning over to China, the problem with China is you approve something and the container that comes is something different a lot of times. So if they just couldn't quite figure out the electronics on the speed control, like, I've been to China quite a few times, and I had to fly over there, actually get on an electric scooter of mine and go ride it around the block and kill it in front of them, because they didn't believe that their speed control was overheating, Making it up. I'm telling you, you're not doing anything. A lot of people initially weren't really interested in E-glide because, you know, it was like, ooh, there's a cord from the speed control handgun to the skateboard. For me, that made a lot more sense just from the background that I have in inventing products over the years. And just use some common sense. Your cell phone signal gets messed up. Your TV signal gets messed up. So I don't care who you are, if you have something wireless, you have a potential to break that link. And I'm not really interested in riding down the road because I'd been set up with an X gate with Louie, and I was riding down the boardwalk in Newport beach, and the thing just locked up on me. And I took off Superman style. And I'm like, forget it. It's not worth it. And here's my analogy. What did it for me was I also had a second time where that board just took off on me. So I, like, fell off backwards. Luckily, I'm athletic, so I didn' land onmy head. But that board took off full speed down the trail, and it luckily ran into a parked car tire. I'm down in Newport Beach. What if that board would have taken off and hit A person's leg, a little two or three year old kid is walking out their front door or something. That would kill a child. Blasting off at 15 miles an hour.

Michael: When you got on it, you gave it just a little acceleration?

Interviewee: No, I mean, I was standing on it, just cruising along about 10 miles an hour. All of a sudden, boom, the thing was gone. Had a mind of its own. And I'm like, you know, forget that. I'm not interested in that at all. That's kind of what initially attracted me to the E-glide system, is the safety factor, I guess you could say. It just made more sense to me, you know, And I wasn't worried about like people are like, well, the corps is going to get hung up on stuff. I'mlike, where I ride, there's really nothing to get hung up on. Unless you're going to be carving through a parking structure and worried about getting caught on car bumpers. I mean, whatelse is going to really grab the chord? You know, Somebody on a bicycle, I guess, maybe, I don't know. But I wouldn't be riding in that type of crowded setting anyway.

Michael: So you traded in your X gate for an E-glide?

Interviewee: Yeah.

Michael: Which one did you get?

Interviewee: I have. I think it's the Magnum 44 is what it's called. Not the first one. The first one I got was the original E-glide that he had. Dave has it now. I actually just gave it back to him to tune it up. I actually have two of them. So I had the original birch blackboard. I don't even remember what he called it. And then when he came out with the new Magnum, I got a new Magnum because of the cool deck. Now I modified all my boards because I don't like grip tape on the long boards. So I was the first guy in the whole industry and I don't think anybody's even really copied me since then. To put a Groov Eva foam top on the tops of boards instead of the grip tape.

Michael: Oh, a nice foam top.

Interviewee: Yeah. And the reason I do that is the grip tape tends to mess things up. Also, you could carry it into class and you're not having the grip tape either rub on your arm or rub on your clothing and screw things up. I put the soft top on my E-glides because of a couple reasons. The first reason is when I would throw it in the back of my truck, grip tape would slide around. Well, the soft top kind of has some good grip to it, so it would grip the steel bed of my truck. But the other reason I do it is because I ride my 10 pound dog in the front of my board and I cruise down the boardwalk.

Michael: How often do you ride your E-glide?

Interviewee: Pretty much every weekend.

Michael: And do you have the Goodyear tires on it?

Interviewee: Yeah. First met Dave and started working with Dave on giving him my 2 cents worth on his product. My biggest pet peeve was the crappy Chinese wheels. So somehow apparently he got ahold of the Goodyears. And those wheels are awesome. I love them.

Michael: Do you have the good years on your board?

Interviewee: Yes.

Michael: It's a nice experience.

Interviewee: Dampens the vibration, it rolls over stuff a lot better and it's faster, quieter. There's a millionreasons why to run these Goodyears.

Michael: What surprised you in a good way about riding an E-glide?

Interviewee: What surprised me in a good way about riding an E-glide was, well, just the experience I hadon the other brand was not so good. So this board rode. I mean, that's what surprised me is that it cruised down the road and it was great. I didn't really have any problems.

Michael: Have you experienced any problems at all with yours over the years?

Interviewee: I've had a couple problems where he originally had some issues with his speed control until he finally ended up with a speed control that he's using now. I don't know if he's on the Courier one or something out of England maybe. I don't know where his electronics are now, but they're really good now.

Michael: Can you think of a story when you went riding your E-glide that was really memorable?

Interviewee: I have two memorable stories. One would be just getting on the E-glide with my dog and going down to the Wedge in Newport beach during sunset. It's just awesome. There's nothing like that. It's just peace and quiet. It's awesome. You go down and check out the waves and you don't get much better.

Michael: And your dog loves it.

Interviewee: Yeah, she loves it. So that's one story. Another story is another sunset skate I did in Manhattan Beach. I just happened to be up there because my dog does acting and stuff and I was in her little acting class and I was headed back and I didn't want to sit around and wait in traffic. So I went to visit an old friend in Manhattan beach and it was so nice out. I threw the board out and jumped on it with the dog and just went cruising from Manhattan beach down through Redondo beach and back during sunset. It was just awesome. So I guess that'skind of like when it's really nice to ride. I don't like riding when it's really crowded in the middle of the day. I don't mind it just for the sake of the giggles that I get from people because people really trip out seeing a dog on the field of a skateboard that just stands there.

Michael: Right, right.

Interviewee: I originally trained her to ride on my regular longboard skateboard, you know, and I started getting the electric board. Obviously she was going to ride on that too, and she loves it.

Michael: What would you say to a first time rider about getting the hang of an E-glide? Let's say someone who's never ridden a skateboard or never surfed.

Interviewee: Wear a helmet for sure, number one thing.

Michael: Is it easy to pick up?

Interviewee: Yeah, it's pretty easy to pick up. But there is a learning curve to it. And the reason there's a learning curve is because the obstacles in the roadway. So I would say go out to a big parking lot where it's completely empty and practice for quite a while. Because there is a good learning curve to it. Because when you're out cruising around, just the funniest cracks and rocks can put you on your butt. They really can. I love it. It's an awesome product.

Michael: Tell me your full name.

Interviewee: My name is Matthew Nelson.

Michael: All right. And where do you live currently?

Interviewee: I'm currently living in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Michael: How old are you, Matthew?

Interviewee: I am 31.

Michael: Were you a skateboarder previously?

Interviewee: I wasn't, no. I had barely ridden a skateboard in my life.

Michael: Any outdoor sports? Surfing or anything like that?

Interviewee: I surfed a little bit when I lived in Santa Barbara. I'm definitely a rollerblader. Been rollerblading all my life. And then I'm a dancer, modern dancer, so I know my body and I had this fantasy that after a little while I would be able to ride this thing really easily and well. It's a magic carpet ride. So it was the goal and within six months I was riding it really well.

Michael: The first one was wireless and this one had a cable. Did you have any perceptions, negative or positive, about the cable?

Interviewee: The technology at this point is better cabled, just safer that way.

Michael: What makes it safer?

Interviewee: There's no interference, nothing can throw you off the board. An electric skateboard is an incredibly dangerous device. I mean, imagine driving your car by standing on top of it with alittle controller in your hand. That's essentially what these boards at 20 miles an hour. If thething throws you, you're getting hurt. So safety and fail safeness of the board is so crucial. And E-glide has come so far that way. At this point, I do trust the board with my life and that's a big claim. In the first days of them, they weren't as reliable and it was easier to get hurt and I did. But with the new electronics that they've got going, the English ones, the board's really smart, it's computer controlled and it pays attention to what's going on. And ifsomething's weird, it's not going to throw you off, whereas the old ones would.

Michael: How often do you ride your E-glide currently?

Interviewee: If the weather is right, I ride it every day.

Michael: Tell me about how you use it. How do you ride it?

Interviewee: It's my primary form of transportation around the city. If I can avoid driving my car, I will. And my board is how I get around. It'll get me up to, you know, 10, 15 miles reliably. And I ride it up to some very serious hills in Salt Lake City. And I can also take it on public transit, which I really enjoy, that I can jump on the train if I need to, or whatever I need to do to get where I'm going and then I can still have high speed transportation once I get there.

Michael: Which board do you Have. How heavy is it?

Interviewee: It's a 42 special. It's the 42 inch board, the deck made by Madrid, and It weighs around 50 pounds. It's a bit heavy, but it's manageable.

Michael: What do you like best about riding it?

Interviewee: It's like riding a magic carpet. That's what I always think of as a reference for it. Humans have learned to do some amazing things with our technology. We Learned to fly 100 years ago. Well, now we've got our magic carpet, and it's an E-glide and it's connected to the ground. But it's unlike any other experience of riding that I know. It's different than driving a car. It's different than riding a motorcycle. It's an entirely different machine than a normal skateboard, than an average skateboard, because the motor allows you to take off with incredible speed and power. And it also allows you to stop on a dime. So it has the kind of controllability that makes riding a skateboard practical transportation and exciting transportation in ways that an average skateboard just isn't safe for or able to do. You can't go up a hill on a normal skateboard. I can go up a hill fast enough that it's faster than riding a bicycle.

Michael: What does riding an E-glide do for you? What do you get out of it and how do you benefit?

Interviewee: It allows me to enjoy getting to where I'm going, and it provides me with a revolutionary form of transportation. It can get me where I'm going faster and more directly than any other form of transportation in the city. I used to have a goped back when I lived in Philadelphia, and I would use that thing to get all over the city. And it was the same deal. Butthe E-glide is electric, so it doesn't smell. It's quiet and it's more fun because there's no handlebars to hold onto. It's more of a sport. The scooters just don't offer the same kind of enjoyment that the skateboard does. The skateboard is just you and the road. There's nothing else. You know, there's the controller in my hand, but my hands are free. My body isfree to move how it moves. And the freedom of my body moving is what creates the pathway that I take on the board. So it's a whole body experience.

Michael: Any advice on city riding?

Interviewee: Well, first of all, you need the Goodyear tires. You can't do it without the Goodyear wheels.

Michael: Tell me about those wheels and how are they different from the original ones?

Interviewee: The Goodyear wheels are rubber, like tire rubber. And so they're shock absorbing. They know what to do with water, and they grip the road tenaciously. So it's a very different experience than riding around urethane, especially when you've got 50 pounds of lead acid under you, too. And so they make the city possible. You can ride a rough road with the tires and be fine.

Michael: What happens when you encounter a curb that you can't get up?

Interviewee: You know, if it's a small enough curb, you can just step on the rear, and that lifts the front upjust like a normal skateboard. And it's not so heavy that you can't do that. And then you just pick up the rear with your toe. So I guess that's how I do, you know, if it's just a little curb somewhere. But honestly, I don't come into that very often. I'm just careful about how I ride.I ride in the street for the most part, and then if I gotta get on the sidewalk, I look for a ramp.

Michael: In what manner do you ride? You ride pretty cautiously slow?

Interviewee: No, I run pretty much full speed as if I was a bicycle. I ride the board as if I'm a bicycle. So I follow all the bicycle laws. You know, I ride on the right side of the road, but if there's rocks or something in my way, I'll pull over into the center. But living in the city, for the most part,I'm not going any slower than the cars. A lot of the time I'm going about the same speed as traffic. So I'll ride right in the middle of the street because I think it's actually safer as long asI'm not slowing anyone down.

Michael: Yeah. Have you ever gotten a moving violation or ticket or anything?

Interviewee: The cops don't know what to do with me. They leave me alone because I ride responsibly. I use my hand signals and I get over to the side and, you know, if I see a cop looking at me, I just make sure to show them that I have brakes. If they know I have brakes, then they're not worried about me because, you know, I can stop faster than a bicycle. So the cops aren't worried about me unless they think I'm on a regular skateboard and can't stop. Then they worry.

Michael: Can you think of a story about when you went riding your E-glide that was really memorable? Maybe a special riding experience.

Interviewee: It's my average form of transportation now. I enjoy it. Every time I get on the board, I look forward to going places because it's fun to ride.

Michael: How about if you're in the city and you want to go into a store or something to shop around?

Interviewee: I'd lock it up.

Michael: Okay, tell me, how do you lock it up?

Interviewee: I have a cable lock, and I run it through the back axle and lock it to a post. Lock it to a bike rack.

Michael: I gotcha.

Interviewee: I lock it up just like a bicycle.

Michael: Hey, I appreciate it. This has been great. You eloquently described it very well. I appreciate it.

Michael: So tell me, what's your name?

Interviewee: Tommy Long.

Michael: And where do you live? Where are you from?

Interviewee: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Michael: How old are you, Tommy?

Interviewee: 33.

Michael: Tell me, how did you first learn about an electric skateboard?

Interviewee: I was curious to find a motorized version of some sort of land sailor or skateboard. So I found company back in 2000 and didn't quite work out so well. And eventually I found Dave's company, bought a couple boards from him.

Michael: Were you a regular skateboarder?

Interviewee: No, I did a lot of windsurfing, a lot of cycling, but mainly a lot of wind service.

Michael: How did you learn about it?

Interviewee: Some Internet research and found a company that did electric motors. I didn't want gas, I wanted electric so I could have a quiet ride. Found a company and it worked out fairly well.

Michael: Who did you end up getting one from? Your first go around?

Interviewee: It was with the company X Gate.

Michael: How did you first hear about an alternative electric power board?

Interviewee: I got very curious because I figured in five years something's got to come along. Did some more Internet researching and found Dave with E-glide. Set me up and it was absolutely fantastic.

Michael: How often do you ride now?

Interviewee: I ride mine to work.

Michael: How far is it to work?

Interviewee: It's about three miles.

Michael: Are you riding on the street or on the sidewalk?

Interviewee: Both. The wheels that Dave was able to help work with, he has a new wheel which is absolutely fantastic. It's a rubberized wheel instead of polyurethane and it cushions the ride. So things like sidewalks and hard gravel, things like that are a no brainer. I mean, it's a very smooth, very quiet ride without those wheels. I can say that the ride was a lot more rough and equivalent to the X feet ride. But the wheels that they've had to offer are worth every penny. I actually bought three from him. The first one I loved, sold it, got a second one,love it, got a third one, kept it, love it. And so I basically alternate them. So when I get home from work, I usually put it away and I get the second one which has already been charged and I go out and continue.

Michael: How do you use it for fun and relaxation?

Interviewee: Usually after work, about one in the morning or so, I just kind of take it out for a spin and strap on the MP3 player and kind of get lost for about 45 minutes and you know, go anywhere from mall parking lots and whatnot to, you know, the Boulevard, Ocean Boulevard here in Myrtle Beach.

Michael: You'll go out at 1am in the morning?

Interviewee: Oh, sure.

Michael: Oh, at nighttime?

Interviewee: Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah.

Michael: Your Job.

Interviewee: You get off late, I get off around midnight usually.

Michael: And you'll just go take it and cruise around?

Interviewee: Absolutely.

Michael: How fast do you go on it?

Interviewee: One of mine is capable of 18. The other one is easily capable of 20. Takeoff is around 0 to 20 in about 4 seconds.

Michael: How about going downhill? How do you handle that? You go coast mode with the wired boards.

Interviewee: There's not a coast you're completely on. Well, basically you have a full throttle available. You're always throttling, otherwise you're braking. Going downhills, I just keep it at full.

Michael: Anyway, what advice would you give someone who's maybe never ridden one, never skateboarded before? What would you tell them?

Interviewee: Start off slow and don't let your ego get in. I mean, these are 50 pound boards that travel at 20 miles an hour. When you stop, you might stop at boards and not. So be very, very careful doing this stuff.

Michael: Let's say you're going to work. Do you encounter any curbs or is everything like wheelchair accessible that you can cruise up and down?

Interviewee: Know the area fairly well, been here 13 years. There's a sidewalk I have to go on. I'm pretty aware there's like a driveway entrance or a wheelchair access or like a gradual decline, but I've never, nor will I, you know, jump it off a curb. These aren't meant for that stuff. It's meant for, you know, slow sidewalk riding and definitely street travel.

Michael: Which two boards do you have?

Interviewee: The actual decks themselves I don't use for me. Glide. I got a vision. Put that one on my deck.The deck was built for me by a gentleman out of California who works with Chuck Barfoot.

Michael: So you got a custom deck put on it?

Interviewee: Yes. Both of these are custom decks.