Hoverboards. The endlessly promised future technology, made popular by the equally fictional Marty McFly, is such an obsession with tinkerers and armchair futurists, you’d think it represented the pinnacle of human civilization.
The internet exploded like a Kardashian nude when Hendo developed the first “hoverboard” using electro magnets. Pretty cool. A for effort. But the hoverboard itself was really just a marketing ploy for the really cool earthquake damage prevention tech by making buildings float. Texas-based tinkerer Ryan Craven took a completely different approach and substituted magnets for leafblowers—four of them to be precise.
According the CNET, Craven was originally inspired by HUVr, you know, that Tony Hawk and Christopher Lloyd hoax that was a little bit too good at being a hoax. Although those airborne, bone-breaking liabilities were fake, Craven’s design, called Mr. Hoverboard, is definitely real. Really, the board is just a small hovercraft but rides very much the same as Hendo’s technologically superior design. But what Craven may lack in tech, Mr. Hoverboard makes up in its ability to actually work outside of a specialized metal surface.
Craven tells CNET that the biggest investments are in the leafblowers, after that its only a couple bucks worth of plywood, hardware, tape, staples, and a shower curtain. After some assembling, you have fun way to ride around the skatepark or, at the very least, a better way clean up grass clippings.
For what it is, the board rides surprisingly well. But I’m still going to be patient for a few more decades and save up some money for a Pitbull. [CNET]
