Beyond a handful of places you might be able to snowboard year-round in the northern hemisphere, about seven months of the snow enthusiast’s year are reserved for dreaming about pow turns and park laps. But a New York company called LEIFTECH may have the answer for the snowboarder’s summertime woes.
Their eSnowboard is an electronic skateboard designed to mimic the feeling of snowboarding on the street. The concept, though, and even the design aren’t exactly novel. A company called Freebord out of San Francisco coined the phrase “snowboard the streets” with their product that looks identical to the LEIFTECH eSnowboard – minus the electric motor. Both boards look like traditional longboard skateboards except with bindings on the deck to keep your feet locked in, and center wheels between the front and back trucks that spin 360-degrees like shopping cart wheels. The center wheels are the actual surface you ride on, and you control turns by sliding on the outer wheels much like the edges of a snowboard.
The Freebord (L) vs. the LEIFTECH eSnowboard (R). The same, but different.
Like snowboarding, the Freebord requires a hill or a push to really get going. The LEIFTECH eSnowboard doesn’t. The difference in cost, though, is significant. A Freebord complete will set you back a little over 200 bucks, while the LEIFTECH board retails for $1700. Ouch.
So while spring slowly transitions into summer and the snow begins to melt, here are two options to mull over to make that feeling last year round.
