question 4 skateboarders?

[blackwidow]

have any of yall ever heard of or ridden the o board? w/b i need some opinions!

[Zach]

Never heard of it. I Googled it and found a you tube video for an electric powered board and also a strange looking board with one swivel wheel in front. Not sure which one you are talking about.

[blackwidow]

Thanks, I never thought about looking on you tube. When I did I found a video for it. Here's the link: YouTube - The OBoard
But, I would still like to hear from someone that has actually ridden one before. Any opinions are welcome.

[Fanatix]

Never riden one, but know of a kid who suffered major head trauma after falling off one. Use a helmut.

[pointsurfbaja]

Originally Posted by Fanatix

Never riden one, but know of a kid who suffered major head trauma after falling off one. Use a helmut.

I remember back in the early '90's' some guys came by the surf shop where I worked and had a similar concept. It was a skateboard deck with just two rollerblade wheels right in the middle. It was very difficult. It was not functional. The wheel in the middle of a skateboard only decrease the amount of control and generation of speed and power that a skaterboarder can exert on the board. Skateboarding, as in all board sports, requires control over the rail. Think of the foot as a horizontal weight bearing plane intersected just forward of the heel with a vertical weight bearing column(leg). When you exert pressure to move the board the application of that pressure is translated to the toe or the heel. The toe or the heel are over either of the rails. This is the reason for two wheels in front and two wheels in back parallel to the rails of the board. When pressure is applied to either rail it is transferred to the wheel below that rail. The resistance created along with other factors such as inclination of the board cause the board to turn with stability. In snowboarding the same rail control is true. Since the whole of the board is in contact with the snow it is not as evident. Ask yourself, "Why don't I see any snowboards with a ski attached down the middle. In Surfing you have the fins that provide stability and often just one fin right in the middle. This serves a different purpose since the medium is liquid and is penetrated by the fin. In this case the stability provided by a center fin is against sliding sideways. Still the overwhelming majority of the control of turning is executed over the rails. Evidenced by guys surfing boards with no fins. These boards with there "gimmick" of a wheel in the center are just a ploy to do something different with no understanding of the dynamics of board riding and only a desire to cash in quickly on what some beginners may think is a stale market. As Public Enemy says "Don't believe the Hype"


Guy riding surfboard with no fin last two waves of video

Skating with four wheels under the rails

[ladyflip]

I havent ridden one, but it looks like just 1/2 a T-board to me. Not really one I'd be interested in trying for sure.

PointSurfBaja- I'd have to highly disagree. What you seem to be describing is a Freebord, which is not a gimmick at all. And the guy who invented it as his masters thesus for industrial design from Stanford, had a very clear understanding of the dynamics of snowboarding. That board was not created to bite off the skateboard, it simply offers a ride for snowboarders who want to get as close as they can to snowboarding in the summertime and longboards just dont cut it.
I could go on about how the 2 extra wheels are actually replicating the petex base of a snowboard (giving you free directional movement, like a snowboard) and how the 4 edge wheels act as the metal edges (or 'rail'), but if ur interested, Discover Channel does a better job explaining it.
Dailymotion - Freebord on Discovery Channel

Granted, the ones you probably saw back in the days WERE barely functional monsters and absolute disasters to try to maneuver properly... but that's the trial and error of creating a new product. The first oldskool burton snowboards sucked to ride at first too. Freebord figured it out over the years, and their product is awesome these days. (some good downhill)
I know, cuz I used to ride for them. I thought it was a gimmick at first too and I could barely stand on the thing when I first got it. And after giving up a couple times, I started to catch on and some better models were released.

I'm just sayin you gotta give things a chance sometimes before you write them off as crap (which is hard sometimes, as there really is a lot of crap out there). The snow/skate industry is pretty cutthroat, which is a real bummer as it was open minded innovation that it was established on in the first place.