Finding friendship and freedom on an electric skateboard

Photo by Carlos Suriel

Wanting neither a ticking time bomb of a hoverboard nor the hassle of paying for a grimy rental scooter, I worked my ass off at a minimum wage job during the summer of 2017 to afford my first electric skateboard: a Boosted Dual+ V2. Almost every weekend after I forked over my $1,500, I'd take my board out to my local boba cafe. I'd do a couple of laps around my Northern California neighborhood on the way back home, my milk tea in one hand and my remote in the other.

As a high school student on an uphill battle to get into one of California's top universities, electric skateboarding became my go-to form of escapism. It allowed me to take a break from the books - and gave me an excuse to go outside. It offered the effortless freedom of a...

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