Tony Hawk may have devastated a lot of people when they found out that a viral video showing footage of him spinning like the god of grace in mid-air on a hoverboard was a hoax. This time, however, the legendary skater jumps on a real hoverboard and shows the world it's not that easy to maneuver a real one.
The two-minute video shows Hawk showing off his moves on the latest version of the hoverboard being developed by a company called Arx Pax Labs.
Unlike Hawk's previous video where he is seen maneuvering a fake hoverboard by a fake company called Huvr, Arx Pax Labs' Hendo is as real as it gets. In fact, Hendo even has its own crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter that has raised nearly half a million dollars, more than double the $250,000 that founders Greg and Jill Henderson hoped to make.
"This is real, folks," the Birdman tells his viewers. "This is the real hoverboard right here, so forget everything you know."
The video shows the champion skater riding the Hendo hoverboard, which floats just one inch off the ground but hovers in the air nonetheless. He wasn't able to make it look as effortless as successfully landing another 900 at 43 years old, but he still looks impressed. The footage shows Hawk showing off some of his tricks on the Hendo. He even maneuvers it across a mini halfpipe while falling off a couple of times.
The Hendo isn't perfect yet, and its makers still have to figure out how to incorporate brakes into the prototype. In the video, one can see Arx Pax Labs staff grabbing the hoverboard by hand to prevent it from flying off the skating ramp.
Moreover, it has several limitations that make the adoption of hoverboards as mainstream modes of transport -- a la Marty McFly zooming past cars on the street on his bright pink Mattel hoverboard -- still a thing of the far future.
That's because a hoverboard can only hover on surfaces made from non-ferromagnetic conductors, such as aluminum. That means, city streets and sidewalks will have to undergo a major overhaul if people decide they would rather go to work on a Hendo. In this case, Hawk took the hoverboard for a test spin on a copper-lined skate ramp built inside the Arx Pax Labs headquarters in Los Gatos, California.
Production of the real-world hoverboards will not begin after the Kickstarter campaign ends in December. For those who want their own hoverboard, all of the first 10 units yet to be produced already have their owners' names on them, with each costing a hefty $10,000 to own, and they won't be out until October next year.
