A little bit about me

Growing up as a kid I was always seeking out different modes of transport. For me at the time it was all about bikes, mountain bikes in particular. But it was something about the thrill of speed and the go anywhere attitude that had me seeking more. Looking back I find it strange that while I did experiment with a few skateboards in my time as a youngster, they never really held my attention for too long. I was not one for small wheels or wanting to hang out with the scary older kids, or call attention to my lack of understanding of how to do tricks. The whole culture can be touch-and-go depending on the company you keep.

Years later, working as a Designer in the inner city of Melbourne, I found myself needing a new mode of transport, as driving and public transport

came with its own set of limitations and costs. So I found what I believed to

be a viable solution, a folding bike from the company ‘Dahon’.

The Dahon

This was a fantastic idea for several months. Being small enough to fold up and carry on trains and trams or throw in the boot of a car, it helped me with those last mile transport situations and got my mind and body active in the mornings, which has got to be a positive, right? But a time came when I eventually grew tired of having to fold the bike up, lock it to posts, carry it up stairs and so on, so another solution was in the back of my mind… A skateboard! Or to be more accurate, a longboard, as they were more appealing to me. Being able to simply use a longboard for transport — something that was lighter, smaller to carry, less maintenance and lets face it, a little cooler looking than the man/bike transformer hybrid I was use to.

A local skate shop sorted me out with a Loaded Dervish, which I still own to this day. The bamboo board was super flexy, looked great with purple Orangatang wheels and was far easier for transport. After a few days I was more than comfortable cruising to work with my board, headphones in and coffee cup in hand. The perfect early morning combination!

The Loaded Dervish

My love of longboarding grew over subsequent years. I started to follow the progress of the whole electric skateboard scene that was starting to take shape with early boards coming to the market from companies like Fiik and Evolve, but they simply weren’t to my liking. These early model boards were very heavy, used sealed lead acid batteries, had short range, long charge times and were just not ‘there yet’ in my mind. That all changed in 2016 when upon seeing the marketing material for the Evolve GT, it was a light bulb moment for me where I said, ‘okay, looks like these products have hit that point where it is time to take the plunge!’ A rather expensive $2000+ plunge none the less. Yet, this is where our story starts.

Evolve GT Carbon in street configuration

Putting the band together

After pulling the trigger and waiting months for my pre-order Carbon GT 2-in-1 to arrive, when it finally did arrive I spent the next few days getting used to the board, swapping from street set-up to all-terrain (AT) and having a blast… when the board was actually functioning properly (I may touch on this in another article). Nonetheless, I found myself zipping around the streets, but not seeing anyone else doing the same! Were these products simply too new? Did people not know they existed? I would constantly get stopped in the street and asked what I was riding — a very foreign feeling for me. That’s when I decided to do some searching on the internet to find out if other like-minded riders were in my area. The Evolve board came with a link to a smart phone app that was meant to be used to track rides and help connect fellow riders, but frankly the app was under developed and to this day is practically useless.

I received an email saying that I should check out a YouTuber called Jay Boston. I had been following the well-known Casey Neistat before purchasing my Evolve GT, who is of course entertaining, but it was quite interesting to see that in my home town of Melbourne there was a similar, but also very different electric skateboarder / urban explorer who was putting out great content. So I sent Jay a message. He was riding one of the older Gen 2 boards from Evolve at the time and was wanting to test out the latest in the GT range.

So we caught up and spent the day chatting all things esk8.

After catching up with Jay Boston a few times and realising just how much fun it was riding with others and sharing a similar interest, I decided that because there was no real community in Melbourne, or Australia for that matter, why not take the step and create our own!

Current social media banner art

In August 2016 using the worlds largest social media platform (Facebook), I was able to create a Group and a Page to help connect riders from around the area. Things started slow with about five members, but the concept took us all by surprise as the group steadily grew to the 430+ that it is now.

Back then we were then known as “The Evolve Riders Melbourne” — as was the naming convention at the time. In our local area, and in most of Australia, there was only a handful of stores that stocked electric skateboards and Evolve were the only real option for customers, so the name reflected the reality of the market. Our name changed the first time a few months later. Evolve (the company) wanted to take control of the existing, organic rider groups that were starting to emerge across the country, which we declined. They subsequently created their own “Official” Evolve Riders Melbourne Group… So our name changed to the “Original” Evolve Riders Melbourne, but soon after the time had come to shift to something a little more brand agnostic… Electric Riders Melbourne it was!

Not just a group, a community

Group rides don’t just happen, they have to be planned out. This means taking time to use Google maps and/or scoping out an area before hand, finding the most suitable riding tracks for different types of boards and calculating the total distance of rides in order to let people be aware of battery range (as some boards have far smaller battery packs) — so a planned coffee/beer stop to refuel our boards and bodies is often required.

We also aimed to do our best to spread out the locations and times so that everyone could have a chance to attend group rides. There are also things like safety checks (to prevent cross remote connections — more on this in another article), first aid kits that we try and bring along to every ride — as taking a fall at any speed can ruin your day, no matter how skilled you think you are at riding the un-thinkable can always happen, so being prepared helps.

During the following months I found it difficult to run the group on my own. It was fantastic to have so many helpful riders put up their hand to help out. They have been a integral part of helping the group run smoothly. Jay Boston was able to do what he does best and help document our group rides and get the word out via social media/YouTube videos, and Chris McGrath became our go-to man for technical wizardry and board fixes.

From left to right: Warren, Jay and Chris

Teaming up with local skate stores also proved to be a great asset. I cannot recommend enough the lovely folks over at TwelveBoardStore in Richmond for their assistance as our group has grown over the year.

It is now towards the end of 2017 and what a year it has been! We have held group rides as often as we can and in all sorts of interesting locations, from parklands, inner city runs, F1 tracks, Subaru test tracks and indoor electric go-kart Tracks to name just a few. With the Aussie summer just around the corner, BBQs and beverages will be on the cards, for sure!

With riders of all ages from 14-55, everyone has been so positive and helpful. Lending a hand when needed and keeping an eye out for any of the first time riders. This is truly a second family for many of us and the fact that the whole crew embrace each other is something that in the back of my mind I wish was something that was around when I was growing up.

It just goes to prove that the ‘big kids’ aren’t always full of attitude. The whole idea is to be able to get out on a weekend, ride with like minded people and learn a sport in a safe and friendly environment, which not only benefits our riders, but the industry as a whole.

We have been running the group for over a year now and there are no plans to stop any time soon! We have some exciting things planned for our riders and I think we have shown the world that there is a safe, respectful and thriving electric skateboard culture in Melbourne, and we are very humbled to find that each month we are being contacted by companies wanting to work with us to further boost the sport.

Long gone are the days where there was only one or two options for boards. Now we have the likes of Evolve, Boosted, Jedboards, BajaBoard, Enertion, and so many more, which only means that this will help keep the market competitive and strive to create higher quality boards. But it is a slippery slope… As we all know no board is perfect, and each have their own areas that they excel in. So be warned riders, once you catch the bug, it can be quite addictive!