Journal:

Riding the Revolution in Electric Transportation

July 6, 2016

When you think of the sports scene in Santa Cruz you most likely think of surfing, mountain biking and skateboarding, which are all powerhouse sectors in our community, but recently our small town on the coast has become a magnet for what could be described as sports tech and the evolution of recreation through electric power. We are home to electric bike companies, electric skateboards, and now a creation in a category of its own, the Onewheel

Onewheel is the invention of Kyle Doersken, founder of Future Motion Inc., who originally started his company in Mountain View and chose to relocate to Santa Cruz to build his team and work on the research, development, and sales of this revolutionary boardsport. We met with Kyle at the Onewheel headquarters in the Wrigley Building, which was formerly a gum manufacturing plant and has transformed into the coolest incubator of art, tech, and active lifestyle oriented businesses, to talk about how Onewheel was born, why he chose Santa Cruz as the home for his business, and where he sees the company going in the future. Listen to the interview below in our very first Choose Santa Cruz podcast.  

To get an exclusive look into the world of Onewheel and the people who are working on this revolutionary boardsport watch their new video, "Inside Onewheel HQ". 

"Obviously people have seen things like Segways in the past and we wanted to create something that is a new sport as well as a new type of transportation. What has been really cool is that high level riders hop on, pro surfers, pro snowboarders, and they are doing amazing things that will blow your mind in the first 20 minutes of riding it."

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We took a tour of Onewheel HQ and got to meet the small but mighty team and see their R&D and testing labs at the Wrigley building. 

"I think in our industry, which is really the intersection of action sports and technology, when you tell people you are from Santa Cruz, the typical reaction is 'of course you are in Santa Cruz!' And, people respond positively to that. Santa Cruz has such a strong brand around surf, action sports, and being this amazing beach town and that resonates in the spirit of all the companies that are from here."

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