Riding a skateboard like a pro takes years of practice. Mastering a hoverboard apparently requires even more skill, based on the difficulty veteran skateboard professional Ross McGouran had staying aboard a new gravity-defying vehicle from Lexus.
Indeed, while McGouran eventually performed cool stunts on the new board, called Slide, he looked wobbly and unsure at first, sort of like Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly taking his first hoverboard ride in ”Back to the Future II.”
The luxury-car division of Toyota Motor Corp. tapped McGouran to demonstrate the new board’s capabilities at a custom-built skate park in Barcelona. His ride, which included a jump over a Lexus sedan, marked the full unveiling of the Slide, which Lexus revealed in June and further teased in a video last week.
For now, the special skate park — Lexus calls it a hoverpark — is the only place the board will work. Magnetic track laid below the surface work with magnets and liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors in the board to allow the rider to cruise above the surface and even skim across water. But it’s no easy ride.
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"I've spent 20 years skateboarding, but without friction it feels like I've had to learn a whole new skill, particularly in the stance and balance in order to ride the hoverboard. It's a whole new experience,” McGouran said in a statement.
The carmaker said the hoverboard is part of its “Amazing in Motion” campaign, which highlights creativity and innovation within the Lexus brand. But there are no plans to sell Lexus hoverboards — yet.