Anyone who knows me knows I think a lot about the "perfect mobility solution" – with my own definition of perfect. As a friend of quiet motors and silent power, electric drive is an obvious choice for me. But the perfect vehicle can also be moved by muscle, so I'm not dependent on batteries. And I want to be able to tuck it under my arm afterwards, to take stairs or walk into a building. It should also be a single device, so there's only one thing to keep track of – imagine finding just one inline skate.

With these (incomplete) demands I quickly arrived at an electric skateboard. The remote control soon became a thorn in my side. Back in 2017 there were hardly any sensible boards without one; most worked by shifting your weight, which causes trouble on inclines. So I had to build it myself.

Two switches in the deck act as brake, cruise control or throttle, depending on what your feet do. People were sceptical – it worked beautifully. Even experienced skateboarders who tried it were positively surprised by how usable it was.

What I found out unpleasantly later: electric skateboards are not road-legal in Germany. So I had to take it apart again and have been waiting for legalisation ever since :') Until then I'm looking towards pedelecs and recumbent trikes, and occasionally reminisce about relaxed cruising.

Technically the project was my first contact with microcontrollers (Arduino, later ESP32), soldering, battery building, motor control, UART, skateboard construction and a great deal more.