Skip to main content

You can finally preorder this ridiculous leaf-blower-powered hoverboard

About a year ago, back before the current hoverboard zeitgeist had hit critical mass, a tinkerer by the name of Ryan Craven took the Internet by storm with a video of his own take on the idea. Instead of using fancy supercooled magnets and elaborate metal-covered skate ramps to levitate his board, Craven’s crazy DIY hovercraft –dubbed Mr. Hoverboard— employed four downward-facing leaf blowers. It was absolutely ridiculous, but it ended up working so well that he decided to mass produce it. Starting this week, you can actually preorder a kit to make your very own Mr. Hoverboard yourself — although you’ll have to supply the leaf blowers.

In case you missed the original video, here’s a quick rundown of how Craven’s hoverboard works. Once you’ve attached the four leaf blowers and flipped them on, the air they blast out is redirected out through a special PVC skirt attached to the underside of the board. When air escapes out of the skirts holes, it creates an air buffer between the board and the ground below — effectively allowing it to “hover” over just about any surface. To ride it around, you simply push in whatever direction you’d like to go. Because it’s basically floating, the board will move in the direction of the momentum you apply to it.

Recommended Videos

Related: Hover technology may help your house float during an earthquake

The Mr. Hoverboard kit (which is currently up on CrowdSupply) includes all the wooden components, fasteners, and other materials you need to build the Hoverboard’s deck. The whole thing comes in one box with seven separate pieces, including the board, two “hover discs,” and four blower mounts. These pieces are attached using simple screws and a hex key included in the package, and according to Crave, the entire deck can be assembled in about 15 minutes. The four leaf blowers you’ll need (specifically, Black & Decker LSW20 battery-powered blowers) are not included, but sell for about $90 apiece.

All in all, you’ll need about $780 bucks to complete the Mr. Hoverboard build ($420 for the deck kit and $360 for the blowers), which definitely isn’t cheap — but even at that price it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the Hendo Hoverboard, Lexus Slide, and even that one-wheeled “hoverboard” that popped up on Kickstarter recently.

This was originally a post on our brother site, Digital Trends.

Drew Prindle
Drew is our resident tech nerd. He’s spent most of his life trying to be James Bond, so naturally he’s developed an…
Don’t ruin your cigars: here’s how to properly season a new humidor
Seasoning secrets every cigar lover could use
faceless man presenting a cigar humidor with cigars inside with gloved hands

If you're a newcomer to the world of cigars or just bought a brand-new humidor, you'll need to season it. And no, I'm not saying to add salt and pepper to it. If you've never heard of it, you might ask, "What is seasoning for a humidor?"

Don't think you need to flavor the box or anything — seasoning is really about getting the wood inside your humidor so as not to rob your cigars of precious moisture. Easy to understand, and getting it done is relatively straightforward as well. The trick is figuring out the "why," and we'll get into that in a bit. But let's first discuss seasoning a humidor.

Read more
The NBA’s ultimate celebration tool: The victory cigar
A look at the players and coaches who smoke to celebrate
Jordan smoking a cigar image on a bag

Sports are synonymous with celebration. After winning the biggest trophy of their lives, athletes want to indulge in the payoff that comes with seeing their dreams realized. Teams go into the locker room, where a waterfall of champagne hits them in the eyes, and swimming goggles seem to be a requirement, lest you walk around on the best night of your life half blind. While drinking is often the activity of choice after winning a championship, the NBA has an alternative symbol of greatness that other sports don't use nearly enough: the victory cigar.

Basketball is a team game, but it's also an individual canvas for solo superstardom. After winning an NBA championship, the coaches and players who sit atop the throne have long smoked a cigar in the locker room, during the parade, or even on the bench before the clock has hit zero. There's nothing quite like a good stogie to signify the ultimate win over the rest of the league, but how did the victory cigar get so ingrained in NBA championship celebrations? We want to take a walk down memory lane and look at some of the historical moments and people who made the cigar what it is within the NBA today.
Red Auerbach's victory cigar on the bench
Red Auerbach: The Story Behind the Victory Cigar + His Disdain of NBA Officials - Red on Roundball

Read more
The best medical shows of all time to binge now
From ER to The Pitt, these are the best medical shows ever made
Noah Wyle in the Pitt

Throughout TV's long history, the medical drama has occupied a somewhat unique place in the landscape. Medical shows are often some of the most reliable on TV precisely because there's so much drama built in to working in a hospital.

Personally, I've found the medical drama to be deeply comforting for years, even if I have no desire to be a doctor myself. Understanding the stress of people in the healthcare profession is fascinating in and of itself.

Read more