On Saturday we attended the opening of the Tony Hawk Rad Science Exhibit at UC Berkeley Lawrence Hall of Science where the ZBoard is being featured as part of the evolution of skateboard technology.

The exhibit, which is much bigger than just the pictures below, is set to tour the country over the next 3 years. I highly recommend it for anyone with kids aged 14 and under as there are lots of hands-on exhibits that the attendees really seemed to enjoy. Check out the 2012 schedule here.

To mark the opening, Tony Hawk and his crew set up an awesome half pipe demo to teach the thousands of kids in attendance about the science of skateboarding.

Check out the ZBoard on display:

People are constantly comparing the ZBoard to the Back to the Future II Hoverboard, so its pretty cool that the museum put the boards side by side.

Here is a shot of Tony with the History of Skateboarding Exhibit.

Here are some pictures of the demo which was incredible to watch up close.

We've been nominated for an award!

Vote for us here and be entered* into a drawing to win a $250 coupon to our store!

The ZBoard was recently named one of the 15 finalists for the SMART Mobility EnterPrize Award. SMART is a University of Michigan initiative aimed at promoting innovative and sustainable transportation options in our growing cities. Read more here.

Of the 15 finalists, 3 will be selected to attend the Rio +20 Sustainability Conference in Rio de Janiero, Brazil in June. 2 finalists will be selected by judges and 1 will be selected for the “People’s Choice” award through this poll – that’s where we need you!

As of writing this, we are in 14^th place out of 15 projects – not so good. How do we fix this? Offer bribes, err I mean a contest to encourage our community to vote.

So, let us know you’ve voted for the ZBoard* and we’ll enter you in a drawing to win a $250 credit to our store. Depending on whether you have purchased a ZBoard or not, this could mean half off  a ZBoard Classic Pre-Order, an upgrade from a Classic to a Pro, or a huge discount on your future Special Edition Upgrade!!!

*To enter the drawing, send us a Facebook message and state the percentage that the ZBoard is at after your vote. This percentage will be shown after you vote. If it isn't, click "View Results."

Get more entries!: If you share our Facebook status, you'll get an additional 2 entries in the drawing. If you retweet this out to your twitter followers, you'll also get an additional 2 entries in the drawing (meaning you can get a total of 5 entries).

Mention @ZBoard in your tweet so we can track it. Or just click the widget below. If you do tweet it out, send us your twitter handle in your Facebook message.

What a month! Since our last update we’ve passed $250,000 on Kickstarter and had a memorable trip to SXSW.

It has been an incredible ride and all the credit goes out to you fine folks.

The below video chronicles the highlights of our trip to SXSW - a week full of Segway races and laps around the Expo.

Recent Media:

Check out some of the recent ZBoard media - the rest can be found on our Media Page.

"A Wild Ride"	"I was rolling through the newsroom with no problem"	"a great option for people who want to avoid driving"

SXSW has been crazy as $#%$. 

We're here at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, TX and we've been doing interviews, demos, and pitches left and right. All this attention were getting is directly related to YOU folks, so thanks again for your support!

Some highlights:

We won (!) Startup America's Video Pitch Contest! This granted us the opportunity to pitch at their kick-off event. Here is the winning pitch (kinda a silly video but hey, it worked) and here is a picture of us pitching on stage:

CNN: Yesterday, we shot CNN bits with Ali Velshi and Mario Armstrong. Both guys were super chill and we even got Mario ZBoarding around.

At the end of the day, the CNN crew filmed us cruising around their tour bus.

We were told the interviews and riding footage will air on Saturday (3/17). We'll update you folks with the exact time and date when we find out.

Overall the last few days have been nuts and the next three are sure to be similar.

Thanks again so much for everyone's support and check back in for more updates.

CONTEST

If you're on twitter, and you follow folks who are at SXSW (friends, media peeps, celebs, etc), tell em to find us and ride the ZBoard! Tweet 'em something like:

Hey @aplusk you should find those @ZBoard guys from @Kickstarter at #SXSWi and go for a ride! http://youtu.be/j6HAYuNAGzs

Whoever gets the coolest person to tweet about us or meet up with us for a ride will win a t-shirt and decal! Actually, scratch that. EVERYONE who gets influential twitter peeps to tweet about us or meet up with us will get a t-shirt and decal!

Contest ends 3/13. We'll contact the winners through twitter.

The ZBoard was unveiled at CES in Vegas on Tuesday and we got a great response from event goers with countless test drives, pictures, videos, and pre-orders. Currently we're putting together a video of the best rides of the week. We'll publish that video on this blog when completed. 

Some of the Coverage:

"The soon-to-launch ZBoard might be the closest thing to riding a regular skateboard, with an intuitive, hands-free electric motor that accelerates and decelerates as the rider adjusts their body weight forward or backward." http://www.coolhunting.com/tech/electric-skateboards-ces.php

"In a word, this thing is super freaking cool. No handheld triggers or cables, just your feet, just like a real board."  http://hikeclimbsurfrun.com/2012/01/z-board-weight-sensing-skateboard-rolls-into-ces/#comment-624

"Purely awesome"

"The skateboards are the first in the industry to use a sensor motor which adjusts speed based on the riders position and weight; segway style. http://joinbklyn.tumblr.com/post/16062314673/next-stop-hoverboards-introducing-electric

"This is what I need to cover a big show like CES"  http://blog.seattlepi.com/videoblogging/2012/01/10/ces-2012-video-screen-mic-flag-electric-skate-board-company-vlogs-are-best-of-show/

We have announced that if you go to our Store and reserve your ZBoard during CES (January 10th - 13th), you will get $100 off either the Pro or Classic Model when released in March.

Pre-order yours today!

-ZBoard Team