 Welcome, I'm Peter Rossig and this is the two wheel revolution here on ThinkTechOI.com. This is a show where we talk about micro mobility, personal mobility on electric devices like electric bikes, electric skateboards, electric unicycles, electric scooters and eventually we'll get to electric wheelchairs when I'm ready. But tonight, today we're going to talk about the exception, we're not going to talk about a two wheel device, we're going to talk about a one wheel device, which appropriately enough is called a one wheel. And my guests today are Josh Wheatley, who is with us from Virginia where he is, he hopes temporarily living before he gets back to Hawaii. And Randy Kamahelet, who is here in Hawaii and is one of the founders of a group of people of enthusiasm. So welcome guys, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having us. Thank you Peter. All right. So let's start with the obvious or the simple question. What is a one wheel? Randy, what is a one wheel? So a one wheel is a self-balancing motorized personal electric vehicle, basically, similar to a skateboard except with one wheel and similar to a hoverboard where once you get on it, once you engage it, it's up to you how you want to go, the amount of pressure you put on it, how fast you want to go. So it's okay. What do you mean? We're going to take a picture of one, which is great. Josh, anything to add to that definition? Yeah, it's pretty accurate. It's a self-balancing board. So basically it takes your inner peace and puts you even more peace. It's very fun to get on this sucker and it emulates like surfing, snowboarding, a little bit of skateboarding, but ultimately it's just a whole lot of freedom. It's a lot of just freedom of view of the wheel and your friends and cruise it around. It's a beautiful thing. All right. Can you... Is it different from... I've seen electric skateboards with four wheels and usually the rider's got a hand device to control it. So it's different from that I've taken. It is. It literally... Boom. One wheel device as it goes level. You have yourself a machine that goes, if you lean this way, it goes that way. Pretty fun stuff. If you're on off-road, there's not too much terrain that it can't handle. And the better you get at it, just like anything you become as skilled as Randy, who jumps off of things and slides off of stuff. And me, I just like to cruise nice and easy peasy. Okay. So is it hard to... I've never ridden one. I've never really been on a skateboard. So how's it going to be for me to get on all of these things? Have you ever snowboarded, skied, skateboarded anything like that? The only thing I've got is the original Segway, the two-wheel side-by-side two wheels. And it was self-balancing and it was also very intuitive. After about five minutes, I didn't even think about it. But that's my experience. What's it going to be like? Very similar. Very similar. I can guarantee you'd be able to ride this thing within 10, 15 minutes, at least get up on it, roll around a little bit. You might not have it mastered. I still have it mastered riding five years now. But yeah, you'll definitely be able to get up and have fun within 15, 20 minutes. Absolutely. Yeah. If you can stand, you're able to ride. It's pretty simple. Most people have someone standing in front of them and hold their hands for just a second. As most of us do, learning how to walk or anything of that sort, you put your hands out, you'll hold onto somebody and you feel the balance. Once you've felt the balance, the rest is up to you. It's pretty simple. It's a lot of ankle work. It's a lot of knee work and a lot of hip work. But keep your core centered and very intuitive once you feel the electric vibe of everything. It becomes second nature. Josh, how long have you been riding? Randy said about five years. How about you? Yeah, it was 2018 when they came out with the XR from Future of Motion. It was their second version of the one wheel. I call it a midlife crisis. I don't know, but I went ahead and scooped one of it up and within three days, I learned quickly to wear pads. Yeah, very important. But just like with anything, you stay safe on it and it'll treat you as well as you treat it. It's definitely 2018. I think it's my first pick. My first trip is in February, I think, of 2018. So you haven't ridden for quite some time, many miles. And you raised my next question, really, and that is, what do you do about safety? It's super huge. I'd highly suggest anyone starting off on one of these to at least have a helmet, of course, that's first and foremost, you've got to protect that noggin. And then secondly, I would suggest risk guards. Because of the angle of where you stand on this board, you're very like a surfboard, like a snowboard, your forward foot is turned to the side there. So when you do eventually, there's two types of riders, right, Randy? One that has fallen and one that will fall. So you will fall down, it will happen. And the wrist and hands are the first things that kind of take the brunt of anything. I can say I've broken my wrist. I've had stitches. Randy has a knot on his elbow right now that's probably the size of my head. So we've done our damage to ourselves over the years. So you're having trouble here convincing people who've never ridden to ride. But it's realistic. Anything like this, there's always, you can be careful, you better be careful. You better have safety equipment, but no matter how much you do, there's a risk involved. I think that's true. And with that risk, Peter, there's a lot of reward with great risk. There's great reward. So it's all within your limitations. If you're just taking nice and easy and you're standing on the path, a nice paved path, gosh, anyone can do it from 80 years old to eight years old. Anyone can get on it and do it. It's a matter of how extreme you want to take it. Anyone can ride a bike, but some people jump off of ramps and what have you. Just that's more Randy and our speed. We, you know, we see a lot of people doing in skateboard parks, doing these, in these kind of bowls and bowls and they're going up and slipping around. Is that the sort of thing you would do? Or is that, is that really just for a non-electric four-wheel? I don't want to confirm or deny it, but yeah. One at a time. Let me start with Randy. What do you say? Sorry. No, yeah. So that's kind of, we've kind of tried our luck at it. Then the boards take a beating, you know, because it's concrete and stuff, but I mean, yeah, we're definitely trying to progress into that. That's kind of the next stage of it, right? And you can only do so much on flat land. And that's kind of where this thing is going now. There's guys in the main line, like Kyle Hansen and Brent and Sharma, who were like using these things called flight fins that you attach to your one wheel. And your feet kind of get locked in. Where, yeah, they're like riding around skate parks, like the skateboarder, you know, they're doing tricks, getting the hips, coming over doing transitions. So the sport is definitely taken off and it's progressing. It's really like cool to see how fast it's going, you know, taking off and the way it is. Really? Well, for most of us, it's not going to be slipping the board or flipping, you know, that kind of stuff, I would say. Because just like any sport, the pros can do it, but the amateurs better be careful, right? Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. All right. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the Hawaii float. Randy, you're one of the founders or the founder of the float. Tell us what that's all about. Well, so it started out, it was just a field was that we still meet up and ride, you know, I mean, these things are expensive. It's not like they're going around a lot before COVID and stuff. Once COVID hit a lot more people have their stimulus checks or whatever, you know, wherever people got money from, they started buying, you know, you just started seeing them more and more. So our grief started, there was two of us, then there was four of us, then there was six of us. And now I'd say there's, you know, we're in the hundreds now as far as they drew not every night on a Friday night, but we meet up and we'll run like 30 to 40 people out there on a good night. And where do you start? So there's different locations. We usually meet up in town by coca-cola across from bike factory. Shout out to bike factory if that's okay. Not the bike factory. Yes. But yeah, we meet out. It seems to be a pretty good central place. We have a good right from there, the coca-cola to magic island to the fountain and wiki key. And it's just a good vibe in wiki key and everybody wears their gear. Everybody safe. Everybody has fun. So it's, it's one of our stops. So if I show up without a helmet and say, can I ride with you? Do you guys tell me to go home or what's the deal? I usually got an extra helmet or somebody else does, but I mean, you're walking around however you want to ride. You, you, you know, you're, you're your own man, you're your own woman, man, whatever, you know, you do what you do. Like, okay. But you definitely say you're sure you want, wouldn't you rather have a helmet? Wouldn't I, I would, I would. I've, I've learned the hard way. Like Josh said, I got staples and stuff like that. So to each his own, I definitely highly recommend them. You know, and what's kind of cool about the main line is like they're kind of making it a mandatory thing, which I was kind of talking to my buddy Steve here, who is the founder actually of Hawaii float sessions. What's that name again? So it's a Hawaii float sessions. Who is the founder? So it's Steven Neblato. He's a good friend. Okay. He's on Instagram at Hawaii float sessions. Okay. Instagram tag and. Is that where we were? I mean, it's all about us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's all about the group though. I mean, we kind of started it. He kind of came in and we just kind of took over the name Hawaii float sessions, but it's always been. Oh, one wheel, which is how I met Josh over that. He just saw videos of mine that I would post about the rides here. And I just, I kind of got into editing, which is another beautiful thing about one wheel where like, I didn't realize how much fun I'd have, like actually videoing other people writing and doing the editing, going through it. And just that whole sequence and do or not that whole, it's just, it's just another whole element of it. Yeah. It's, it's how I met Josh, like I said, so he actually would contact me and like, Hey man, I, I saw your video. You know, that's awesome. You know, you make me want to move to Hawaii. Yeah. She moved to Hawaii. So you can finish that job. So I mean. Yeah. You moved to Hawaii to juice to join the one wheel. I wouldn't say go that far. My wife will kill me. No, but we, we, we had an opportunity to move to Hawaii. My wife and I, but I didn't know anybody on a Wahoo. Specifically, I know a lot of people in Kauai, but I didn't know anybody on a Wahoo and I reached out to Randy when I first got to the island and I've been floating for quite some time. And there's, there's a joy in floating by yourself. Sure. They call it float therapy, but there is just something just more better. It's more better when you get the whole crew together and we can just all float together, keep everybody safe too. And so I reached out to Randy and I said, man, I've been watching your videos and I would love to, to find some cool trails. You guys have some amazing trails. And then Randy showed me a little spot on a map, you know, said show up here first thing in the morning. And I did. I couldn't be happier that he, that he did. I was the slowest one. I couldn't keep up with all of them because they know the trails like the back of their head. But yeah, I come in happy and smiling like a little bearded turtle. And these guys got jerseys and the crew got together and we all got jerseys and numbers and just, there's a lot of pride and a lot of, he made it in our state. He said it's a great, good time. It's a great time. But we get together through going through Waikiki and sharing the aloha and just spreading that amazing vibe and good energy, just always good energy. I have so many amazing stories from the friends I've met and have to this day from just a simple, nerdy little one wheel that we all wanted to get together and ride together, you know, made some amazing friendships over. Wow. That's terrific. I gotta say, I rarely, you see the more and more on the streets of Honolulu and I rarely seen anybody go by that wasn't basically smiling. It's like, whether you're commuting to work or just out for a float or a cruise or whatever, people really seem to enjoy it. So that's, you know, that's a great recognition to me. Have you ever seen anyone on a surfboard looking angry? So it's the same vibe. Yeah. Okay. Good comparison. So you brought something up and it's not just a street or a pavement kind of device. You can also go off road with it, so to speak. And we've got a little video and why don't we see that video now and see what the possibilities, some of the possibilities are. Where was that, Randy? So that's actually a place we call Disneyland. And it's a secret spot. You don't have to tell us where it is if you don't want it. There's better spots down the road. Yeah. We better keep that one a secret spot. All right. Yeah. Is that in Disneyland? Yeah. It's just like surfing then, right? You don't want to give away too much about your good surf spot. I got that. Well, we take pride in that spot. And we actually take time to go out there and rake and pick up trash and, you know, like, we take care of that spot. We take pride in that place. We've been going out there for quite a few years now. People come and pass through there. And, you know, we see trash and stuff out there. And it's like, we know it's not our trash. So we try to keep it to a minimum. If you find it out there, God bless you. Have fun. Be safe. But, you know, yeah, we call it Disneyland. I was just on the Pearl City bike path on a tricycle, actually. And, you know, it's a great path, but it gets overloaded with trash and everybody, you know, their periodic cleanups. But unfortunately, people just can't seem to respect something like that. Then want to leave cars and everything else behind. It's one of the tragedies of urban life, I guess. But, so, the, how long, if you're doing that trail, and don't tell us where it is, but how long, say you, how long is that trail? Half a mile, a mile, or where you could, before you have to turn around or whatever. I'll take this one. So Randy has been riding for quite some time, and all the guys on the island, they have upgrades that you can do to these boards, Peter. So that particular trail, I mean, we put easily 10 to 15 miles a day when we go a dual route through that. Yeah. So, but that's nothing compared to all the way up Diamond Head and back in one evening. We'll end up putting 18 miles or so, 20 miles on a board. And you have to have legs of steel for that. So sometimes these guys ride real hard, but there's a lot of fun upgrades you can do with the older models, the newer models, they come equipped with a blue top 25 to 30 mile range fully charged. So they fully capable. In fact, you mentioned the Pearl Harbor Bike Trail, which is a great trail. We have a good friend who, I call him the Island Doctor, but brother Jay, he takes care of all of our one-wheels. He's a little electrical genius, and he tweaks them up when we bang them up and all that fun stuff. And he rides all the way from Eva to Pearl City every day down that path. And what a beautiful way to save even on gas. It just has this nice sand moment to clear your head before you get to work. Man, the stuff is better. Yeah, up there. That's interesting. So what an older model, let's say, not this new one that's kind of 25 or so mile range. What's the typical range on a regular run of the mill model? About 15 to 18 miles on a full charge, depending on your weight and how hard you're riding. It definitely changes a lot of the variables, but correct, correct. It definitely helps. Actually, it's a fun thing. When you go in downhill, you manage that. They have this thing called regenerative power. So you can regenerate power as you go downhill. It's a pretty nice feature. Get an extra mile or two range. All right. And how long, if I've run my board out to almost empty or empty, how long does it take to recharge? I'd say about an hour, about an hour or so. So depending on your charge, you can get fast charge buying. You can get fast chargers and make it even faster. All right. Yeah, absolutely. And that all comes to charger. All that kind of stuff comes with the kit, I'm sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. And on the island, one of the more notorious places, again, bike factory sells them in house there locally on island. So that's good to support local. All right. And there, what's the... I suppose there's a warranty when you get a new one, but how often do these things go the fricks on you or have to be repaired? It just depends on what you ride. What you've done to it. I know it depends on what you rode it into, but in general, are they pretty good machines or doesn't seem like there's a lot of loose stuff hanging off it that could get broken or whatever. No. These are just like a tank. All right. Josh, I noticed your boards look a little bit... We have that picture that was just up on the screen. There it is. Those boards look like they've been written once or twice. They have and they definitely have some love. Everyone kind of puts your own flavor into it, if you will. So I've customed a lot of things, custom bags and things of that nature. There's a lot of different great companies out there, third-party companies that sell aftermarket stuff for the one wheel. So you can really kind of make it your own. They've got shredded tires. They have slick tires. They're all air-filled tires. So it's kind of like going to a car show and seeing two of the same cars. It's not really going to happen, you know? So yeah, make them your own. And on the mainland, like you're in Virginia, have you found float groups or have you found other enthusiasts or are you kind of the lone ranger when you're out riding around? Particularly right now, being that I just moved back from Hawaii, I have not found a new clique here, but I know there are a lot of DC riders that go ride through down Washington DC. In fact, Javier, he's the number one rider in the world with his canning title. I don't want to say the wrong number, but he's well over the 18 to 20,000 mile range on his board. Yeah. And we have a holocawee in Oahu there. I have Fiesta Mike. A little shout out to him. Fiesta Mike is number five now, Randy, or four in the world with miles. Five. I think he's five now. Yeah. He's got a lot of miles. I want to say he's at 16 or 17,000 miles on his one board. So that is, that's durability. I don't know if I can keep my car going that long. So that's terrific. Yeah. So Randy, if I show up, again, if I show up and I bring my helmet and I show up and cock, cock, oh, it's Friday nights, right? So what's going to happen when I show up there? What do I do? I look for you? Do I look for somebody else? Tell me about showing up as a complete newbie for the first time at the Hawaii. Well, it pretty much happens every week. It's kind of the beauty of it. Like, as we're writing, we'll see people and they'll be like, hey, I see you guys. Can I come out? And we're like, yeah. You know, what we run into a lot is people will see us writing and they're like, I see you guys all the time, but I'm too nervous. I'm too nervous to come out. I'm not that good of a writer and stuff like that. And the thing with us is like, yeah, people are going to go fast. They're going to be doing their own thing, but there is no speed limit. You go at your own pace. Only you know your limits. So you just sit down and say, if you came out, you'd be encouraged to like get better and be like surrounding people who are just trying to have fun and are trying to make sure you get better, make sure you're comfortable. I mean, there's no pressure or something like, oh my, come on. That's all you got. You know, it's more like, right on. Welcome to the family. Immediately. Yeah. I'm still welcome. For sure. Immediately. Yeah. Yeah. I've never met anybody in this crew, even though it was years ago. I joined. I, I didn't know anyone. And all I did was just try to keep up as best I could. And they're, they always will stop at certain points to make sure everybody's gathered up that we didn't lose anybody along the path. You know, it's very respectful that way. And it's beyond just the pushing yourself to get better. It's, it's in life too. I've had some great conversations with some of these, the group of guys and fives that are out there. People that would just need someone to float with, don't even like to talk sometimes. They'll just come out and ride with us and, and we accept everyone from all shapes and sizes of life. And it's a beautiful thing. The Aloha is very strong with the Hawaii float such crew. Yeah. That's terrific. And what happened at the end? Does everybody go for a, a Coke or an adult beverage? Or what happens if, when you reach the finale or does everybody, I guess people have to head back somehow. Yeah. People break off at their own times and you know, and they're, yeah, I got to go here. People, a lot of people live in riding distance and they ride to the meetup and then ride from there, which is nice. You know. Um, yeah, everybody just kind of breaks off in their own roots. People do go have adult beverages. People do go have Coke. People do go have late night food, you know. Um, What is one of the, So it's interesting getting back. Getting back. Like when you do a swim, you finally fall out of the water and you think, geez, where do I live? My slippers. So, but you can carry this sort of thing on the, on the bus, right? I mean, you or any kind of, you know, I mean, the trains, if you happen to be going in that neighborhood, but you can pick it up. How much is one of these guys way? They're pretty heavy. I mean, 30 pounds. Oh, it's just going to show off here. Come on. 30, what do you, what do you say? What's the weight? They're actually about 20, 25, 25 pounds. 30 pounds. Yeah. I've got a lot of stuff on my mind. But you can, there is a handle or a place where you can hold on to it and pick it up and, uh, and sling it up on the bus and, and get back to wherever you're going. Right. So you're not, you know, you can put a bicycle on the front of the bus, but sometimes, you know, the bike racks are taken and, uh, I don't think you can get a scooter on a bike on a bus these days yet. So who knows? Well, in terms of what it can, what it can do. Yeah. Actually, yeah, there's two, two different models. There's a pint X and then there's a GT. So the GT is the bigger weighs about 27 pounds, 28 pounds stock. And then the pint X is about, about 22 pounds. So it's really quite versatile. The range is different for both of them, of course. And, uh, I don't want to give inaccurate statements on how long they're, but they've definitely upgraded them, the pint X and the, and the bigger version than GT. They go pretty long distance in a very, about 25 pounds. So yeah. And you either go to the bike factory or Honolulu, or I imagine one wheel.com will get you to the. Yeah. The website. We're reaching the end of our show. And I really appreciate you guys talking about it. Cause, as you figured out, I've kind of seen it go by, but I've never really understood that much about it. I've never understood that much about riding them. And it looks like fun, but then I, you know, you guys really bring that home. Let me give you each a minute and say, you know, if you want to say something else or what you tell people who ask you, you've got a minute to get them on a board. What would you say to them, Randy? Why don't you start out? What's your, anything else you want to add? Oh, like I said, it's, it's all about just having fun on it. Being original, right? You're doing your own thing now. It's, it's the freedom for me. It's therapy. You know, it's, it's really when I'm on the board, it's like, that's all you're thinking about. No bills. Definitely. You know, you pay my lump sum and then you use it as much as you want. You know, that's right. Thank you. That's our Josh. Give us your last, your last word here. I mean, like I said earlier, this is definitely a great risk, great reward. I would suggest anyone try it. Make sure you wear the safety gear and don't be afraid to just go up to anyone else that has a long wheel and say, hey, I want a will to because you meet some of the best people on the planet and you do. We're all just happy floaters. And that's what we'll continue to do. Float, float, Aloha. All right. That's terrific. I really appreciate you guys coming on. This has been the two wheel revolution talking about the one wheel, which you can find at the bike factory or perhaps some other stores here and you can find it online. I encourage people to give it a try. And if you get to the point that you can go a block or two, show up for the Hawaii float and meet some very interesting people, men and women. So this has been think tech Hawaii, the two wheel revolution on Peter Ross. Thank you so much for watching. And we'll be back in a couple of weeks. Aloha guys. Thank you so much for watching think tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please click the like and subscribe button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Check out our website think tech Hawaii.com. Mahalo.