FlowLab.com manufacturers snowboards, skateboards & flowboards

Rating: 0 - 0 votes

Company Logo

Company Name

Company Contact

Website Analysis

Domain Whois

WHOIS information for FlowLab.com

Powered by who.is

Page Type

This page is about a company.

Title

Flowlab homepage

Description

Pieter Schouten and Mike Simonian, two design students attending the Art Center College of Design in Vevey, Switzerland, might describe their pairing as roommates in 1993 as serendipity. Sharing an interest in inventing new ways of doing things, they often hung out for hours on the balcony of their student house exchanging crazy ideas. Both snowboarders, and Mike a surfer since the age of 15, they became fast friends. One idea in particular emerged and ultimately would become a driving passion for the two design students. A board that would perform like a snowboard--but on the asphalt. They found that on a skateboard, you could only lean over a few degrees and then the bushings always gave you resistance in a turn. The two inventors sought a solution that would give a rider the ability to execute more extreme angles while carving without resistance, offering fluid transitions edge to edge. In 1994, Mike, a native of California, convinced his friend to spend the summer in his sunny homeland so that they could continue developing their ideas. Maybe it was the sound of the waves or the energy of the California lifestyle, but during this time the two experienced several critical “light bulb moments”. Pieter came up with the concept for a two-wheeled board with two curved axles with one wheel on each and springs on either side. The theory was that wheels would slide along the arced axles as you lean the board to carve. These “arced axles” would become one of the key elements of the new board design. The two then figured out how to make the board turn. They theorized that by mounting the axles at opposing angles, the wheels would go in a straight line when they were at the top of the arc and that when the wheels slid to either end of the arc, they would have a curved relationship that would result in a turn. The “angled axles” would be a second key element of the new board design. After cobbling together various bits and pieces of hardware from skate shops, hardware stores and industry supply warehouses, the first prototype was born in Mike’s parents’ garage on El Arco Drive in Whittier, California. This location would prove to be an ideal testing ground for the new board sport and would eventually become the name of its technology, “El Arco Axles”.

That summer, between a lot of surfing and hundreds of test rides down El Arco Drive, the inventive duo finally discovered the missing element for the overall design. They had theorized that by spreading multiple wheels along the curved axle, the wheels would always be at the right place at the right time and best of all, other than the spinning wheels, the board would have no moving parts. And the geometry of the wheels would ultimately make the board carve. The carving sensation quickly began to reveal itself. The arced axles allowed the board to lean at extreme angles and the angled mounting points created an adjustable turning radius. The multiple wheels rolled smoothly throughout the full transition of each turn and carved effortlessly down the hill in flowing S-curves. With prototypes in tow, the boards were first tested by skateboarders but without a lot of success. In the mid ‘90’s most skateboarders were all about doing tricks without a great deal of rolling. The inherent benefit for a fluid downhill ride with smooth edge-to-edge transitions was still unknown. However, by watching a variety of riders test out the new product, there emerged a rider who took to the sport more like a surfboard than a skateboard. It was soon discovered that this new breed of asphalt surfing had the potential to cross over between the riding styles of surf, skate and snowboarding sports. Recognizing “flow” as the common thread amongst the riding styles of surf, skate and snowboarding sports, the name “Flowboard” was coined.

The next four years proved challenging. Numerous companies were approached including Powell Skateboards, Morey Boogie Board, pro-skater Rodney Mullen and various other manufacturers. Even relationships with several unlikely candidates such as Nike, Rollerblade and Mattel were explored. But the timing wasn’t right and discussions went nowhere. The two finished their respective college careers and again, by chance, both found themselves in the same city – this time, San Francisco. The year was 1998 and once again they began to tinker with the board. Instead of El Arco Drive, the streets of San Francisco became the new testing ground and the two began experimenting with longer and faster board designs, specifically for downhill racing. With the good fortune of meeting entrepreneur Phil Wessells, together with the original two inventors, Flowlab LLC was formed in 1999. The team turned its energies toward manufacturing and production and by the year 2000, the very first Flowboards™ were being shipped.