As an electric bike/car enthusiast and snowboarder, I’ve always wondered if an electric, cross-country snowboard would be possible. You know, when the mountain isn’t available? Cyrusher’s $3300 Ripple is one of the first attempts at building such a monster.
Because of my dual love for snowboarding and electric mobility, I got a Ripple ad in my Insta feed yesterday. Now I can’t get the idea of an electric snowboard out of my mind.
The lone official Cyrusher Ripple Youtube video, uploaded 11 days ago, looks absolutely frightening with the spiked metal wheel in the back spinning a few inches away from the rider’s hands and feet. The goofy riding user also seems to be riding on a mountain, which kind of obviates the need for a motorized board. Then he switches to what looks like the last day of snow on an east coast mountain with grass and rocks everywhere. He doesn’t seem to be doing much carving either which doesn’t seem like a ton of fun.
The Ripple is a 3kW motor attached to an electric clawed wheel in the rear of the board.
The quite large, squared battery lives in a backpack and is attached to the snowboard via a cable. Like electric skateboards, it is controlled with a handheld trigger.
Cyrusher says this thing has some pretty nutty specs:
- 50km/h or 31mph top speed
- 15-20km or 12 miles of range
- 3kW of motor power
- 12.6Ah Battery and assuming ~50V around 630Wh into a backpack with USB ports.
- 156cm deck size
- Weight: 15kg (33 lbs)
There’s a lone Youtube short of someone successfully testing out this thing:
As for competition in the electric snowboard, there’s also a Russian tank track scooter that has been around for a few years but sadly hasn’t been seen in western markets, as well as countless DIY projects.
Cyrusher announced a 44mph electric surfboard back in September and one has to wonder if these are just marketing tools to bring users to the site to buy Cyrusher’s solid e-bikes.
City Dwellers’s Take
I’d love to try the Ripple electric snowboard but I’m not sure this would prove useful in too many situations. It could be useful to jump on a cross-country skiing trail or to go up a mountain that would be then snowboarded down – similar to riding an e-bike up a mountain and then taking it down like a downhill bike.
I have to wonder however if the all-terrain scooters, like this one from Zondoo would be better in the snow if their wheels were replaced by the Ripple snowboard’s rear metal spool.
That said, I’d love to try this thing so if anyone at Cyrusher is reading this, get in touch!
And of course, I’m reminded of this:
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