Caster board
A caster board has two narrow platforms known as "decks" that are joined by a torsion bar, which consists of a metal beam, usually coated by rubber, that houses a strong spring.
[2] Meanwhile, Kang’s company, Slovie, had partnered with another firm, Decolee, to mass-produce boards made of ABS alloy.
"[3] Despite wide popularity at home and abroad in the following years, Slovie’s flagship EssBoard product became a prominent victim of intellectual property rights theft, as “cheap Chinese copycat boards began to erode sales, causing them to dive from 7.4 billion won ($6.5 million) in 2006 to 100 million won” in 2009.
[6] In the interim, his Slovie Co. had licensed the EssBoard patent to legitimate manufacturers, including (in 2006) two California-based companies: StreetSurfing, makers of The Wave, and Razor, which offered the RipStik.
[7] In 2008, Razor secured worldwide rights (outside South Korea and China) to the patent,[8] and by 2010 an industry trade journal noted that “control over the basic caster board patent helped Razor’s sales [over] competing sports products … similar in appearance and operation.”[9] Within five years of the caster board’s invention, before Razor’s version eclipsed the others in popularity, a host of designers had come up with small modifications, and for a time the market supported numerous competitors.
In principle, the act is similar to what is required to propel one who is riding inline skates forward, as opposed to how skateboarders push with their feet on the ground.
Caster boarding has been introduced into many school curricula as a means of teaching the basic movement principles that govern board-sports.
The success in its ability to engage with pupils not interested in sport was assessed in a 12-week, 6 secondary school case study in the UK carried out by Curriculum Ex.
The rider may continue to "hop around" the board until a most desirable foot placement is achieved and for as long as a proper speed is maintained.
A much more difficult means of replacing the feet while riding is attempting to correct only one foot at a time, increasing the risk of shifting their weight too far forward or backward and falling to the ground.
Planet Park (Hachioji city) skatepark in Tokyo, Japan allows only skateboards with four wheels and a single deck.
In 2009, St Helens Council in England promoted the boards in several of its schools, seeing it as a method of inspiring children who would not normally take part in traditional exercise, and praising it as "a fully inclusive activity that requires a great deal of skill and fitness".
