Powerisers: More Powerbocking than Powerwalking
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 03.15.08
About a year ago, powerisers provoked a lot of interest among TreeHuggers. Much has happened since then, so here is an update on this extreme mobility enhancement. And a mystery: the Showteam Powerisers Europe. The teaser video, over the fold, promises the premiere of this new powerbocking team on 14 March 2008.
Look for the premiere video as promised. Or see Showteam Powerisers Europe team members live at the "Poweriser - Challenge & Friends 2008" meeting in Lörrach Germany on 5th April 2008.
The term "powerisers" seems to have caught on as a catch-all phrase for many different brand names. The extreme version of poweriser play, Powerbocking, includes gymnastic flipping and jumping displays. The name Powerbocking derives from the the inventor and patent holder, Alexander Böck. Just search poweriser on youtube for a sampling of extreme feats on powerisers.
Difficult to find a year ago, powerisers are popping up everywhere now. A Wikipedia entry makes is easy to find the suppliers of various models of the pogo-stilts. The original spring-boots are the powerskips, manufactured in Germany. In addition to serving as a generic name, the term "Powerisers" is also the brand name of a korea-manufactured licensed version of the original power-skips. Many other licensed brands of similar equipment are competing for a growing market.
Powerisers also have their own social networking site. If you are interested in buying your own powerisers, check out the comparisons and feedback on the poweriserpages. A lot of our readers commented on quality problems in some models, while others raved about their choice. Since the eco-aspect of this gadget is the fossil-fuel free operation rather than the construction, durability is a critical design issue for a positive lifecycle balance, so do your research before buying a cheap pair that will land in the trash. See the original TreeHugger review of powerisers for more information on the tech-check and physiological review of the jumping boots done by German television show Galileo if you want to know more before you buy.
Powerisers seem to be making a splash in the acrobatics and extreme sports areas, but every day exercise and simply getting around remain the intention of the average poweriser fans lacking in superpowers. The girl pictured making time on powerisers in our original article (image, left) identified herself in the comments as Regine Skrydon, an anime artist who uses the speed-assist of powerisers for getting around campus.
Bottom line though: the world probably needs to be car-free so that powerised walkers can enjoy the roads to themselves before commuting by poweriser really catches on. At least you'll be in the know when your friends start talking powerbocking.
Via poweriserpages and poweriser deutschland (German), and powerisers deutschland (English or German).
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Will the Next New Deal be Transit-Based? Three Plans to Rescue the Economy and the Earth with Public Transportation
- The Wilting Flower and The FlowerPod: Two Budding Concepts for Visualizing Home Energy Use
- Oeuf: Good Design is For All Ages
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Wow, knee, elbow and wrist pads, but no helmet? Hmmmmm.
===auth. note===
In the original TreeHugger article, Regine commented identifying herself as the girl in the picture and noted that she was helmet-less only so that a nice photo memory could be captured. Normally, she recommends a helmet!
Still want a pair...but still trying to find an excuse to fit them into the treehugger lifestyle.
Giggle!
I love things like this. Either guys in their 30's who so totally refuse to grow up, or little kids who idolize those 30 somethings...
You know, like skateboards, snowboards, BMX, rollerblades, RAZERs.
And yea, so how exactly is this something to be posted on TH?
Willy Bio, it's TH-worthy because it promotes human-powered transit. XD
It looks a little dangerous to me. I got friends trying to get me into Kite surfing because you can jump much higher and the cool factor compared to windsurfing. The Kite surfers are getting injured ever weekend and now one of my friends got pulled into a church and is dead.
Great! Two hundred pound idiots running and jumping around on the verge of losing control --how does this promote human-powered transit if the average pedestrian has to fear for his/her life on the sidewalk???
There's a shop in California that stocks these. They're supposed to be a ton of fun. No way I'd ride them without a helmet, wrist guards, knee guards, etc.
Here's a link to the shop that sells them for like $470.
http://www.exoticboards.com/catalog/item/2411530/4997135.htm
Terra Verde,
Uh, ok, whatever. Nothing like ignoring all logic. But far be it from me to let you slide on that.
So let's see, first you have to examine the utility of these: Do they really present a viable means of transportation? Are they easily removed and stowed upon reaching destination? Do they increase the efficiency of walking without the undue burden of steep learning curve, exceptional motor skills/balance/coordination? Will large numbers of people actually use them?
Of course, the obvious answer to all of those is a resounding NO.
Then you have to examine the embodied energy in creating them. Basic cradle-grave life-cycle analysis. But since the answer to all of the first questions was NO, its kind of a moot point, figuring out the embodied energy. Whatever it is, its a waste, or simply for the recreation of a very select few.
In case that was too heady for you, how about the fact that a group of teenage boys who I asked about these said, in unison, that they were g*y.
These things are a good decade too late. MTV Sports went the way of the dodo long ago.
Willy, Your questions, which you answer yourself as NO, makes it clear to me that you haven't actually experienced power stilts before.
With spring stilts It's possible for an in-shape person to run 20-30MPH, and sustain a speed of 15mph which means you could run a one mile commute in four minutes. Lets say you live one and a half miles away from a transit stop... six minutes would make your commute alot shorter than a 30-40 min walk. For some people this would be VIABLE. Actually YES they are easily removed. Poweriser Advanced 2008 Models come with quick release snowboard-type bindings so you can go from standing in stilts to standing in shoes in literally 2 seconds, without sitting down. You can carry them onto a bus/train. They are big to carry around but smaller than a bike. But are they easily stowed? Are bikes "easily stowed"? They DO increase efficiency, ordinary walking steps have twice the stride and some energy from each step is stored in the spring and released into the next step.The learning curve depends on the person. They are alot easier than they look! Many/Most of my students can balance on their own in 5-10 minutes. Not everyone can/will be able to balance on them but more than half of the population could become proficient at these in less than a couple days. So the real answer again is YES.
Before you respond to this post, would you like to try it for free? DC Power Stilts offers lessons and FREE tryouts of spring loaded power stilts in the DC area.
Hi i want to buy jumping stilts can anyone help me and tell me where to buy them from ????