Wii Fit Skateboard: (October 2019)
Often when I had time to kill in college, I would visit the campus surplus store for the joy of browsing. One could always count on finding a great new gift idea there, or at the very least some novel Snapchat fodder.
This time was no different - the moment I spied a derelict Wii Fit board, this YouTube thumbnail that had shown up in my recommendations prior popped into my head:
Often when I had time to kill in college, I would visit the campus surplus store for the joy of browsing. One could always count on finding a great new gift idea there, or at the very least some novel Snapchat fodder.
This time was no different - the moment I spied a derelict Wii Fit board, this YouTube thumbnail that had shown up in my recommendations prior popped into my head:
Maybe I should've watched the video first to realize how inadvisable a project this was; but when has thaty ever stopped anybody? I immediately impulse-bought it, and then retroactively justified the purchase by deciding I would gift the finished skateboard to a friend whose birthday was coming up. He pennyboarded to class every day, so this oughta put a little more swag in his skate.
Next stop: the Zumies nearby to grab some trucks and wheels. I went with longboard trucks to compliment the board's cumbersome base.
Assembly went down at the machine shop, where there was an open drill press and some stock fasteners I could pull from. I spaced the trucks as far apart as I could to maximize turn radius without the plastic bowing too much in the middle.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the process, so this photo is borrowed from someone with a similar idea! ------->
My friend took it on its maiden voyage on his birthday, and boy, did it control terribly. I took it for a spin as well, but I can barely skate on a professionally-built board, let alone this plastic travesty. He loved the gift, though!
He rode it to class the next day and within 24 hours he had appeared on the Purdue Snapchat story, and he had broken the thing.
Next stop: the Zumies nearby to grab some trucks and wheels. I went with longboard trucks to compliment the board's cumbersome base.
Assembly went down at the machine shop, where there was an open drill press and some stock fasteners I could pull from. I spaced the trucks as far apart as I could to maximize turn radius without the plastic bowing too much in the middle.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the process, so this photo is borrowed from someone with a similar idea! ------->
My friend took it on its maiden voyage on his birthday, and boy, did it control terribly. I took it for a spin as well, but I can barely skate on a professionally-built board, let alone this plastic travesty. He loved the gift, though!
He rode it to class the next day and within 24 hours he had appeared on the Purdue Snapchat story, and he had broken the thing.
Image courtesy of
With lessons learned, I would love to make this again, next time using a Boosted board. The thickness of the Wii Fit board makes a perfect cavity to conceal the battery, and it would be so perfect to retrofit the throttle remote into a Wiimote. But you won't catch me spending $800 for the purpose of making a motorized longboard into something objectively worse.
o7 Wii Skate. May you rest in pieces.
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