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Po-Chih Lai's Staircase-Friendly Skateboard Design

By Rain Noe - June 26, 2012

in Object Culture

I doubt you'll be able to do 360 kickflips on it, but recent RCA grad Po-Chih Lai's bad-ass skateboard can do something others can't: Smoothly descend a staircase.

Fittingly called the Stair Rover, Lai's design incorporates unusual aluminum trucks that come out of the top of the deck, cantilevering outwards to support Y-shaped arms on either side that in turn each support two wheels.

What's super cool is that Lai shows you, on his website, the various prototypes that led him to what would be the final design.

Lastly, Lai got filmmaker Juriaan Booij to shoot skaters cruising London's Barbican on the 'Rover:

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Eric B

12 years ago

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Great use of creative problem solving. The board does seem like it could use some further development / possibly stiff'ning up. Yes I said stiff in reference to wood.
Would like to see the board take on more steps in the video. Does it go up stairs as well?
I'm sure skateboard purest will roll thier eyes but everyone knows its not so much the take off its the landing at the bottom of the stairs that will mess you up. Learn to olie, please might as well say learn to stay in the past and not advance.
Good job overall.
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Graeme

12 years ago

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Uncoordinated hipsters must be stoked, but it's the simple things in life that bring the most joy. Just learn to ollie.
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Jeremy

12 years ago

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you ollie the stairs, not ride em ;)
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ID

12 years ago

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I was thinking exactly the same Sean. I guess a cool sheet of aluminium would do nice :)
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Sean

12 years ago

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A very clever update of the longboard, looks like it soaks up bumps in the road well. Interesting to see how damaged the bottom of the board gets from the stair descents, as it seems to cut it pretty close in the middle of the board
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