Montrealer ditches law career to make a better electric skateboard

A Montreal lawyer has turned his career on its head, leaving behind his law practice to start his own electric skateboard manufacturing company.

It all started when Alex Archambault, who's been kite-surfing and snowboarding all his life, started an online search for an electric skateboard to commute to work.

"I wasn't so impressed," the 36-year-old said.

He says he found that most electric skateboards were just regular boards with motors attached.

"It seemed like you'd always be putting Tesla technology on a horse carriage."

With the help of two engineers, Archambault made his own. Soon, people were stopping him on the street to ask where they could buy one.

He formed a company called LaCroix Boards with his brother and built the boards from scratch, the way he thought they should be made. The skateboard's deck and electrical technology were built together. 

"You cannot find this deck; it doesn't exist as a skateboard, it only exists as an electric board."

It's also flexible, and twice as wide as a usual skateboard, making it more stable, he says.

"It's much more stable at high speed, it's much more playful at low speed," Archambault said. "It has inflatable tires so you can go through potholes, up a curb, down a curb."

His boards run for over $2,000, and the demand seems to be high — people in Australia, Hawaii, Austria and New Zealand have purchased boards from Archambault, he says.

"Our typical client uses them to go commuting, but they wind up … finding a commute that's three times as long as their regular commute cause they're so fun to ride on."