Fabio

Who I am

My name is Fabio, I’m 38 and I come from a small countryside town in Italy, where I still currently reside, in the province of the city of Brescia.

I’ve been passionate about skateboards since I was 15. I started skateboarding practicing with my friends in the streets of my town. In Italy, skateboarding has never been a huge thing: it doesn’t belong to our culture as it does, for example, to the American one. Yet, I was always really fascinated with the skate lifestyle and clothing, to the point I actually adopted it as my main dressing style. The influence may have come from American movies and TV series, but in general I felt it really fit me.

Skate not being a big thing in the Italian culture resulted, especially in the 90’s, in the complete lack of equipped areas for skating. Skate parks almost didn’t exist in the city of Brescia at the time, let alone in the countryside. Skating in the countryside was difficult: the roads weren’t totally well made and the skateboards’ regular small wheels had a few issues on that rough tarmac. Moreover, I live in a hilly location and the streets are very narrow and full of slopes: skating around was actually quite demanding on a regular skate, besides also being dangerous for the lack of appropriate riding space. Back then, I didn’t even know about the existence of longboards or bigger wheels, and anyway I certainly didn’t have the financial resources to buy much, so I stuck with my regular skateboard and used it as I could.

Unfortunately, at the age of 16, I had a small accident while performing an ollie: I broke my ankle and was operated. I had a plaster cast for 3 m o n t h s a n d i t a l l f e l t l i k e skateboarding was an unattainable thing for me: the place where I lived, the lack of skateparks, my goofiness and the absence of a skate culture. So I kinda gave up, also partially because of the fear of getting injured again. Living in an area that’s quite close to the Italian and Austrian Alps, the only riding I could do in the following years was on a snowboard: and so I did. But snowboarding became more and more expensive. The equipment, the travel to the mountains, the ski-passes, which are crazy pricey. It didn’t last long. Plus, I hate the cold weather :

What I was looking for

Growing up, skating had stayed in my heart, even though I wasn’t practicing it. I had always dreamed of living in a place more like sunny California, where streets are wide, well made, where skating and longboarding are a thing and it’s easy to find people to do it with. Then one day I come across some video on Youtube about this beautiful longboard: it was a review and it said “electric”. I was immediately lit up: if it’s electric, and it’s got those big wheels, I could ride it basically anywhere even here on these rough roads! Yes, because riding an electric longboard is basically like snowboarding on an unlimited slope; the only difference is you don’t need expensive ski-passes or super warm clothing to face freezing temperatures. You can ride a longboard for tens of kilometers, enjoying the fresh air underneath your T-shirt, carving along the lakeside cycle-path, on a sunny Saturday morning in the summer. There I was, I had already started dreaming. I was sold instantly: I needed an electric longboard.

How I found out about Exway

So, as I do with anything I want to buy, I started looking for more review videos and blog posts. I love doing extensive research when I want to buy a product, especially if it’s an expensive electric device. I came across a blog post comparing all of the eboards on the 2021 market. It was very well written and I even saved it in my bookmarks to keep it as a reference. I looked up every single board presented on that page: both on the official websites and on YouTube. I immediately understood it was going to b e a n e x p e n s i v e investment, but I had this feeling it was going to be a good one, a crazy good one. I felt 15 again, inspired by the skate culture, relishing the dream of freedom, of moving around on a cool board with music in my ears. It’s in that review, on https://www.electricskateboardhq.com/, that I found out about the Exway boards. I remember they immediately struck me as being among the most attractive ones, together with the Evolve models. I really appreciated being able to analyze the market’s offering per price category: I wasn’t going to be able to spend a fortune, I had a budget and it was around 600 USD.

Why I chose my first board to be the an EXWAY

So I was considering every option, but I had to also keep my budget into account: I wasn’t left with the whole range of skateboards, since the off-road longboards have always been the most expensive ones. Between short skateboards such as the Meepo Mini, the Verreal Mini, or similar ones and the longer boards, I immediately felt more attracted to the longer boards for a variety of reasons: first, the longer battery life, secondly just the looks. At the time, I wasn’t looking for something to take on flights with me or that had to be stuffed in a bag, I just wanted to ride the new e-skate wave and have this amazing unlimited-slope dry-snowboarding experience :) I cut it down to basically 2 options: the Backfire Zealot and the Exway Flex. Both had very good features and looked very attractive to me. I remember also choosing to look for these boards on different channels, in order to see if I had different purchase options, not only through their official websites. Obviously I was looking for a bargain. So I went on Amazon, Alibaba and AliExpress. I found them on Alibaba and decided to contact the sellers to see if I could have more info on the shipping costs, the shipping time and other related info. I contacted both an Exway seller and a Backfire seller. It wasn’t hard to make my choice: the Backfire sellers (I contacted 2) never replied to my multiple info requests. Not even a “hi”. Instead, the Exway seller replied immediately. Not only did she reply and answer all my overwhelming questions (I’m a very choosy customer), she was also very kind and nice to me. She offered to help me with the purchase procedure through the main website: so eventually I did so. When I bought my Exway Flex, I already knew how much the shipping was, how long it would take to get to Italy, whether or not I would have to face any import taxes (I did not), and how long the warranty was. That was certainly one of the best international customer experiences I’d ever had. I felt I could trust Exway 100%. The shipping was incredibly fast. I had my board in a matter of days. Together with the board, I also bought the Cloudwheels and a remote cover. The price was really good overall and there was a discount on the website at the time so I really cannot complain.

How I liked it

When I received my Flex, I was amazed right away even by the unboxing experience. Exway pays a lot of attention to details, from the way the board is presented once the customer opens the box, to all of the items inside. I found this beautiful letter to the customer. That was so appreciated. Everything is well organized in the box and very well protected. It’s easy to find anything in a matter of seconds. There’s a very clear user manual, a tool to adjust the tightness of the trucks, a charger, and the board. Oh, and they always give a cool rubber bracelet in every box. So this was my first electric skateboard and I had nothing else of the sort to compare it to, but materials it’s made of struck me as being very high quality from the get-go.

I took it to the street on the very first day: it felt very comfortable to use. The trucks are very good quality and the looks are glorious. It took me a while to gain my skating confidence back but the board felt solid under my feet and also very forgiving. The communication with Exway was always just STELLAR. Any doubts, questions, observations I made via email were answered on the same day. I was assisted in doing anything I asked for. The Cloudwheels are a very convenient addon, in my opinion. The board is very nice to ride on asphalt but you can still feel the irregularities; using the Cloudwheels, riding is even smoother and more fun. However, I immediately noticed that the board’s wood was pretty delicate: it didn’t take me long before I made a little damage to the nose and the tail. So I decided that bash guards definitely represent a must add-on if you want to preserve the board in a good state. For the price, the Flex definitely IS the go-to e-board. I love it and I have ridden it for over 350km since I received it. It delivers great satisfaction and fun