I am 44 years old. I bike, I ski, I in-line skate. When I first saw a college student riding one of these, I asked him about it. He said "try it!" I almost did, but I didn't, for fear I would fall and die. I mean, only two wheels? And I didn't have my helmet with me.



I finally broke down and bought one after seeing some cool videos on the internet. After putting on my helmet, and my knee and elbow pads and my wrist guards, I took it out into the parking lot today.



The first ride is very scary, like riding a buttered block of ice, and lasts only about 1 second. After about five rides I'm up to five seconds and smiling my butt off.



For the next half hour I can't stop smiling, even when I fall off (once). After this time, I'm able to make left turns, and I can even go uphill by doing a sort of manic twist to gain momentum. My longest ride is about 30 seconds.



If you consider yourself coordinated, well-balanced, and reasonably athletic, I recommend this product to you, regardless of your age. It works perfectly, and presents a new athletic challenge that is well worth mastering. The independent steering of the front and back wheels adds a whole new dimension to the fun. The challenge of staying on the board will get you sweating without even realizing you are exercising.



The Ripstik Caster Board is a revolutionary product, just as significant, I think, as the in-line skate. Buy one before you get too old for it. 5 stars

What they don't say before you buy is that you can expect to eat up wheels with this board. A 16 year old at 150 pounds ate up the wheels that came with the board in under two weeks.

When contated to ask why, the company immediately blames the inexperience of the rider and tells you to buy more wheels. At $12-$20 per set of replacement wheels, the additional costs mount up quickly. The purchase price is only the start with this product. If your going to buy this, you must also purchase additional wheels. Otherwise the board will sit idle until you can get them.

That having been said, the board is otherwise enjoyable and fun to use. 2 stars

I am 13, i am 5 6 and 130 pounds. i have always had good balance and, extra money. i was looking at this on amazon and the first time i saw it i was like "what?" and then i went over to my friends house and he had one and was like sweet. i was looking a waveboards but he had a ripstick, which i like a lot better.


he has a sort of steep driveway, but not really, so i just stepped on and let the speed keep me balanced. so i guess i am different because he thought i had definatley ridden on one before. i hadnt. then i started ging around his driveway when he told me how to move, so it was a lot of fun. i picked it up you could say in 5 minutes, and then i went out and bought one and mastered it in the first 2 days. now i just do tricks as it gets boring just riding around. i can go up massive hills, but not back down them. i tried that once, picked up a ton more spped than i thought, i jumped off and somersaulted into the pavement and into a telephone pole. there is absolutely no way to stop, you have to carve to slow down!


for me it is a great way to get around, and since not a lot of people have them everyone thinks its really cool when i show them. not really for kids, but my brother is 10 and he learned on mine in about a week. he then went on to buy his own and has mastered it as well. i havnt had any wheel problems like people say they do, and mine are perfectly in tact after having it for 3 months of HEAVY HEAVY riding. mine is all squeaky and stuff, and is very loud down hills, but thats because i trash mine from messing up tricks. its not too bad, but is definatly different than my brother's whose is really silent. he doesnt like to do tricks or anything so i guess that explains why.


very heavy duty, worth the money absolutely. great toy, makes you want to go outside. know your limits and know if you would actually use one of these. id say get one, these things are sick.



*they are higher off the ground than they look in the picture* 5 stars

I bought this thing about 3 weeks ago after I saw a kid riding it around a college campus. After maybe 5 minutes of me holding onto my car to stay balanced, I was riding around nervously. A few days later, I was riding around parking lots, no problem! Much easier than a skateboard.

Now onto durability--3 weeks later, I was carving down a hill just like I'd snowboard. Wicked fun, right? ...Not so much. After only 3 trips down the hill, the back wheel wore ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE PLASTIC. It's completely smoked. 3 weeks, man!

The good news is, you don't have to buy the replacement "ripstik" wheels. They're identical to rollerblade wheels. If you have an old junk pair of rollerblades somewhere, you have 8 spare back wheels. With just an allen wrench, I was able to swap in the ripstik bearing (the inner diameter a little bigger than my rollerblade bearings) into the rollerblade wheel, and I was good to go! The front wheel doesn't wear out (with my style anyway), so I'm good for another 3*8=24 weeks. I'll get back on craigslist to get a new set of junk rollerblades when I need more! 3 stars

I bought this for myself to play with (I'm 35) and after all the presents were opened and toys, video games, and everything were forgotten (about 4 hours after Christmas), this was the ongoing favorite of the season. Everybody, younger (down to 8) and older (to 45) had a blast with this thing after a couple minutes coaching. It's already on everybodys wish lists for upcoming birthdays and such. This is a GREAT present for 11-18 boy. Fair warning though, there will be some good spills on the fairly short, steep learning curve - helmets, knee pads, blah, blah, are a must (and a video camera!) 5 stars