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World's First 'REAL' Hoverboard May Be Expensive and Hard to Steer, But It Exists (VIDEO)

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The world appears to finally be ready for a real live hover board, just not an affordable one that is easy to steer and give you more than five minutes of usage.

On its Kickstarter page, Arx Pax describes its product as the "World's first REAL hoverboard" and the Los Gatos, Calif. company is more than a fifth of the way to their fundraising goal. With 54 days left on their campaign the company has raised nearly $60,000 out of a $250,000 goal.

Signe Brewster, a writer for GigaOM.com, got a firsthand try at the hover board but said the device's battery only lasts about seven minutes and will cost customers $10,000 to buy their own. It is currently slated for an Oct. 21, 2015 release.

"Despite the hefty price tag, Arx Pax... let me take it for a ride Monday afternoon," Brewster wrote. "I wasn't immediately steady enough to jerk the board in different directions, but I kept my balance as it slowly spun in a circle while I bounced between two of Arx Pax's engineers. The board was large, almost like a doublewide snowboard. It felt as if I was standing on a giant air hockey puck hovering three quarters of an inch above the ground."

Engadget's Sean Buckley also got to take the hover board for a spin and noted that it will "only levitate over non-ferrous metals like copper or aluminum."

"The Hendo hoverboard doesn't ride at all like McFly's flying skateboard. In fact, without a propulsion system, it tends to drift aimlessly. Arx Pax founder and Hendo inventor Greg Henderson says it's something the company is working on," Buckley wrote. "Leaning on one side of the board convinces it to rotate and drift in the desired direction. Without feeling the friction of the ground, however, I had trouble knowing how much pressure to exert - Henderson's staff had to jump in and save me from spinning out of control. Clearly, this might take some practice."

The board's inventor also expressed a lofty long-term goal of levitating a house to protect it from being damaged in a natural disaster like an earthquake. Henderson told Buckley that right now the team is focusing on the hover board.

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