What Is an Electric Longboard Tour? A Complete Guide

An electric longboard tour is a guided ride on a motorised longboard, controlled entirely by a handheld remote, that lets you cover real distance — through a city, along a coastline, or up a mountain road — without pedalling, pushing, or needing any prior skating experience. It's a small but growing category of guided outdoor activity, and if you've never heard of it, you're not alone. Here's what it actually is, how it works, and what to expect.

How an electric longboard actually works

A traditional longboard moves because you push off the ground with your foot. An electric longboard has a motor built into the wheel assembly — ours run on 3,000W Evolve motors — powered by a battery in the deck. You control your speed and braking with a small handheld remote, similar in feel to a video game controller. Push the trigger forward to accelerate, pull it back to brake. You still stand sideways on the board and steer by shifting your weight, the same way you would on a regular skateboard or a snowboard, but you never need to push with your foot to keep moving.

This is the detail that changes everything about who can do this. Riding a regular skateboard well takes years of practice — pushing, balance, foot placement, momentum control all at once. An electric longboard removes the propulsion part of that equation entirely. What's left is balance and steering, which most people pick up within 15 to 20 minutes of focused practice.

Is it hard to learn?

For most people, no — not in the way learning to skateboard is hard. Because the motor and remote handle acceleration and braking, a first-timer's actual task is simpler than it looks: stand comfortably, keep your weight centred, and get a feel for how much pressure on the remote translates to speed. Guided tours build in a training session on flat, quiet ground specifically for this reason, and most guests are riding independently, at a controlled pace, well within half an hour.

The comparison that tends to land best with people who've never tried it: it's closer to learning to ride a Segway or a hoverboard than to learning traditional skateboarding. The balance point is similar to standing on a moving platform, not to the technical footwork of ollies and pushing.

Is it safe?

On a well-run tour, yes. The two things that make the biggest difference are training and pace control. A guide should put you through a proper briefing and practice session before you ever ride on an actual route, and should set the group's speed to match the least confident rider — not the most confident one. Full protective gear (helmet, pads) should be standard and included, not an optional extra.

The risk profile is genuinely lower than most people assume before trying it, precisely because the rider isn't managing propulsion and balance simultaneously the way a traditional skateboarder is. Most falls in board sports happen during pushing and acceleration — the parts an electric longboard removes from the rider's job entirely.

How is it different from a normal electric skateboard you'd buy online?

Consumer electric skateboards, the kind sold for commuting, are usually smaller, lower-powered, and designed for flat urban riding. Tour-grade boards — Evolve is one of the more established brands in this category — use higher-wattage motors built for hills, longer distances, and sustained riding rather than short commutes. The difference matters most on routes with real elevation change, like a coastal road or a mountain climb, where a commuter-grade board would struggle.

What does a typical guided tour look like?

Most operators, including ours, structure a tour the same broad way:

1. Meet your guide and get fitted for safety gear.
2. Training session on flat, closed ground until you're comfortable with the remote and your balance.
3. The guided route itself, ridden at a pace set by the guide, with stops at viewpoints or points of interest along the way.
4. Return to the starting point, typically 2 to 3 hours after you began.

The route itself is where operators differentiate — a coastal ride is a completely different experience from a mountain descent, even on identical equipment.

Where can you do this?

Electric longboard touring exists in a handful of destinations worldwide, usually where the terrain supports it — coastal roads, mountain descents, or scenic urban routes with enough gradient to make the motor worthwhile. In Madeira, Portugal, Eboard Madeira Adventures runs two private routes out of Funchal: a coastal sunset ride to the fishing village of Câmara de Lobos, and a mountain ride through the Funchal Ecological Park that frequently rides above the cloud line. Both are private tours, capped at 3 people, and open to complete beginners. See our tours for details.

If you're the kind of traveller who looks for one activity per trip that you genuinely couldn't do at home, this is a category worth knowing exists.