AUSTRALIAN COMPANY'S MOTORISED SPORT BOARD TO HIT THE MARKET

A motorised board – the Scarpar – which will give skate boarders, snow boarders, and surfers a motocross-like off-road boarding option, has been awarded a $64,000 Australian Government Commercialising Emerging Technologies (COMET) grant to help bring the product to market.

Nationally, more than $18 million was announced for 38 projects under the two innovation programs.

With twelve years in development, the company said the Scarpar had already received significant interest, with steering of the device achieved via moving the rider's weight in the same way it is achieved with other board-riding equipment. Currently there is no real motorised off-road option for boarders, a hole in the market which the Scarpar aims to fill.

The company is close to securing additional early stage capital, and has had interest already from international manufacturers, retailers and distributors who see the potential to create a whole new vehicle category. A patent application via PCT is lodged and pending on the vehicle.
 
"Early interest in the Scarpar concept has been very high" Scarpar CEO Andrew Fern said. "We have had over 120,000 views of our promotional video and the same number of hits on the website just in the last several months."

"A novel aspect of the Scarpar is its hybrid caterpillar track-curved wheel. Most caterpillar tracks are flat but Scarpar is curved so that it has a profile of a section of a large wheel. This allows the vehicle to travel on all kinds of surfaces including snow, soft sand, mud and rough terrain."

Contact: Scarpar Pty Ltd, Andrew Fern 0412 999 940