Surfers, Boarders Enter No-Spin Zone

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Surfers, Boarders Enter No-Spin Zone
David Lokshin with Trace system.

Snowboarders and surfers are no strangers to boasting about their outdoor conquests.

But a new device about the size of a peanut butter cup that’s tacked onto a board could keep them honest. Every movement can be logged, synced with a smartphone and made “measurable, sharable and comparable.”

That’s the idea for Trace, a device developed by ActiveReplay, a new company co-founded by David Lokshin. Although he envisions Trace for a niche audience, the device’s complexity is also an attempt to take a leap forward in the growing category of wearable tech.

Trace is fresh off a successful campaign on the funding site Kickstarter, where it saw more than 1,000 people contribute $161,260, largely through device preorders. The campaign ended in September and the company has since joined Venice tech accelerator Amplify LA. Lokshin is in the process of putting together a seed round for an undisclosed amount.

Wearable electronic devices that measure and track a person’s motion have already made strides in the running world. Wristbands, such as ones made by San Francisco’s Fitbit Inc. and Fuelband by Nike Inc., have become popular with joggers who want to keep track of their speed, distance and heart rate.

In Lokshin’s view, these devices have relatively crude tracking components – generally one or two monitors – that are best for logging a person’s steps but not for the complex motions involved in action sports.

“There’s a lot of approximation with other devices, and the more you integrate them, the more error you get,” Lokshin said. “They could never do something as complex as rotation.”

Trace’s accelerometers are built to track motion across nine axes and can measure vertical lift, flips and complex motions such as a sharp turn while riding a wave.

With Trace, all the data gathered during a snowboard or surf ride is stored on the device and then transferred wirelessly to a smartphone app.

Lokshin already has some success in mobile software: Two years ago, he and some friends created AlpineReplay, a motion tracker and social network app for snowboarders that claims hundreds of thousands of users.

Trace costs $169 for preorders and $199 once the device is released in January – assuming it stays on schedule. Along with the release will be a new suite of apps designed for skateboarders, snowboarders and surfers.

Beyond the competitive elements, Lokshin envisions a Trace community that can also provide data about which runs on a mountain are busiest or what chair lifts have the longest lines.

The concept touches a bit on driving app Waze, in which a network of commuters gives out live information about traffic conditions and recommends shortcuts. Earlier this year, Google Inc. purchased the Israeli company behind that app for $1.1 billion.

The community idea was a large appeal for Paige Craig, a prolific L.A. angel investor who’s already committed to ActiveReplay’s seed round.

“The hardware is rad and sexy, but the real juice is in the data and the platform,” Craig wrote in an email. “Imagine this massive God’s eye view of every outdoor activity going on, and you suddenly realize that platform is a multibillion-dollar opportunity.”

Grounded in science

Lokshin, 27, initially approached the idea as a side project. Prior to launching ActiveReplay out of Huntington Beach, he worked as an options trader for Barclay’s Capital.

As an Orange County native and lifelong surfer, he was stoked for this particular career turn.

“Southern California is one of the few places in the world where you can go surfing and snowboarding on the same day,” he said.

It also helped that his father, Anatole, is a rocket scientist – a real rocket scientist – who previously worked at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and helped commodify satellite tracking technology while at Santa Clara’s pioneering GPS firm, Magellan Navigation Inc.

Lokshin’s father was instrumental in designing Trace and serves as ActiveReplay’s chief executive officer; David Lokshin is vice president of product. The company employs 10 and plans to expand as it ramps up for release.

Although Trace’s crowdfunding success proved that there’s an eager market, the Kickstarter landscape is also littered with hyped electronic devices that have fizzled upon release.

Crowdfunding hits such as the Pebble smartwatch and the Ouya gaming console racked up millions in donations, only to see their public releases marred by lousy reviews and underwhelming sales.

Lokshin countered that this device has a different appeal. Of Trace’s backers, 75 percent were first-time Kickstarter donors who had just signed up for an account. This, he said, shows a committed crowd of actual users as opposed to hype-fueled techies.

He conceded that getting institutional investors and angels to sign up during a seed round has been a tough slog.

But the idea of finally releasing a device that he would use has its own inspiration – as does the chance to finally see if he and his friends’ tales from the riding waves can carry any water.

“Sometimes you get out of the ocean and you come home and say, ‘I think I caught the best left I ever did in my life.’ At least, it feels that way but you don’t really know,” Lokshin said. “Now you do.”

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