Silicon Valley Company Develops “Hendo,” Real Hoverboard It Hopes Will Keep Us Safe From Earthquakes

Lots of companies talk about their "float." For the employees of Los Gatos-based Arx Pax, their product has extra bragging rights. It really does float. It's a working hoverboard. Kind of like what you remember Michael J. Fox riding on in "Back to the Future Part 2."

NBC Bay Area got a chance to glide around the Arx Pax warehouse in it for a little bit, and watch real surfers take it for a very fast very cool spin. This is the real deal, part of a Kickstarter campaign to get the hover technology into the hands of developers, while possibly keeping us safe from future earthquakes.

Earthquakes?

"In the event of an earthquake," says company Co-Founder Greg Henderson, "the ground can shake, but the building would stay still." This would happen if the magnetic technology that floats the hoverboard were used underneath your house.

How does it work? A magnetic field pushes the board into the air. Four circular hover engines generate an electromagnetic field over the copper flooring, which creates an opposing field. The two fields then repel one another.

Henderson's co-founder, Jill Avery Henderson (yes, they're married – it's why the hoverboard is called the "Hendo") adds to the long-term mission: "It's not all about hoverboards. It's a wonderful springboard to take it where it really needs to go, a better world."

A world where we might float, instead of shake.