EL JEBEL, Colo. — For more than three decades, Vaughn Shafer has been building steel sculptures and fueling his passion to go fast.
Shafer is a former stuntman, blacksmith and owner of the Iron Art Shop in El Jebel – a small mountain town about four hours west of Denver.
He’s already built a motorized skateboard using a motorcycle engine to race 90 mph on drag strips, but recently he’s been looking to push that idea another direction.
“Now we have switched it over for the wintertime and I have something brand new that will be exciting for the public and racing,” Shafer said.
Shafer put a 250cc Yamaha engine with a 5-speed transmission onto a snowboard and says he should be able to get up to 70 mph on the snow or up a half-pipe.
“It’s a mix between a motorized skateboard, a motorized snowboard, and a snow machine – we don’t know what to call it,” Shafer said.
Shafer plans to test it out in a couple of weeks, and hopes he can race it at the Winter X Games in Aspen next month.
“I could be one of the oldest competitors and possibly walk away with a gold medal – it would be really cool,” Shafer said.