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Christopher Lloyd and Tony Hawk endorse AWESOME ‘REAL’ hoverboard

Giuseppe Macri Tech Editor
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An all-star team of celebrities, including skateboard legend Tony Hawk and Dr. Emmett Brown himself, came out to endorse the Back to the Future tech we’ve all been dreaming about since the imagined version first hit the big screen – a “real-life” hoverboard.

“About 25 years ago I played Dr. Emmett Brown in the film ‘Back to the Future II’ – a landmark film that amongst other things introduced the concept of hoverboards to the world,” Christopher Llyod narrates as he steps out of a DeLorean carrying a large black case in a video posted to YouTube Monday.

“Now at the time as much as we all wanted hoverboards to be real, of course it was an impossibility,” Lloyd says.”But I’m proud to announce that thanks to the clever folks with HUVrTech, the technology has caught up with the concept.”

What follows is an incredible video featuring stars like Tony Hawk, Moby, Terrell Owens, and Bethany Cosentino riding what appear to be real hoverboards – including one modeled exactly after one Marty McFly commandeers in the film.

“Once I got on it, it felt natural,” Hawk says between riding takes. “I’m still in shock that I’m doing it, that I’m just here riding this thing. I was hovering – it happened, in my lifetime.”

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The video includes the disclaimer “the following demonstrations are completely real,” with one HUVrTech representative claiming the “board has more technology within it than the satellites we sent in space in 2010.” The company reportedly behind the breakthrough even released a follow-up video featuring Back to the Future actor Billy Zane that explains how it works.

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Despite the company’s assertions, numerous internet sources have labeled the campaign a fake, and speculate it could be an impressive public relations push for something like the next Tony Hawk video game to Back to the Future part IV. HOVrTech’s website features a countdown clock to December 2014 as the “destination time” for whatever the campaign might be for. The style and format of the clock matches that of the “time circuits” in Back to the Future’s time-traveling DeLoran.

Whatever it is, there’s certainly some serious money and influence behind the impressive campaign, from the star-studded line up to the incredible quality of the “product” and demonstration videos.

Real or fake, it’s certainly interesting to watch.

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Giuseppe Macri