Bonsall fourth-grader Chris Neal, 9, recently was on the Ellen DeGeneres Show to show off the fan-powered skateboard he made for a school project.
Chris said he came up with the idea for the skateboard on his own and built it with help from his great-uncle for the school's tenth annual science fair-like Invention Convention.
Ellen DeGeneres Show producers invited Chris to appear on the March 1 show with the skateboard after seeing a video of student inventors compiled and submitted by Bonsall Elementary School teachers.
Teacher Dawn Sinclair said she came up with the Invention Convention to challenge students such as Chris to solve problems creatively. To participate, students must design an invention that improves upon something that already exists or create an entirely new device to solve a problem they encounter in daily life.
"I told Ellen that you get tired riding a skateboard," Chris said of his idea. "With this one, the fan pushes it so you don't have to push it all the time with your leg."
Chris' mother, Leslie Neal, said she took him to see her uncle, Keith Busby, in Huntington Beach when her son showed her his plans for the what seemed like a fairly daunting project.
"My uncle owns a repair garage in Huntington Beach, so we went up there and started looking around for parts."
Chris and his uncle worked for two weekends to build the device, Chris said. They used a motorcycle battery to power the fan, which can push the board along at 3 to 5 mph with someone riding it.
Neal said she wasn't surprised that Chris and Busby were able to make the idea into reality. The two share uncommon mechanical ability, she explained.
"Last summer he took apart the vacuum cleaner at my mother’s house and put it back together," Neal said. "And it still works, so that’s great."
Several members of Chris' family went with him in mid-February to film the segment in L.A., he said.
"I think I was more nervous than he was," Leslie Neal said of Chris. "I was afraid that he would get a little stage fright because that’s what would have happened to me."
Chris said meeting DeGeneres was fun and that he wasn't nervous at all.
But he said he almost lost his cool when Degeneres gave him an Apple MacBook computer at the end of the segment.
"I was about to faint," he said. "They're not even in stores yet."
The laptop has come in handy since the show, Chris said. He's been using it to write his ideas for future projects.
"I'm thinking about growing up to be an inventor," he said. "I've already got lots of ideas."
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/fallbrook/article_4b061032-821b-5105-96e9-789776c07171.html
