A Billionaire's Hobby Horse
from
September/October 2007
by Bonnie Azab Powell
Service on public boards is not for Steve Wozniak, 57, who helped midwife the personal-computer revolution in 1976 when he and Steve Jobs started Apple. First he stayed in launch mode, co-founding the technology start-ups CL9, Wheels of Zeus, and Jazz Technologies. He did serve briefly on Jazz’s board before it went public and was known as Acquicor Technology. These days board service for Woz, as he’s widely known, is limited to IOActive, a computer-security outfit, and various nonprofits—which leaves him more time to play a 21st-century version of polo in which horses are replaced by electric, self-balancing two-wheeled scooters called Segway Personal Transporters. Wozniak talked with
Corporate Board Member
’s Bonnie Azab Powell.
“I was one of the first consumers to get a Segway, in 2002. I loved it so much I bought another, and another. I have about 10 now.
A few years ago, a bunch of us Silicon Valley Segway owners would go on casual glides along the beach or wherever on weekends. In summer 2004, [fellow owners] Alex Ko and Jonathan van Clute proposed playing polo. I thought, “This is going to be so wacko, and probably boring.” But after my first match I realized, “Oh my gosh! It actually works!”
We play every other Sunday. I’m pretty good. I was very athletic when I was young. Segway polo rules are like horse polo’s, with a few modifications like the ones they’ve made up to stop me. I learned to chip the ball over the defender’s head; they made a rule that you can’t score that way.
Last year my team, the Silicon Valley Aftershock, went to New Zealand to play a Kiwi team. We tied. Teams need five people to play in the Woz Challenge Cup, which will be in San Francisco this year, but you can play Segway polo from two to six on a side. Helmets are required, and we wrap the wooden mallet heads in foam for safety. I’ve hurt myself several times, broke my pinkie finger and cut myself. You’re going up to 12 miles per hour—it can be rough.
I love the camaraderie. I smile whether I’m on a good team or a lousy team. We’re all very different people who decided to be a little bit unusual, to get a different transportation device than the rest of the world. I wish we played every week. It’s the only thing like a regular poker game I’ve got going.”
