It might all be\u00a0Wiz Khalifa\u2019s\u00a0fault. When the rapper was\u00a0arrested at LAX<\/a>\u00a0riding a hands-free scooter, he tweeted in protest that \u201cour generation is gonna be riding hover boards so if you don\u2019t like it eat a dick!\u201d Since then the scooters\u2014which are manufactured by multiple companies and have become increasingly popular\u2014have been referred to by many as hoverboards, even though they a) don\u2019t hover and b) look nothing like the Mattel toy that Marty McFly commandeers in\u00a0Back to the Future II.<\/em><\/p>\n And Bob Gale has noticed. \u201cThey\u2019re not hoverboards,\u201d he says firmly over the phone, en route to one of the many events leading up to October 21 (including a brand-new Blu-ray release)\u2014the date that, in the film, Marty McFly travels forward to in time. \u201c[Wiz Khalifa] says, \u2018Dude, I\u2019m on a hoverboard.\u2019 Everybody is saying, \u2018Wait, that\u2019s got wheels, that\u2019s not a hoverboard.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Well, not everybody\u2014the hoverboard term has stuck, even making its way into news stories about the device being\u00a0banned in London<\/a>. (And, let\u2019s face it, \u201choverboard\u201d is way more fun to say than \u201chands-free scooter.\u201d) But Gale has also seen the\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0hoverboard future\u2014before we spoke he had visited the headquarters of Hendo, the company manufacturing a board that\u00a0actually hovers.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cI actually go to ride a real hoverboard in October 2015,\u201d Gale says, sounding as amazed as if he\u2019d actually traveled forward in time. \u201cMy life is very satisfactory.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hendo hoverboard has yet to be mass produced, while the imposter \u201choverboards\u201d are widely available in multiple styles. But don\u2019t you want to make Bob Gale happy and hold out for the real thing?<\/p>\n![\"back-to-the-future-hoverboards.jpg\"](\"webkit-fake-url:\/\/8D5D51AA-B783-4DAC-AE58-AC3F5BA9D628\/back-to-the-future-hoverboards.jpg\")