Nico Aleman is a competitive float racer and VESC developer with The Float Life, based out of Sacramento, California. He finished 4th in Pro Men time trials at Seek n' Shred 2026 and 2nd in the Pro Men final, competing on a platform he helped build from the firmware up. He grew up in Cincinnati with no board sports background, discovered OneWheel in 2019, and spent the years since turning a computer science degree into one of the most consequential contributions to the DIY float scene. When you see a VESC board at a race now, there's a good chance something Nico worked on is running underneath it.
Never a Board Kid: How Nico Aleman Got Into OneWheel Racing
Nico Aleman grew up in Cincinnati playing Tony Hawk and Skate 3, building a deep mental library of tricks he had no real-world equivalent for. He wanted to skate. He just never did.
"I never really grew up doing board sports, but I always wanted to," he says. "Playing things like Skate 3 and Tony Hawk and whatnot."
When he got to college, rental scooters started showing up on campus. He used them constantly. The cost added up fast, and he realized it made more sense to just buy something of his own. That led him to electric skateboards. From there he started building a local community, organizing group rides around Sacramento.
Then somebody showed up with a OneWheel.
"When I demoed that I was just hooked," he says. "So I've been riding OneWheel ever since and that was back in 2019. So that's nearly seven years now? Crazy."
From First Race to the OneWheel Racing Circuit
Growing Up Doing Nothing Risky
About a year and a half after he started riding, Nico drove out to a low-key local event in Indiana. Small community, casual races, nothing like the circuit he competes on now. He went in with low expectations.
He came out with something he hadn't felt before.
"Like the adrenaline brought out something in me that I had personally never experienced before," he says. "I grew up doing nothing risky whatsoever."
From there he started paying attention to what else was out there. His timing was good. The onewheel racing scene was starting to take shape, with the early Dirt Surferz events in Arkansas leading the way. He made the trip.
"Those trails made me level up so quick," he says. "Ever since then I've been totally hooked into the racing scene. So racing about five years now."
He describes Arkansas as one of his two favorite terrains in the country: the natural shale trails that get faster the harder you push them.
"It's one of those things where the faster you go, the smoother it gets," he says. "It's like just the right amount of looseness that you're drifting around every turn. It's so satisfying to me."
His other favorite is the softer dirt in North Carolina, what he calls buttery smooth to flow on. For him it comes down to mood. Both are right depending on the day.
How Nico Aleman Started Developing VESC for OneWheel
When the GT Didn't Fit
In 2022, Future Motion released the GT. For most of the field it was an upgrade. For Nico, a smaller guy, it wasn't the right fit.
He still wanted to keep up with how the sport was progressing. That search led him to VESC, an open-source motor controller platform that riders use to build fully custom float boards.
"Back then, VESC boards were not running like they are now," he says. "Nowhere close to our normal onewheel rides."
What he found wasn't a finished product. It was an open platform with room to grow, and he was in a position that most people weren't. He had the software background from a computer science degree, and he had years of riding experience that told him exactly how a board should feel and where it could be better.
"I found myself in the perfect position of someone with that software knowledge and with the riding experience of like how a onewheel should ride, how it feels and how it could even be better," he says. "So that's when I started just sinking hundreds and hundreds of hours into collaborating on that and working on developing how these VESC boards ride."
Nico Aleman at The Float Life: Making VESC Accessible
That work compounded. VESC got better. Then better again. By the time Nico graduated and started looking at what came next, he had built something real.
The Float Life saw it. They wanted to support the DIY aftermarket scene, not just as a business move, but because the platform needed it. The legal reality around onewheel boards limits what companies can sell as a standalone product, with existing patents putting up walls around that space. The Float Life wanted to push competition and innovation from the outside.
They brought Nico on.
"With them, I've been able to do a ton of stuff to help make VESC more accessible," he says. "And ever since then, if you come out to any onewheel event, it's about like half of them are these DIY boards."
That's not an exaggeration. Look at any start line today and you'll see the split playing out in real time: riders on Future Motion next to riders on custom builds that are running firmware Nico and others have spent years shaping. The two sides don't always mix cleanly, but they share the same trails, the same start gates, and the same love for what the sport is.
USA FLT was built for exactly that. VESC riders are welcome here. Their scores count. Their results live in the same record. That's the whole point.
The VESC Remote Feature: What It Does and Why Nico Built It
One of Nico's earliest contributions to VESC was a feature he added not to go faster, but to feel more connected to the board.
"The biggest limiter of a onewheel is that nose and tail clearance," he says. "Compared to an EUC where you don't have to worry about that. So I wanted something I can control that in real time and potentially open up new trails or even things like jumps."
The VESC remote lets a rider adjust the board's nose and tail angle on the fly. That opens up lines that a fixed setup can't touch: steeper drops, bigger jumps, tighter technical sections.
He's clear that he doesn't run it for the competitive edge. For him it's simpler than that.
"It's completely changed the riding experience for me and it's become like an extension of my body almost," he says. "I don't really have to think about the angle of the board anymore. I'm just focused on how I'm flowing through the trail, how I'm hitting these jumps and features."
He gives Future Motion credit where it's due. Their firmware, he says, is probably about as dialed as you can get it without a remote.
The VESC Community Debate: Remote vs. Firmware Development
The VESC community isn't settled on everything. One ongoing conversation is about what the remote is actually for.
Some riders use it as a shortcut: lean on the remote to compensate for whatever the tune is doing and call it good. Nico sees the risk in that approach.
"If we rely on it too much, we're not spending time developing the firmware of it and making it actually ride better," he says. "So there's a little bit, I don't want to say controversy, just debates there on like what we should be focusing on. And I think that's totally valid."
His view is that as more people come into the VESC world, the focus on firmware development will come naturally. The platform is still growing. The conversation is healthy. For his own riding, there's no going back.
"For my personal riding, I just can't step away from it," he says. "It just makes things so much more fun for me personally."
Seek n' Shred 2026: Race Prep, Tire Pressure, and the Rock Garden
Nico was at Seek n' Shred last year too. He remembers it as a completely different event.
No rain in 2025 meant loose dirt, heavy dust, goggles required for the head-to-head heats, lower tire pressures across the board for grip. This year the rain hit right at the start and changed everything.
"We really lucked out," he says. "We had a spout of rain right at the start. Like it made the first day a little bit muddy, but you could still ride the trails with the fender. And after that, all that dust and sand has been totally packed down."
Higher tire pressures, faster corner entry, a course that ran completely differently than it did twelve months ago.
"It made for such a freaking fast course. It was insane this year compared to last year."
Part of what made it work was how prepared he was for it. The temperature out at Blue Mountain Event Center swings hard between day and night: hot in the sun, dropping into the mid-30s after dark. That swing moves tire pressure in ways that matter at his level.
"Even just 0.5 PSI makes such a big difference in like the turning feel and the suspension feel and just how the board handles," he says.
His process before every practice session and race: leave the board in the sun until the tire comes up to temperature, bring a gauge to the top of the mountain, check pressure right before dropping in. That half a PSI is the difference between the board he wants and one that's off.
The rock garden at the hairpin corner was the technical centerpiece of the course this year. Wet rocks during early practice added a new layer of grip management in a 90-degree turn. Once things dried out, it became something different.
"There were so many different lines you could take that it became a really cool passing opportunity," Nico says. "You could just gauge how much you wanted to risk it."
Seek n' Shred 2026 Pro Men Results: Nico Aleman Finishes 2nd
Nico went 4th in Pro Men time trials with a 3:02.350, behind Jack Minsker (2:55.900), Jahfari Silsley (2:59.150), and Chabre Schumacher (3:00.060).
In the final, it came down to the bottom of the mountain.
Jack Minsker, who finished 3rd, described the race afterward: "Me and Nico kind of stayed neck and neck through the rest of it... we had a smoker of a finish. I think he finished like three inches in front of me."
Three inches. Nico Aleman, 2nd in Pro Men at Seek n' Shred 2026.
Cameron Patecell took the win.
Full Seek n' Shred 2026 results are posted at usaflt.com.
FAQ
Who is Nico Aleman? Nico Aleman is a competitive onewheel racer and VESC developer with The Float Life, based in Sacramento, California. He began riding OneWheel in 2019 and has spent years developing firmware and features for the VESC open-source platform, including the remote feature that lets riders adjust board angle in real time. He competes in the Pro Men division at USA FLT-sanctioned events.
What does Nico Aleman do at The Float Life? Nico joined The Float Life after graduating with a computer science degree. He works on making VESC more accessible and continues developing the platform's firmware. The Float Life supports the DIY aftermarket float scene to drive competition and faster innovation in onewheel riding.
What is VESC and how is it used in onewheel racing? VESC is an open-source motor controller platform used to build custom electric boards, including float boards that ride like onewheels. Riders configure and tune VESC boards themselves, giving them more control over how the board rides than stock Future Motion boards allow. VESC boards are fully welcome at USA FLT-sanctioned events alongside Future Motion boards.
What is the VESC remote feature Nico Aleman developed? The VESC remote allows a rider to adjust the nose and tail angle of their board in real time while riding. Nico developed this feature to address the clearance limitations of a onewheel design, the biggest physical limiter compared to an EUC. The remote opens up new lines on technical trails and jumps. Nico uses it for feel and control, not as a competitive advantage.
How did Nico Aleman do at Seek n' Shred 2026? Nico finished 4th in Pro Men time trials (3:02.350) and 2nd in the Pro Men final at Seek n' Shred 2026 (ShredFest 6), held May 28-31 at Blue Mountain Event Center in Wilseyville, California. He edged Jack Minsker at the finish line by approximately three inches to take second.
What is USA FLT? USA FLT is the national sanctioning body for float and onewheel racing in the United States. It is open to all riders regardless of board type. Future Motion and VESC boards compete in the same events. Riders can register and track points and results at usaflt.com.
What onewheel events does Nico Aleman compete in? Nico competes on the USA FLT national circuit, including events like Seek n' Shred and Dirt Surferz. He has raced in the Pro Men division for approximately five years and travels across the country for events, favoring single-track mountain bike trails in Arkansas and North Carolina.
