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» Safety first kids! (Longboarding safety article)
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Safety first kids! (Longboarding safety article) |
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/ Rating: 10.00/10.00
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One of the most important (but most neglected) aspects of longboarding is Safety! Yeah you can ignore me because *nobody I know has ever been hurt longboarding*, thats not true as at the beginning of this summer a longboarder died in Cornwall because he wasn't wearing a helmet... (The original topic on the Lush Forum can be found here)
Helmets bring me on to my first point, Safety Equipment, some are completely essential when riding hills, others are not so important but you'll sleep better at night (trust me on that one!)
Helmet: Skid lid, pisspot whatever, Helmets are a life saver. This attitude of "think positive, i'm too good to fall off" will win you a free trip to the morgue, one day you will fall off and you Will hit your head, whether your going to wear a helmet is your choice.
Skateboarding helmets are specially made to absorb the impact of your head slamming on the ground, a climbing helmet or the likes of that will not do because they do not have the polystyrene inner shell. This inner shell will compress slightly on impact allowing your head to decelerate slower than it would say, if it hit cold concrete. This may not sound like much, but it makes the difference between a mild concussion and a fractured skull. Due to the nature of the way these helmets hurt, after one serious bang it is wise to replace your helmet with a new one.
And after all, theres nothing to say that helmets cant be cool, they make you look hard-core, and you can stick pictures of naked chicks on them!
Sliding gloves: Slide gloves are important because they allow you to slide to a stop (important if cars are on the road) aswell as opening up any hill/allowing you to freestyle slide... (more on sliding + sliding gloves in the slide article)
Knee pads: Knee pads are not essential for general longboarding, but for sliding they're a great confidence booster. When you fall off sliding (as you often do) with a bit of practice and some decent knee pads, its handy just to slide off on your knees until you've stopped completely. Remember to wear shorts if your wearing knee pads, because they obliterate any trouser/jeans over them when you fall on your knees.
Elbow pads: Not often do you truly fall off your board and slam onto your elbow pads, but when it happens you sort of stand up and think *holy crap, that was close* Best to wear elbow pads if your carving down a big hill, they'll give a bit more confidence and that extra protection when you do fall off. To be honest when sliding you don't need elbow pads because only rarely do your hands give way when sliding so your elbows get dinged, and anyway, scars are cool.
Padded shorts: Padded shorts would be a longboarders godsend if anybody bothered to wear them. You put them on underneath your skating shorts and they absorb the impact of falling and skidding along on your butt and hips (which trust me, makes sleeping at night Very difficult!) Most longboarders try to find their own way around that problem but covering their skating shorts in duck tape, i found a kitchen mitt shoved down the back pocket does the trick!
So there you have it, in a conclusion, pads give you the confidence to go big, they make you look like the terminator and they give you the nessecary protection to ride hills safely. I'll leave you idiots to figure out which side of the road to skate on now.. |
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| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 5:08 pm |
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This is ace. I am going to get a helmet simply so I can stick pictures of naked chicks on it, as apposed to having naked chicks on my helmet, if you know what I mean? 
Im in two minds about knee pads though. You see, I am not the sort of person who likes to whip his legs out in public, so I wear baggy jeans for a bit of protection, but with knee pads over the top Im going to look like a string of sausages, so for that reason I wont bother with knee pads.
The above two paragraphs again illustrate Holdens excellent original article, because they show you that I am typically ignorant, and that one day soon, I will smash my head to bits, and strip my knee caps of all living tissue and replace them with grit, if I dont heed to Holdens advice.
I have slide gloves which rule, and my little elbow pads have taken a knock already, and Im fine, so there you have it - get padded up.
Now, wheres that Argos catalogue...... |
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 3:37 am |
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From a now dead article...
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| A helmet is way more comfortable than a wheelchair |
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| You've got a hobby that's risky to your head. An estimated 56,435 skateboard injuries were treated in hospital emergency departments in 1992. About 1,900 hospitalizations were from skateboard-related injuries during this period and most were from head injuries. - U.S |
Small amounts of cushion make a big difference. According to Ed Becker of the Snell Memorial Foundation. "A good helmet protects by leaving plenty of stopping distance. When the outside of the helmet meets the pavement, it stops moving immediately but it allows the head inside the helmet to remain in motion crushing the helmet wall as it goes When a bare head strikes the pavement, the impact is over in a millisecond or so. But with a helmet, the impact may take as long as 5 or 10 milliseconds. It's an eyeblink, but the difference of 15 to 25 millimeters of stopping distance a helmet gives you could very well be the difference between getting up and going home for bandages or lying there waiting for an ambulance."
- http://www.eryc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1375&highlight=helmet
Take care out there people, excellent write up Holden, let's hope people pay attention to it and not learn the hard way. |
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| Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:56 am |
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I agree with this artical but, i feel its also vital in most skateboarding disaplins really, not just limited to longboarding. With vert for example you could probably get away with just knee pads and a helmet but really the full gear is required, as i found out i slamed on the neve in my elbow (aka the 'funny bone') and it put me out of action on vert for a month just moving my arm hurt. Neve dammage is something you definatly want to avoid.
O yeah and you can get a veriety of pads at http://www.kateskates.co.uk/default.asp support the small ones and all that. |
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| Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 4:24 pm |
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| if you want saftey gear, look on www.skateasylum.com , its got tonnes of the stuff |
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