Safety Gear Ideas: The Importance of Wearing Skate Pads and Helmets
Skateboarding is a fun and exciting sport. The rise of this trend began in the 1980s, and as days passed, more and more people embraced the skateboard culture. Young people are especially interested in this activity. Pre-teens and teens are all about rolling on the board and skating around, doing tricks. The adrenaline that skating provides and the opportunity to be part of such an incredible community are factors that play a significant role in its popularity.
Whether you or your kids have just started to skate or have been skating for a while now, you’ve probably learned that falling is a big part of skating. It’s no fun, but it’s inevitable. If you think that you’re never going to fall off your skateboard, you might be in the wrong sport. However, there are ways to make falling safer. One way is to learn how to fall, and the other is going safe by wearing the proper safety gear. These are the only ways to prevent serious injuries. In skateboarding, better be safe than sorry has a deeper meaning: it may cost you your health and life. So, how can you make sure you’re safe enough?
Why Is Wearing Skate Safety Gear So Important?
You’ll be surprised to hear that, statistically, skateboarding isn’t the most dangerous sport. This is especially true for professional skaters and those who stick to the basic rules and guidelines. Some of the skaters have been skating for so long that the moves they make become a part of their everyday life. And even then, they still wear their protection and can’t stress enough how important it is. Why is this so?
Falling accidents can result in bad injuries, especially in beginners and younger skaters. This is proven by the statistics that say that those skating for less than a week suffer one-third of all skating injuries. The other two-thirds are the injuries of skateboarders that go too near traffic areas, don’t wear protective equipment and try risky stunts. That’s why wearing safety gear, such as helmets and knee pads skate gear is so essential.
What can you do if you’re a parent to a young skateboarder that refuses to wear protective gear? It can be helpful to learn the reasons behind it. If your kid is a young pre-teen, the main reason might be discomfort. Discomfort is the main reason why young children don’t want to wear other things too, like sunglasses and hats, which are much lighter than helmets and pads. If this is true for your kids, finding the right gear in terms of size and materials can be life-changing.
If your child is a teen, the main reason why they won’t wear safety gear is that they’re afraid they won’t look cool. Maybe some of their friends don’t wear protection, so they want to blend. Reasoning that safe is cool enough won’t help a lot. Try watching some videos of cool skaters that encourage young people to wear protective gear. Many pro skaters share the message that skating is excellent enough, so it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing as long as you skate and do it safely. Now, that’s some cool stuff.
How to Protect Yourself by Wearing Safety Gear?
Wear Your Knee and Elbow Pads
Most of the arm and leg injuries in skateboarding happen when you fall directly on your hands and knees. Besides learning how to fall without making a total impact on your hands and knees, you can prevent these kinds of injuries by wearing your skateboard knee and elbow pads and wrist guards. You can buy these as a set or separately.
Knee pads skate gear is essential for skateboarding, especially for vert skating. Vert skating is a shortcut for vertical skating, a skateboarding discipline that takes place in skate parts and consists of making skate jumps. When a stunt or a jump doesn’t go as it is supposed, the safest way for vert skaters to fall is to glide off on their knees. If they don’t wear skate knee pads, they will get some serious burns on their knees.
What pads do I need for skateboarding? There are different types of knee pads, including toy, vert and street pads. As the name suggests, vert pads are designed for skating and are the most protective ones. The wrapping for the leg is made of thick foam, while the pad over the knee is hard plastic. There is more foam behind the pad to cushion the leg, and a layer of cloth underneath the foam protects the skin.
Elbow pads are made the same way as knee pads, only for elbows. They’re vital for preventing arm injuries. There are divided opinions when it comes to wrist guards. Some say that wearing that can cause you more injuries than not wearing any, but this isn’t proven. The best bet is to wear them, as you fall on your hands most of the time.
Wear Your Helmet
Broken bones can heal, but falling on your head can have serious consequences. Even if you know how to fall, other reckless rides can ruin your day or life. By wearing a helmet, you can protect yourself from getting fatal head injuries. Even if you don’t have a concussion, wounds that heal quickly can cause pain and anxiety, cost time and money and may lead to disabilities. This can include loss of vision, hearing and speech; inability to walk, bathe, toilet, dress or feed yourself; and changes in thinking and behaviour. So, wear your helmet and protect yourself from getting seriously hurt.
To Summarise
While you can’t protect yourself from falling, you can protect yourself from getting hurt. Better be on the safe side than be sorry later and buy your protective gear as soon as possible.
