If you don’t feel it, don’t do it. Some injuries don’t heal right, and many of the hobbies I enjoy have a pretty damned high risk factor. Almost every single time I’ve had a serious injury, that little voice was telling me “This one might not end well”, and I went for it anyway.
I could have walked away, called it a day, and come back another time. It wasn’t a contest, I was just out filming a few tricks for my “You’re turning 40 and still doing it” video. Didn’t stretch, didn’t warm up, and my over enthusiastic filmer was all “Try this, do that”. Ended up collapsing my knee and fully tearing my MCL.
Between that and a few neck and back fractures over the years, my mobility and flexibility are pretty well shot. There are things I just can’t do anymore.
Sure I still skate, and am amazed just how much I can still get away with, but now every minute on the board includes a constant “Is this safe? Is this worth it?” chant.
This doesn’t solve all problems and wouldn’t have helped at all there. And I know that lots of people don’t like them. But after watching too many YouTube videos of skating tricks in concrete environments going very badly wrong, I’m convinced that having a helmet on while skating is something people should do. You don’t have pads or something, you mess up, grind off some skin, at least you’ll heal. But you land wrong on your head, that doesn’t always heal.
I don’t skate, but I always wear a helmet on a bike. I haven’t had to learn this one the hard way, but I’ve had a bunch of friends who biked a lot. One was a bike messenger, biked all the time, knew his way around a bike, worked in heavy traffic. Then, late one night, someone decided to blow through a stoplight, did a hit-and-run on him. He got really lucky – his dad happened to be out late, found him dying in the empty street. He almost didn’t make it, suffered permanent brain damage, lost memory and stuff. After that, he always wore a helmet. His biking buddy, who previously never wore a helmet, had a huge head of curly hair blowing in the wind, always wore one after that too.
If you don’t feel it, don’t do it. Some injuries don’t heal right, and many of the hobbies I enjoy have a pretty damned high risk factor. Almost every single time I’ve had a serious injury, that little voice was telling me “This one might not end well”, and I went for it anyway.
I could have walked away, called it a day, and come back another time. It wasn’t a contest, I was just out filming a few tricks for my “You’re turning 40 and still doing it” video. Didn’t stretch, didn’t warm up, and my over enthusiastic filmer was all “Try this, do that”. Ended up collapsing my knee and fully tearing my MCL.
Between that and a few neck and back fractures over the years, my mobility and flexibility are pretty well shot. There are things I just can’t do anymore.
Sure I still skate, and am amazed just how much I can still get away with, but now every minute on the board includes a constant “Is this safe? Is this worth it?” chant.
This doesn’t solve all problems and wouldn’t have helped at all there. And I know that lots of people don’t like them. But after watching too many YouTube videos of skating tricks in concrete environments going very badly wrong, I’m convinced that having a helmet on while skating is something people should do. You don’t have pads or something, you mess up, grind off some skin, at least you’ll heal. But you land wrong on your head, that doesn’t always heal.
I don’t skate, but I always wear a helmet on a bike. I haven’t had to learn this one the hard way, but I’ve had a bunch of friends who biked a lot. One was a bike messenger, biked all the time, knew his way around a bike, worked in heavy traffic. Then, late one night, someone decided to blow through a stoplight, did a hit-and-run on him. He got really lucky – his dad happened to be out late, found him dying in the empty street. He almost didn’t make it, suffered permanent brain damage, lost memory and stuff. After that, he always wore a helmet. His biking buddy, who previously never wore a helmet, had a huge head of curly hair blowing in the wind, always wore one after that too.
I just don’t fall that way on a skateboard, so I never wear one, though knee pads are a must.
I will never ever ride a snowboard without a helmet. I’ll ride a motorcycle without a helmet before I’ll ride a snowboard without one.