Pads - to wear or not to wear

For the most part, I consider pads to be a matter of personal choice, as long as the skater in question accepts the inevitability (not the possibility) that the unprotected body part will at some point be subjected to abrasion or worse. When skating, I am a religious helmet-wearer and helmet promoter. I am unwilling to leave my brain case exposed to blunt trauma. Even if I am supremely confident of my own ability on skates, I skate in a world full of cars, bikes and other skaters, all of which have put me on the ground, occasionally painfully. Most often, these gravitational incidents have not been my fault. Being right doesn't help me to defy gravity.

At the same time, I don't wear elbow or knee pads, because I find them uncomfortable and knee pads interfere with my skating stroke. I know that when I fall, I will suffer abrasions on arms and legs, and run a greater risk of significantly worse than I would if I were fully padded, but I take that risk knowing my options.

My helmet advocacy occasionally cheeses off people who adamantly insist on their right to skate bare-headed. Their freedom of choice and my freedom of speech meet, disagree, and for the most part haven't harmed friendships irretrievably. Into the mix, I know that I have convinced a couple of people to wear helmets, and I think that's great. I agree, there is no disadvantage expressing to impassioned safety advocacy, but we shouldn't go much beyond.

Jared.

Thanks for bringing this one up. We cover this on InlineNC yahoogroup now and then, and it can get unpleasant no matter how we try to be respectful.

There's a whole line of argument and counterargument about freedom, insurance costs, government costs, blah blah. For me, I wear a helmet and avoid skating with someone in any position where I'm at all responsible (for example on a skate I lead or when I'm out with one or two or a small group) even if they say don't worry you don't have to take me to a hospital or take care of me if i fall. right!

I don't want to be there when someone cracks their skull. It's selfish and that's OK. I don't want to take care of them with a worse injury than they would have without it. I'll gladly take care of them if they've taken basic precautions for their skull.

They have a right not to wear a helmet and can exercise that right by skating with others who don't mind.

I've popped my chin and sheared a tooth off and I know there's no way I can stop my head from whip-cracking when my chest or back hits. I fell in DC recently at one of those spots where the street is split such that you have to cross one lane, stand, cross another lane, stand, maybe repeating that. When I fell backward I hit my head on the stoplight pole. It would have been nasty, bloody and inconvenient at least.

I'm sad when I see any adult letting children go without helmets, as I did today, but even sadder to see the adults not wearing them. In this way they teach the kids, in my view, that grown ups don't wear helmets, that it's more mature not to, that only kids have to. And I personally think it's more dangerous for an adult to fall than for a child to, but I have nothing to back that up.

As for wristguards, I wear palm sliders which don't protect my wrists, but I don't think with my wrists much. I do type with them and it would be a major bummer to break a wrist.

I used to wear knee and elbow pads but they're not very comfortable and I found them not to be very effective, sliding on impact, likely helping, but not preventing injury completely.

So for me it's ALWAYS helmet, ALWAYS sliders, ALMOST ALWAYS plastic rearview mirror on my left hand, ALMOST ALWAYS clear, peach or grey glasses to block wind and grit and some uv, polarized glasses to see through car front windows better when possible.

blake