I bumped into a skater friend last week, limping home with a knee that wouldn’t bend after coming off his board in the skate park. He later had to go to hospital and for a few days it was looking potentialy serious, but last time I saw him it was looking better.
We’ve had a few discussions on pads, I wear a lot on my muni, and he doesn’t use any at all. He was explaining that the skaters in Sheffield just don’t use pads or helmets, I got the impression that it was a bit ‘uncool’ to pad up.
I find this a little disturbing because skating strikes me as being more dangerous than unicycling, especially in a skate park with its sharp concrete corners.
Yesterday I rode past the skate park and bumped into my friend, so I stopped for a chat. The park was full of young skaters and BMX-ers, the only piece of protective equipment in the entire place was one wrist guard! Apparently the guy had damaged his wrist quite badly so was wearing a guard on that wrist only!
I think it’s great that unicyclists tend to take the protection issues more seriously cos it sets a good example; I’m sure that the more people start padding up the more likely it is that children getting into these sports will see pads as a serious option.
My friend said that pads and helmets just don’t look cool; I told him that laying in a hospital bed with serious brain damage looks even less cool.
In fairness he did have a couple of reasons for not padding up, firstly that knee pads restrict legs (I don’t skate so I can’t comment on that), secondly that skating impacts condition the body, eg shins become less sensitive to pain etc. Neither of these reasons have tempted me to shed my pads!
Evidence that unicyclists, on average, are smarter than skaters. Self-preservation is a survival instinct. Looking cool is not.
Of course, looking uncool can put you into the nerd category, and if you go looking there, you’ll find most of us unicyclists
They don’t seem to look so bad to me on the X Games, or other venues where padding up is required. Riding “naked” is what looks uncool to me. Am I old?
Amen! Yes, pads restrict your movements somewhat. Earth to skaters, unicyclists move their legs more than you do. We can ride fine with pads on.
And as for impacts conditioning the body? That’s either just him saying that, or a skater myth, developed by people looking for excuses to be stupid. Does he mean getting calluses on all the areas that normally get scraped up? And metal bones too, I suppose? I have not noticed these calluses on skaters, just scars.
Interestingly enough, crashing and hitting your leg bones does apparently give you bigger and stronger bones. There was a study done which showed that mountain biking a lot would increase the size of your bones, whilst road biking wouldn’t, for the simple reason that road bike people don’t crash on their leg bones very often.
I wear a lid and often wristguards, but never leg armour, does that make me a bad person?
I once did thai boxing for a year and they’re heavily into conditioning their shins.
I wasn’t questioning my skater friends belief that skating conditions his shins cos’ I know that banging your shins does make them more resilient- I guess I was questioning the value of a tougher body given the possibility of the impact going beyond a conditioning level and into a injury one.
After all, most impacts gained skating/unicycling aren’t a deliberate conditioning exercise but an accident.
And of course some parts of the body can’t be conditioned e.g. the head.
I also feel that wearing pads makes body conditioning unnecessary.
I think of it in the opposite way, but only due to my definition of cool. I am not worried if people think I look like an idiot, they probably think that anyway. But I think pads look uncool in that they would make you sweaty and hot, and riding naked would be cool in comparison. I wear clothing. If I wanted some extra protection I can put on tramping boots, and I have a set of wrist guards which I don’t wear, but I have them in case I ever want to practise something new where I might fear for my wrists. I have seen evidence of the Skating strengthens bones theory. Darren Rogers has an extra bit of elbow bone growing where he has landed on it hundreds of times. It sticks out about a centimeter. He is proud that so many slams on the vert ramp have only made him stronger, and his skating is pretty impressive too. I don’t think he is stupid because he doesn’t wear safety gear, he is just crazy. I respect his fearless dedication to his sport, and know that I am too whimpy to attempt anything similar. Unicycling is so safe in comparison.
Registered: Apr 2003
Location: Taranaki, New Zealand
quote:
Originally posted by johnfoss
Riding “naked” is what looks uncool to me.
I think of it in the opposite way, but only due to my definition of cool. I am not worried if people think I look like an idiot, they probably think that anyway. But I think pads look uncool in that they would make you sweaty and hot, and riding naked would be cool in comparison. I wear clothing. If I wanted some extra protection I can put on tramping boots, and I have a set of wrist guards which I don’t wear, but I have them in case I ever want to practise something new where I might fear for my wrists. I have seen evidence of the Skating strengthens bones theory. Darren Rogers has an extra bit of elbow bone growing where he has landed on it hundreds of times. It sticks out about a centimeter. He is proud that so many slams on the vert ramp have only made him stronger, and his skating is pretty impressive too. I don’t think he is stupid because he doesn’t wear safety gear, he is just crazy. I respect his fearless dedication to his sport, and know that I am too whimpy to attempt anything similar. Unicycling is so safe in comparison.
On a hot day, pads and helmet will make you hotter, but I still thinks it’s better than the risk of being maimed.
Last year I was considering getting a longboard (a skate board variation designed for smooth cruising) and got a few issues of 'Longboarder Magazine,
In the last copy I got there was a Memoriam notice for Sean Patrick Clark who had died longboarding. It included the phrases ‘famous for taking his licks, as any skateboarder should do.’ and ‘A helmet would undoubtedly have changed his odds’
In the same issue was a letter from a wife whose husband had come off his longboard, hit the back of his head and spent 12 days in hospital while his family wondered if he would survive.
I guess it would be useful to know the statistics for injuries in skateparks, it’s easy to assume there aren’t many, then again if I hadn’t got that particular copy of the magazine I wouldn’t have been aware of them.
It’s down to individual choice whether to pad up and wear a helmet, but what choice does a child really have when they don’t know about cases like the above, and the heroes of their sport and their entire peer group mark out pad wearers as being wimpy and uncool.
For me I wear pads for 2 reasons they stop me from getting hurt and going to the hospital, and they stop me from getting hurt which doesnt allow me to ride or do other things I enjoy.
If wearing pads means that you somehow are fearfull and not going for it 100% I think thats a big load. I go for stuff most people will not even think about doing, if anything pads give me confidence, I know if I fail I will be ok and get back up to do it again.
As far as unicycling goes, I think pads make people go for it more rather than less. Thinking of people I know who wear pads, they all hurt themselves more than me because they’re willing to push themselves that bit more.
Risk compensation. It’s a well documented phenomenon. Buy a car with ABS, drive closer to the car in front; have 4 wheel drive, go too fast in the snow; wear full race leathers on a motorbike, and try to get your knee down on the public road… and countless other examples.
Safety equipment is not the same as safety.
That’s not to say safety equipment isn’t useful. I wear a helmet and gloves. I sometimes wear other protective gear. But my safety is based on trying to balance my skill against the terrain in such a way that I’m pushing my limits, rather than just going for it and seeing what happens.
Big falls look spectacular, but they are not a sign of expertise.
Which film is it? the Good the Bad and the Ugly? To paraphrase:
“Signor, he looks one tough hombre. Look at the scars on his face.”
“No, what we want is the man who gave him those scars.”
A helmet won’t stop you breaking your neck. A shin pad won’t stop you breaking your leg.
Today went out for a ride. Shouldn’t have really as I started to develop cold symtoms yesterday (see also my post-‘low level unicycle illness?’).
But the Sun was fully out so I launched off intending a mild ride into town to do some shopping. Got distracted by the park where the skate park is and didi some hopping, riding backwards practice and a bit of juggling.
The accident happened as I was riding out of the park over a rough bit that’s given me problems before- it looks ok but it’s full of rutts and small rocks. I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention and suddenly seemed to be hurled into the air and landed with a hell of a bang.
I heard a “whoah” and this skater dude hurtles across looking really concerned (possibly it looked worse cos when I fall off I tend to lie immobile for a bit, I think that’s better than jumping up straight away)
I was lucky, just jolted my side and got a marble sized bump below my elbow.
I was wearing helmet, shins, wrists and knee pads; no elbows.
To be honest, under similar circumstances I probably won’t be donning the elbows (it was incredibly hot and I tend to reserve them for more extreme stuff).
It has however justified my personal policy of helmet and pads for all riding- you occasionally come off even when the ground seems easy.
I spent a while mulling this over in London with Joe and Joe. Messing up a forward hop onto a wall resulted in me effectively running straight into the wall, bashing the edge with my pad half way up my shin.
That drew blood just from the impact; nothing went through, and I hit almost dead square on. I still have a smallish scar there now (this happened in late March, I think).
What would have happened had I not been wearing pads? How resistant are bones to fast impacts on solid objects concentrated at a single point?
The information about “bone toughening” is very interesting. I think I’ve heard some of that before. For a sport like kickboxing, where you bang legs constantly, it makes loads of sense. For a sport like skating or cycling, where banging the leg bones is usually an accidental side effect of the activity, I don’t think it makes as much sense.
Peer pressure is very strong at the age of the average skater, and I’m sure that’s a huge factor. Beyond that, we all have the freedom to choose whether, and where, we will bleed. Of course you can’t prevent every injury. Like the guy who was padded up but hurt his elbow. It’s not necessarily enough to make him start wearing elbow pads. If you fall on your elbows all the time, you’ll know you need the pads.
I cover my hands and knees primarily, because those are my traditional areas of impact. And I cover my head because, though it’s never happened yet, someday I may come down hard on it.
My three year old, Nikolaus has been doing prat falls off of things since he learned to walk. He also is doing these things at preschool. Now, the other kids are copying him and getting hurt. We have a meeting with the director next week…
He has somehow never hurt himself. I saw him walk up my trials ramp in front of the house and fall off and land somewhat on his wrist. I thought he had busted it. He sniffled and continued playing. Did he toughen his bones from all the falls or was it sure luck?
BTW, he wears a helmet on the skateboard, tricycle, and was wearing it when he fell off the trials ramp.
Today I went out for just a “quick ride”, so I figured I didn’t need all that protective gear. So I just wore my wrist guards. Well, as my leg and arm armor sat in the garage I fell off my unicycle and did what felt like a somersault. I now have a scraped up elbow, knee, and thumb. (my wrist guards don’t cover the fingers) I’m glad I was at least wearing my wrist guards, but next time I think I’ll take the 2 minutes to put on my armor.
I love your little crawling frog, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, just crawling relentlously upward-
where’s he going?
when will he arrive?
is he a ‘he’ or a ‘she’?
Although I’d never do MUni or trials without pads, I agree that they are pretty sweaty and hot.
Recently I’ve been working with the original designer of Roach pads to design leg armor specifically for MUni and trials, under the Kris Holm Unicycles brand name. I tested out the latest prototype last week and they are fantastic- much better than Roach leg armor and enormously better than 661 leg armor. Some of the main improvements are:
There’s no seam on the inside of the calf- the front fabric is one piece with the back panel around the back of the calf. This seam wears out on the Roach and 661 pads
The back fabric only comes up to the top of the calf, not behind the knees. This avoids fabric bunching and discomfort when you bend your legs.
The wraparound the back of the calf is full coverage, but can easily be folded back if you want ventilation rather than protection on the back of the leg.
The KHU armor uses real 1200 denier Senior Ballistics Nylon, which is what Roach used to use before they started producing them in Taiwan (more durable than the current Roach pads and way more durable than 661 pads)
Padding extends fully around the inside of the knee, just where you might bump your knee on the uni.
Thin padding protects the ankle bone on the inside.
The diagonal straps around the back of the knee both start on the inside and velcro on the outside. On roach and 661 pads, the inside-attached velcro starts peeling back and falling off, when it wears a bit.
They are much more articulated (pre-bent) at the knee than 661 or Roach. This feels weird at first but is much more ergonomic for the typical bent leg position during riding.
A 2" wide polyester webbing “tendon” connects the plastic in the knee with the front shin plastic (hidden under the fabric cover). This prevents the Knee padding from sagging over the shin, as Roach and 661 do when they get old.
A second piece of polyester webbing is glued/sewn over the plastic in the knee (under the fabric cover), where it extends to the sides of the knees. This prevents the plastic from cutting through the outer fabric on the knee part, as it eventually does on 661 and Roach pads.
These will hopefully be available by October or so, all going well. They may be a slight bit more expensive than Roach, but will be a lot better.
I’ll post a picture when I get the next prototype back from the sewers.
I especially like the bit about the “tendon” from the knee to the shin pads. My 661s occasionally develop a “click” when the knee pads sink downwards and catch behind the shin pads every pedal stroke, which can be most frustrating.
