helmets and sport representation
Ok, having just watched Skate 1, another video of some moron riding with out a helmet, its time to bring up the importance of helmets and how it reflects on longboarders in general. 99% of us know that wearing a helmet isn't an option, its a necessity. So i ask you this, why are videos and pics of folks not wearing lids being allowed on the site? I know that policing the site for helmetless photos and vid is time consuming and a pain in the ass, but the first time someone visits the site they see a banner where all riders have helmets. only to scroll down and see pics and videos of people without lids. Like it or not, the minute you set foot on your board you become a representative for the sport (pro or otherwise). If you aren't wearing a helmet, the public may view you as just another sk8r regardless of the size of your board and how you use it. As longboarders we prefer not to lumped in with park skaters and their little popsicle stick boards for obvious reasons. Think about how impressionable young minds are, you go fanging past a car full of kids on a strange looking board, those kids get interested in longboarding, if they see you wearing a lid, they're first impression of the sport is someone who realises that safety is more important than image. The more this happens, the faster a helmets becomes part of the image.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Ching on -
agreed.
i've seen way too many videos of skaters without helmets. and i dont want to generalize but most of them are kids or teenagers. and its probably because they don't really know the extent of the danger of not wearing a helmet. or the worst reason, because it makes them look "lame". Seen a few threads on silverfish where people argue that wearing a helmet makes them look stupid thats why they don't do it.
Most shortboarders don't wear helmets which i think is stupid because they are jumping off stairs and rails and i'd think the chances of them slamming their skull into concrete is way higher than me cruising around uni.
Best thing to curb this problem is to get all the pros out there to encourage helmet wearing. I think Loaded is doing pretty good with that most of their vidoes end with "always wear a helmet". But there will always be stubborn people who won't do it until they actually hit their heads.
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Grits on -
Just a personal experience...
We had a couple of guys ride with us on the Wednesday night strand push here in Townsville. Both of which didn't wear helmets. At the end of our push we often stop for Ice cream. One night we got on to the topic of helmets. After talking about the photos on this site, and a few experiences of local guys who have stacked it and cracked their helmets and not their heads, one of these young guys had decided to buy a helmet.
A little education always helps.
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Permalink Reply by Ash on
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since the chain came off my pushy at full tilt down the street, i don't go anywhere without a helmet. it was completely unexpected. the first thing to touch the ground was my helmet, which is now in 3 peices. im sure if i wasn't wearing it then, i wouldnt be here now.
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Permalink Reply by Kanufi on
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In the end its up to the individual to self police. The guy in the vid has a $2 head .not worth fixing when it breaks.
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by leeso on -
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Permalink Reply by Joel Reddiex on
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I think the main question posed is that should a website such as asra display photo's and vidoe's of people not wearing helmets whislt skateboarding or luging etc.
And would such actions discourge people skating without helmets because they can not post there photo's and vidoe's on such sites. I for one would like to see this action taken as a stance that arsa is about making skating as safe as possible.
Yes skate boarding has risk and most of us know what happens when things go wrong from personal experence. Such things as helmet wear and general safty should always be reinforsed.
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Permalink Reply by speedy canuck on
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its one thing for loaded to end their vids with "always wear a helmet", but leading by example is another. No helmet, no coverage. simple as that. I'm of the opinion that material with riders not wearing helmets has no place on ASRA, Coast, NNO. If we portray the longboarder image as peeps who rip it up while wearing helmets, over time it will become engrained in the rest of society's mind like that.
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Permalink Reply by Robbo on
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The ASRA site is set up as a bit of a free for all and it was designed to be like that. The preferred method is for people to have the freedom to comment on various things both good and bad. That tends to be they way people learn. I don't think you will find any piece of comment on the site that advocates the non-wearing of helmets, all we can do is encourage the proper use of safety equipment to other users. If you don't have videos of idiots not wearing helmets on the site than you would not see any comment or discussion about it, having the discussion for all to see may have a greater impact then just subliminal video messages.
The discussion you've created now is a positive thing and allows users to comment. However, removing video that might be deemed illegal and unsafe can become an unwieldy beast. Given that most of the speedboard runs that people do are often illegal it becomes hard to police what should or should not be on the site (except racist, hate or child pornography). The promotion of safety is paramount to ASRA and so is the freedom to comment and discourage people doing unsafe things. But the open discussion needs to be had. Remember it is often illegal to skate down a road but it is not illegal to skate without a helmet the best we can do is tell them how stupid they are and hope that has an impact on others.
In saying all that it is very satisfying to see the amount of discussion on this topic with many forum threads devoted to helmet safety, so an impact has been had. I will look into maybe getting some safety messages put within headers of certain pages to reinforce this message because it does need to get out there.
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Thanks Robbo.
I see what you are saying the lashing they got for not wearing a helmet was huge.
The banner idea would also add to the same effect. ASRA has always promoted saftey and with the banner idea only enforces it further.
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Permalink Reply by leighgriffiths on
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Kanufi said:In the end its up to the individual to self police. The guy in the vid has a $2 head .not worth fixing when it breaks.
that argument always comes up in silverfishlongboarding and i think its weak. skaters you see in videos are very impressionable, especially to youngsters. So when idiots like that share photos and videos to the world, they are instantly role models to kids and others who don't know any better, whether they like it or not.
i remember a while ago on silverfish people posting videos or boasting about not wearing helmets were quickly and strongly discouraged. it seems these days on silverfish that the peer pressure about wearing helmets has faded and it seems as though its acceptable to see people without them in pics and vids. because there is less pressure to wear them, I've noticed that at least 60-70% of the new pictures on certain threads are people riding without helmets and most of the time there is not a single mention of their stupidity.
policing and peer pressure is extremely important and its great to see many others here on ASRA thinking with their "heads".
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Permalink Reply by Aych on
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education is a wonderful thing but there will always be those that just will not listen.....so self policing can have a valid place. The easiest way to begin this is by ensuring those that decide not to wear helmets skate with each other; in other words refuse to skate with them or refuse to have them skate with you. if they choose to skate without helmets that is their right, but lets not let their decision tar us with the same stupid brush or disrupt our day by taking them to hospital.
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ASRA AdminPermalink Reply by Bugs on -
I often skate without a helmet. I have had two concussions in the last six weeks, each of which necessitated a hospital visit.
But both of those concussions occurred while I was wearing a helmet. I have never suffered a skating-related concussion while not wearing a helmet. If I was to draw a conclusion from this experience it would be that helmets cause concussion.
And that's not a ridiculous conclusion. The advent of mandatory helmet laws in Australia for cyclists has led to no change in the rate of serious head injuries but a very large increase in the rate of serious injuries to other parts of the body. The likely explanation is risk compensation. I'm quite sure it's the explanation in my two concussions.
I'm not anti-helmet. I wear one sometimes, and I'm happy for others to wear them wherever and whenever they like. But I don't like making helmet-wearing a moral campaign, especially after seing what that led to in the world of cycling; reduced cycling rates and no change in the rate of serious head injury.
As for the argument that longboarding needs to differentiate itself from the world of non-helmet wearing shortboarders, I think it's wrong. I've got no interest in creating divisions between longboarding and shortboarding. It's all skateboarding and it's all good.
That's my personal view, and I know it's going to be contentious. But I have an open mind and am willing to be convinced. If I'm not making sense blame it on the concussion I suffered two days ago, and remember that I was wearing a helmet when it happened. And don't tell me it would have been worse without a helmet - without a helmet I wouldn't have crashed at all because I wouldn't have been so willing to take the risk.
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