Radelaides senior skaters are stepping it up a notch. Groms beware!
This was posted on our Adelaide thread yesterday after Mikey Rivers had a horrendous crash. After what happened in Sydney on the weekend to with Matty Ado has asked that I post this on here in the hope that senior skaters all over will think about it and maybe put a similar plan into action. Mikey is still in hospital with a broken shoulder, arm, ribs, vertebrate and a punctured lung. He is lucky to be breathing and he is lucky to be walking (or he will be anyway).
''Ok. Mikey had a really bad crash today on hayward. He ended up in the guard rail shoulder first at 60 or so. He likely has a broken arm, ribs and something wrong with his hips/pelvis. Thank someone that his back seems to be ok. It was probably the worst crash I have seen and I have seen many.
Mikey is an experienced racer/rider from England. He has ridden and competed all over the world and is a very capable skater. Still though, this shows that one mistake can really have a huge impact and everyone is capable of making them no matter the experience they have. Luckily for us we had phones to call ambulances, we had friends around, we have first aid knowledge and we had the common sense to call the Ambulance instantly. If this was two kids walking up the hill with no car, possibly no phone, no water, no medical supplies things could end a lot worse.
Leigh, Bow and myself are now stepping things up a notch. My stomach turns just thinking about what could happen to young, inexperienced riders on certain roads in Adelaide. I think many or most of you take this sport much to lightly. If you bugger up a turn and hit a car, post, cliff edge, pile of rocks or anything else you can and most likely be seriously injured. People have died riding downhill and unfortunately, more will in the future. I would be absolutely sick if anything like this happened to anyone in our community.
We now have a list of roads.
1.Hayward
2.Corkscrew
3.Mt Osmond
4.Norton summit rd (not the pins, they are fine)
5.Pole rd
6.Greenhill
These are roads that we know you grommets have been skating. We have people telling us who skates roads they shouldn't and every video you post up we watch. We will recognise these roads and from now on we will pull you up on them. Anyone caught riding these roads in the future or if we hear of anybody riding these roads in the future, will be banned from future South Australian events such as races or freerides. You will never ride with any of us, we will never invite you to sessions with internationals or interstaters, we will never reccomend you for interstate races that require our approval (such as BTS) and we will encourage others not to ride with you.
Skating down a hill is one thing. Most people can do it. Skating in your lane is a step above. Skating safely when something unexpected happens is something you will only learn over time. Cars in your lane, trying to pass you or tailgating you. Animals jumping onto the road. Someone crashing in front of you. These are all things that very few of you have the skill or knowledge to deal with.
If you think this is unfair, tough. Laws prohibit kids and teens from smoking, drinking, driving, film and television content and a lot of other things. Your parents prohibit you from certain places, activities and other things. This is the way the world works. Kids and teenagers have an opinion that they are invincible. You are not. I believe that the 3 of us are obliged to look out for your safety. As far as the law is concerned, we put ourselves at risk for under age kids every week.
The RAG's were all selected (have to talk to intense squad who we overlooked with the list) as groms we skate the listed roads with regularly and believe are up to a safe standard. If you wish to skate these roads with us I would suggest hooking up a session with a few guys from RAG's and they will let us know of people who are skating at a high level. It will then be up to us to invite you to a session and see how you go. You will not get to a weekend session with us by sending us facebook messages.
It is shitty that it has come to this but we have a lot of things riding on the line currently. The Willunga boys are still in the midst of their court case and it is predicted to carry on until June. Daily Grind and myself are finalising our council proposals for regular road closures in Adelaide and Duff is currently working on having a particular road closed also. Not only is seeing a friend crumpled up in a guard rail screaming at the top of his lungs with unthinkable pain one of the worst experiences ever but it put's many other things and risk.
Skate safe, skate within your limits, wear your helmet, do the clip up and watch out for one another.''
Views: 269
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Adrian Alderson on
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Kam,
exactly, that is awesome. Just needs to be more groms who accept that they need the training rather than feeling they know what they are doing. The "I know boats" Syndrome (;-)>
Cheers
Ado
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by m0juu on -
steps like this are a good way to show we can regulate our own community.
that way all we need is the govt to take over the admin of guidelines that we lay down that keeps groms of all ages and skills safer. much like the skiing ratings on mountains
hope mike powers onto recovery with the help of alot of milk and cookies.
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Jayden Mitchell on -
I totally agree with everything that everyone is saying, being a grom here and also being one of the lucky ones and being able to go out and skate with leigh and dani, every weekend or so. I see where everyone is coming from, but also from being a grom i know this will only cause much more controversy in my eyes. we already have 'grom groms' who think they are up to a hill like hayward, who i know personally skate it all the time, and they dont care what anyone thinks, in my opinion this will only stir them up more and cause alot more anger and make them wants to skate these hills which, everyone else thinks are too far above there skill level.
I think is is good setting up these 'rules' but i guess we will have to wait and see how this affects longboarding in adelaide.
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Permalink Reply by Sakamoto on
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Structured training days are held in Qld, teaching crew who've never riden before the basics of riding, braking, the hardware on a board and keeping it clean/maintenance, etc. As riders progress they're taught lines, passing techniques as well as how to crash as safely as possible. 6 to 8hr days, on a closed road, bbq/drink.
Mentoring, as Dani is proposing, isn't "Police action", it's about looking out for the crew you want to ride with, and teaching them how to enjoy what we do as quickly and safely as possible. This is the role of Seniors, to teach the new crew.
What your proposing for Adelaide is brilliant, guys.
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by w. morph on -
its not just about skill levels. its also about skating roads that are fairly isolated that have dangers you cant control like dick head drivers. grombard can found this out yesterday!
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Dani on -
Those who don't want to follow these rules don't have to. We can't physically force them not to. But they wont be racing locally at all and they will be the minority of the SA crew.
In a selfish respect this also show in writing that Leigh, Bow and myself do not condone kids riding these roads and we don't take responsibility for any injuries incurred while riding them.
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yeah i agree, good stuff writing the whole thing up dani/leigh.
and nice one nick haha
Nick said:
yer we did pole ages ago
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Permalink Reply by ^^^DRE^^^ on
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agreed, corkscrew road is mine and marks local hill and we both skate it reguarly, it took me at least a year and a half and many corner sessions to gain the skills and confidence to skate the whole run, corkscrew especially leaves little or no room for error especially on the top section. you have a rock wall on one side and a guardrail and cliff on the other we have had members of our crew in the past who although may have had some experience behind them have crashed quite badly and have quit the sport due to their injury's. Its easy to become overconfident when we havent bailed in a while but all it takes is one mistake, always be on the ball dont lose focus look out for your brothers and always wear protection. peace
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Permalink Reply by Laurence Lombardi on
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skateboarding is fun
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Ghost Rider on -
So true Dre.
^^^DRE^^^ said:agreed, corkscrew road is mine and marks local hill and we both skate it reguarly, it took me at least a year and a half and many corner sessions to gain the skills and confidence to skate the whole run, corkscrew especially leaves little or no room for error especially on the top section. you have a rock wall on one side and a guardrail and cliff on the other we have had members of our crew in the past who although may have had some experience behind them have crashed quite badly and have quit the sport due to their injury's. Its easy to become overconfident when we havent bailed in a while but all it takes is one mistake, always be on the ball dont lose focus look out for your brothers and always wear protection. peace
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Permalink Reply by Hamish Templer on
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I live next to Hayward and a few weeks ago me and one friend decided to try skate the bottom section of it. In my bag i always carry a quick seal bag of hyperfix for a little bit of road rash and iv never skated with out my helmet, gloves and kneepads. We found out that Hayward is nothing like the videos and just how intense it is until you actually skate it. We both knew that the hairpins are way to hard for us at those speeds. We skated the bottom part a couple times and went home. No footage taken or anything. I know I'm not going to go there again because of the fact that I'm not up to that level yet, but what Im wondering is that if we've been skating for a while now (iv been skating for almost a year and a half now) and can control pres at reasonable speed and are learning to take tight corners at speed in our lanes, you need to give us more of a chance to step up to the next level and get better. We need more chances to get better, because you older guys are always skating with the better people it means we can't show you that were getting better and that we can skate certain hills.
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