I agree. Its kinda crazy how many novice skaters are just able to build boards capable of braking 35mph. I think people are comforted by the idea of brakes, and “being in control”. Personally if i couldn’t control a gravity powered board as fast as my esk8 goes i probably wouldn’t ride it. I think for some more protection is needed, but for others it might be a hindrance.
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I learned on a 12s mountainboard. Crashed real bad after about a year doing an accelerated slide around a bend, strapped in so my knees slammed down. Swollen to the size of a mango for about 2 weeks and immobilized whole knee (thought i tore tendons). Walked out of the ER with crutches in hand and carried them way home in my hands while on the board. Definitely need some protection, but i think it’s mostly knees and elbows for the people riding offroad and around towns (vs downhills).
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Now, the question is, you may be able to control a gravity powered board going as fast as our boards do, but if the gravity doesn’t stop, can you stop it?
I think if that’s the case, no need to worry about ever losing brakes. I wouldn’t feel safe above 35mph if I didn’t feel confident enough pulling a slide at 35mph on a sidewalk (an extreme).
Locked up wheels, other vesc glitches… Leathers sound great for that. I used to fall all the time in my leathers, it was amazing. It was easier than taking a fall playing soccer or something.
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Definitely. Even if one of my esk8 builds wasn’t setup to slide. I can still foot brake pretty damn fast. But my left shoe won’t survive lol.
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Man, my shoes are all fucked and I don’t even foot brake anymore. One thing I’m totally not comfortable sliding is Pneumatics. I don’t even want to try.
Yeah same here. I don’t see it going well.
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When doing down hill you often anticipate the crash and can react to it - Right? When we experience a sudden electronic failure its out of the blue and the crash might be different than if we “know” that now we will fall. Do you think that leathers still would be the best form of protection? I am talking about 35mph+
The original and still the best maker of leathers for skaters.
http://www.njkleathers.com/index.php/custom-leathers/skateboarding-luge
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When doing down hill you often anticipate the crash and can react to it - Right? When we experience a sudden electronic failure its out of the blue and the crash might be different than if we “know” that now we will fall. Do you think that leathers still would be the best form of protection? I am talking about 35mph+
I had one of these out of the blue crashes recently, it sucks, you really have no time to plan for the fall or even brace for impact. My leading foot impacted first and whipped the rest of my body into the asphalt severing some none essential nerves in my hip and crushing my rib cage and left shoulder ending with my helmet taking a huge blow that left me KO’ed. The impact knocked the wind out of me leaving me groaning for air as I was unconscious.
When I came to, my dude asked me where I was and I laughed and said “at the races!” Had I not had leathers on I doubt I would have been laughing. I would have been covered in abrasions and lacerations from ragdolling across the road.
Some hip pads under my leathers are probably the only thing I will change. My leathers have knee shoulder and elbow pads and they definitely did a good job in keeping me on my feet as I recover.
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Guess you could say…
Your leathers saved your hide.
Also your helmet was a champion.
Once again, glad you’re okay bud. That was a helluva crash and I’m glad you walked away relatively unscathed.
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Still kicking myself for not crouching properly. I doubt I would have had such a rough fall if I had better form. I’m pretty sure I was standing tall coming out of that last turn.
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Speedy recovery to you. So for you its leathers hands down. And leathers for abrasion protection sunds like the way to go. You dont think hard pads in shoulder and over chest would have been nice for you? But that properly not the best combo with leathers. So one properly have to choose.
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The only thing that holds me back from adding more protection is keeping mobility while riding and keeping it simple so I always wear everything I need. A chest protector would have been nice but had I been crouching I wouldn’t have had such a hard blow from the kung fu whip the asphalt gave me.
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Is it a skate skin you have? With shoulder pads. They normally don’t put shoulder pads in skate skins right?
You can get skate leathers with pads anywhere you like from NJK, still saving up to have my set made. I am currently using some moto leathers, took me ages to break them in. I actually ended up swapping out the pads for some slimmer pads to get a decent fit.
The seams on my “off the shelve” leathers have exposed seams all over the place so they probably wont hold up as well as what I have seen from NJK.
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