What are your thoughts on helmets? Do you use them with your project? Why or why not? How shold we balance the value of some amount of calculated risk involved with skateboarding, with the responsibility to make a safe space for kids in the programs we run?
This 2018 article talks about head injuries in professional skateboarding.
Hi,
Just wanted to throw in my two cents about helmets. I think if possible they should be worn by the kids in our programs. We started doing Skate After School with very limited supplies and no insurance and we didn't require helmets because we didn't have many and we weren't required to by insurance. When we got insurance we had to require helmets and wrist guards for all of our kids. I think that a goal should be to have all of the kids wear helmets but I realize that's not possible for everyone, but as I said.. it should be a goal. We have had a few instances where kids have hit their heads skateboarding and thankfully they were wearing helmets. We can't completely prevent this from happening but at least when it does happen we know that we have done as much as we can (helmets) to prevent serious injury.
Hi Tim, thanks for the input and Skate After School perspective. I think the insurance provider requirement is one very important reason lots of programs will require helmets (especially for participants under age 18), but Skateistan has also found it to be very reassuring for parents who worry about their kids being injured while learning to skate.
Since many of us work with beginner-level skaters, I think helmets make a lot of sense, since 33% of skateboarding injuries happen to people who've been skating for less than a week. Here are two infographics with a few more stats: