Hoverboarding With Care
Here are some tips for protective gear to use when riding on a hoverboard. First and foremost, don’t worry about other people, worry about your own well-being, your head (helmet) your knees (knee pads) your wrists (learn the right way to fall or you will break wrists…until then – wrist guards. And finally elbows(elbow pads). I’ve been battling this a little bit, but the right gear and learning to fall correctly will help with most skatepark and rideable related sports. On a hoverboard, I would begin with nothing short of a Helmet and wrist guards. If you are already used to knee sliding out of things, maybe knee pads would also do you well.
Here’s some more information from the manufacturers who have studied these products and how they affect your body:
These are really very subtle movements, it is as thought ‘you feel and think where you wanna go and it just goes there!’
Motivation to wear protective gear? Why don’t most people wear protective gear in sports?
Now we’ve been talking a lot about self balancing scooters or a hoverboard, but this would count towards skateboarding, scooters and really any sports where you could wear pads, but it may be that no one else is wearing them.
I find this mostly at the ‘cool skateparks’ where the kids go to show off the tricks they learned all week and don’t ‘need pads’. Also, as many of them NEVER skate in pads, it is way out of the normal for them to suddenly want to spend money on protective equipment that would make them stand out, perhaps as ‘n00b’s or beginners’.
Here’s some reasons:
- Pads can be too Bulky, hot and uncomfortable.
Pads make it hard to do tricks and get in the way. For some, it works only wearing them to practice new things, then once dialed in, they don’t need them anymore. While this may be true for some, this is not for everyone. Also, if you are constantly ‘pushing the envelope’.. (I’m not gonna say ‘gleaming the cube’ because NO one gleamed any cubes) chances are you will try things you cannot land yet.
- Expensive.
Proper protective gear vs a new skateboard is tough. I can’t disagree that it can be pricey, but then how much is the pain and healing time of broken bone worth to you? 6 weeks in cast and having to take showers with your arm in a plastic bag?
- Pros don’t wear pads. No. Quite often, they don’t. They do this SO much for a living that they are experts at their craft, KNOW THEIR LIMITS and rarely get injured due to being “better at falling than skateboarding” very possibly. As it turns out, the best skateboarders are also the best at falling without injury. This is something I really have spent a lot of time on and now have a assortment of strange pads that make it look like I’m not always wearing them. I look at this as similar to playing music live. You don’t need the music in front of you after 200 shows, just like the pro’s don’t always wear pads when at demos or contests…depending on the setup.
- Ugly. Yes, but you can make it such you can’t tell… here’s what I used to get around that -> mind you it didn’t stop me from getting a mad chest injury when my wrist guard dug into my upper chest unfortunately… learning how to fall better and ‘take it’ sometimes means you ‘take it’.
HIDDEN PADS
Here I’m wearing a Seattle style grunge plaid long sleeve to stay warm in the evening and to cover up my g-shock elbow pads that are slipped on first, followed by motocross elbow pads I put over them.
- So two pairs of elbow pads with one over the other.
- The first hardens on impact and second covers it:
The G-form pads felt so ‘non-intrusive’ that I was afraid it wouldn’t protect my current injury so I wore motocross pads over them to protect my injured elbow for the time being.
This oughta keep the swell-bow down. Now if you didn’t notice, the jeans are actually Street & Steel that have special pockets in the knees that I put special D30 knee pads into.
Note: the D30s are NOT the ones that come with the jeans, rather an extra purchase to ensure you have better knee protection. These jeans are really made for motorcycles, so this is kinda badass at the same time.
More Hidden Pads are in the Photo above.
Also, what made me have the most problem skating with this getup was the hip and tailbone pads I was also wearing in the photos above.
Armored Shorts
BILT make a pair that work great, but they’re better off in the daytime as shorts, wearing proper knee pads. Being afraid to hurt my wrists I wear the wrist guards all the time, but man they really hurt when you land ON them under your body. Being a guitarist, I’m very afraid of not wearing wrist guards, working on a better solution, like falling better, but maybe I need different wrist guards again. These armored shorts were great.
Prepare for falls, but never really fall
If you are prepared, chances are you won’t need to fall much from your self balancing scooter, or an all terrain offroad hoverboard, like the SWAGTRON T6. You can carefully break your fall if needed. Remember to always to fall away from the hoverboard as it is heavy and likely has some momentum. Always step off the self balancing scooter backwards, not forwards, to avoid any ankle injuries.
Hoverboards go pretty fast (T6 can go 10-12MPH now!) and they are now getting really really powerful. The off-road T6 all terrain hoverboard has so much power, be wary about offering it to a child who has never tried before. I would start with at least a helmet and some gloves or wrist guards / elbow pads. Trust us on this one.
