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Protective Gear: To Wear or Not to Wear?

Protective Gear: To Wear or Not to Wear?

Protective Gear: To Wear or Not to Wear?

Posted by Retail Store on Mar 3rd 2016

protective gear

When you gear up for skateboarding, you’re usually thinking about cool kicks, some sweet clothes, maybe a neat new accessory. Protective gear is one of the last considerations. Many skateboarders consider protective gear a nice-to-have, not a necessity.

The debate about skateboarding protective padding, helmets, wraps and other gear is almost as old as the sport of skateboarding. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of protective skateboarding accessories.

 

Advantages of Protective Gear

More Creative Movements

More padding, more skateboard stunts. Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? After all, isn’t protective gear supposed to prohibit certain movements? Actually, you can still do pretty much all the moves with protective gear on (not entirely; we’ll touch on mobility below). With physical protection comes mental muscle; to put it another way, when you know you have extra protection on, you’re more likely to attempt a skateboard trick. It’s a kinda-sorta subconscious process where your brain goes, “OK, even if something happens, everything will be all right.”

Protection (Duh!)

Remember than skinned elbow from the wild Ollie last month? You didn’t wear an elbow pad. Imagine if you would’ve. Unless you like pain (and we doubt you do), protective gear is a smart option.

Injury Prevention

With protection comes extra insurance against those injuries that can keep you off the skateboard for a while. Helmets are very important here. If you’re in the air more often than not, a helmet just might be the best investment you can make.

 

Disadvantages of Protective Gear

Limited Mobility

It’s a minor factor, but a factor nonetheless. Some skateboarders just have to travel light. They can’t stand the stuffy feeling of extra gear weighing them down.

Not 100% Effective 100% of the Time

Hey, nothing is entirely fool-proof, and that includes skateboarding protective gear. It’s not as if the gear is faulty, it’s simply that you can’t prevent all injuries from happening all the time. Wear a helmet, and you might hit your chin on a rail. Slip on a knee pad, and you could bang your leg directly above or below the pad. And even if the protection works, you’re merely limiting the overall damage – it still might hurt, no matter how heavy the padding or gear is!

 

Skate America recommends that each skateboarder take a realistic assessment of their skateboarding technique to figure out what protective gear, if any, to wear. Bottom line: protective gear works. It never hurts to have some additional padding, just in case you can’t complete that epic skateboard flip or other rad trick.

Skate America sells high-quality protective gear for all sorts of skateboarding skill levels. Our padding, helmets and other accessories are made to take a punishment, so you don’t have to. For more information about our gear, contact a Skate America representative today. You can go to our contact page, call us at 805-823-8140, or launch a chat sessions for convenient answers to your questions. The decision on what protective gear to buy may be difficult, but we’ve made it easier than ever to connect with your go-to skateboarding apparel source – Skate America!