Tragedy Divides Skateboarders

These are the headlines every day on my beloved morning paper. For four days. For crying out loud! I really need to get a real newspaper.

Here's the story: a 16 year old skateboarder without a helmet was goofing around with his buddies, doing what we call "skitching," or being towed by a car. He was hanging on to an open drivers side window going about 15-20 mph when he got the speed wobbles (when the board starts to shake because the tolerance of the trucks has been exceeded or something. I don't know. Ask an engineer) and fell, first hitting his head, then being run over by the car that was towing him. He was killed.

Since this has been getting so much press and I have a connection to the situation, I feel compelled to weigh in on the subject. I am a skateboarder. I have broken my arm, and it hurts. I've hit my head and it sucks. Gouges, scrapes, dirty-nasty- gross infected wounds, rolled ankles, getting sacked on rails, I've been there. And as I get older it affects the way I skate, because this body has to last me forever. When I broke my arm, I had about 12 doctors/nurses ask me if I was wearing a helmet. No. I wasn't. And I still don't. Unwise? Perhaps, even probably so. Why not? Because it's the summer time, and I don't need an extra four pounds of plastic on my head making me sweat. It's not a law, but if it was, I still wouldn't. Because my lack-of-helmet keeps me in reality. There is a false security that is derived from such things, and people can do dumb things wearing a helmet and still get worked.

How does this apply to the situation? News-flash: if this kid had been wearing a helmet, he still would have gotten run over by a car. It wouldn't have changed anything. He wasn't being smart. He was hanging on to the drivers' window, while others choose to hang on to the bumper where the wheels are in front of you rather than behind. I have never skitched and don't plan to, because it seems less than intelligent. I didn't even know it was illegal, but I'm bummed out that it is because someone in Olympia who's never ridden a skateboard decided to make it so. I take issue with where I feel this is headed, to the legislative process where a bunch of politicians are going to mandate helmets while skateboarding, bike riding, or other wheeled sports where some sort of damage could be incurred to the noggin of the poor, unsuspecting, idiotic,
doing-stupid-things-that-don't-make-sense rider. Someone in the Columbian advocated the mandatory use of helmets for everyone under 16. Can you imagine getting carded every time you go to a skatepark!?

Here's my stance, now that I've led up to it; Helmets are a personal thing. Parents can mandate them as a condition for being allowed to skate in the driveway, but I'll bet you as soon as the kid is old enough to hop a bus to the skatepark or other skate spot, that helmet's merely gonna dangle from the backpack. An option, if you will. In case the kid needs a little bit of extra assurance before they get wrecked doing something that's above their limits. But while just cruising down a hill to the next spot, I'm betting, no helmet.

Many pay-to-skate parks mandate helmets to protect themselves from lawsuits. This works, because that's the condition for skating in a confined indoor area, and kids will do that just to have a spot to skate in the crappy Portland rainy season.

The point is, the rider needs to make the decision for themself that they want to wear a helmet.
Safety? Knowing limits? Just wanting to look cool? It's their call. No legislation is going to make kids want to wear helmets, just like making skitching illegal didn't prevent this kid from doing it.

For example, up on the mountain snowboarding, I choose to wear a helmet. $90 for a helmet with headphones and $20 for wrist guards is the price I paid for protection from the unknown in an icy snowboard park, where trees, skiers, and other boarders tend to make their way into your landing. Perhaps it's easier for me because most of my friends choose to wear helmets as well, and as a result, we've ridden away from things one without a helmet would not.

The Timberline staff doesn't mandate a helmet law, and helmets are not uncommon up on the mountain. Conversely, a mandatory helmet law is impossible to enforce by law, and most skaters are adverse to cops anyway because they are often the ones called to kick us out of spots. The whole "We're just trying to protect you" thing won't hold any water. To us, all it is is The Man trying to regulate our fun.

The bottom line: Know your limits. Don't do anything dumb or drastic. Wear a helmet if you want to because even though I don't, I recognize it really is a smart thing to do. There is a definite plus: If you choose to wear a helmet and smack your head on the concrete, you'll be the one to call the paramedics when the guy behind you doesn't get up.