Skating & Injuries
As a Streetboarder you have to handle injuries from time to time. In the past three years, i collected serveral. Started with a broken hand, ripped verses to a broken tailbone, a double-broken sacral bone, a light disc prolapse and at last i broke my right wrist and got some titan plates in it. It never was recklessness, i just bought misfortune in a family-pack.
Now, after the operation on my hand, i can't move it, as i could before - it's nearly stiff. Well, and if you sit around the whole day with nothing to do except standing the pain, you start to think about a lot of things. Is it worthy to destroy your body for the fun of streetboarding? Skating, especially streetboarding means a lot to me. I really don't know what sport i could do, if there wouldn't be any streetboard. In my opinion it is the best way to blow your stress away. I like the way how you are concentrated while skating. No space for anything in my head, execpt the next trick. The fun you have with your friends while filming or taking pictures is just a nice addition.
As i said, after all these injuries i think about quitting. While my heart is still skating, my head tells me that i have to quit. I don't want it, but on the other hand i dont want to be a cripple in a few years.
If the rehab gets the stiffness away from my wrist, i think i will give another try. True to the motto: "You only live once". But what would you do?
contact us
follow us on twitter
get connected
- Pivotboard.com
- RedPen Magazine
- Streetboard.fr
- Streetboarding-Berlin.de
- Stretboarding.com
- Team Addicted
August 14th, 2009 - 10:48
I startet skateboarding some weeks ago. As far as I got into it I ordered a new longboard for me a few days ago.
So far I never had anything broken in my body at all and so your article kind of scares me a bit. I won’t drive on public streets or do downhills, I’m more into scarving. I also wear wrist-proctection to keep it safe.
Which leads to my questions:
Where do you usually drive? (In the streets, on the hills, neighbourhood?)
How do you protect your body while driving?
How fast do you go?
August 14th, 2009 - 10:53
if you like to carve, then i think a streetboard would be the best for you.
i usually ride street or skateparks. when i started i was wearing full-protection which means, wrist, knee, elbow and even a crash-pant.
now, i only wear the crash-pant and sometimes (when i try new tricks) the wristguards.
August 14th, 2009 - 11:06
I haven’t had the time to get on the new board yet. It arrived just yesterday. Maybe today I’ll see if we become friends
Those crash-pants sound interesting, maybe I should order one too
August 14th, 2009 - 12:03
Well, I haven’t had much injuries up to know. Well of course I left some skin on the concrete here and there and had supersized hematoma fading from blue to green to black… but usually not enough injury to keep me from going to skate again in the next days. Thoug my hardest injury is prety recent… like 2 month ago I slammed trying to smith grind a handrail and fell on my knees pretty hard… Of course I was wearing knee pads, the only protection I ALWAYS wear (well almost
). Still, the bones of my legs got jammed into my pelvis so hard, that I could not walk properly or do any sports for over two weeks. Two weeks is nothing you may say, compared to what Robert described, but for me it was my longest injury. I also got another rail into my lower stomach (well, the really low stomach 
missing VERY important male bodyparst just by a few inches…), but that was only pain for like two days…
), which might depend on a few things:
I usually don’t fall on my back or on my head. And as I mentioned, I’m alwas wearing knee pads to have well defined bailing bodyparts.
Anyway, I never broke any bone (at least not as far as I know! It usually really needs a lot of pain to make me see a doc
(1) I’m a carefull streetboarder. Always first learning slow and low and incrementally going more difficult. A lot of skater use rahter the ‘just do it!’ way of learning, leading to much faster learning of course but risking some more injury…
(2) I’ve always been a good faller
(3) Luck. It seems as it is just a matter of time until I will break something
I want to say something about protection:
Most protection stuff is rather cosmetic: Your pads won’t protect you from breaking something obviously…. They just might prevent you from ugly scars and scratches. And so it remains a tradeoff with the disatvantages. Warm and sweaty pads… some people even claim to be restricted in their mobility… some say If you’re not wearing anything your better caring for not falling…
But on the other hand, as I mentioned early, Pads can help to coordinate your bailing! You won’t want to fall on your tailbone, just because you’re trying to somehow to get that trick through to not fall on you knees…
I mean, as soon as your losing control: Bail! When wearing pads drop try to drop on them… when not try to do a controllt roll…
Above I said ‘most preotection stuff’. There might be special cases for Hemlet and Backprotection I think. As soon as you’re going upside down a hemlet makes really sense. And back preotectors? I don’t know. Could be really usfull when learning new flips etc. But now we’re no more speaking about breaking bones but getting killed!
Always think about the dimensions which you go and propabilities of consequences!
For example: That you might suffer some head injury after falling unprepared while running down the stairs on you socks to open door for the postman who is bringing you new board is more likely, than falling on your when skating some park or street. So in my opinion there is not need to wear a hemlet for usual sunday afternoon skating. When you’re learning new tricks or going really high and upside down, you better weaar one!
Also, all I said above was quite for the expieriences skater. If you are a beginner you haven’t learned to fall propperly yet and should get any protection you can!
In general I think, skating is not more dangerous than most other sports. And I bet the ratio of injured soccer players is not lower than injured skaters.
Also, learning to deal with falling and injuries and getting to know the capabilites of your body prepares you for life!
I was talking to a medical about “dangerous” sports and falling and he quoted a study (can’t find a link though, if someone knows it plz email me!) in which turned out, that people who were goal keepers when they were young suffered less injuries from accidents than those who were field players.
This proofs, that controlled falling in sports also prepare you for unexpected falls.
When you slip on the wet floor, you might catch yourself or fall with no consequences while you non skater friends make breake wrist or something!
@weipah: Some of your questions might be answered considering that Robert is havin “Streetboarding” (formerly known as “Snakeboarding”) in mind. You are stapped on your board and can’t jump of it like it was a skateboard or longboard.
This obviously leads to a lot of hard slams
Woho that was a lot of text.. need to get back to work
safe landings!
jan
August 14th, 2009 - 15:44
when i broke my tailbone i slipped away…
when i broke my wrist i slipped away…
when i can bail “controlled” nothing happens, but when you are not prepared you can hurt yourself so much at the smallest obstacles….
fucking misfortune! i just hope the rehab gets my wrist back!
August 19th, 2009 - 23:55
I’m so glad that there are only two weeks left till I’m back in Berlin, so that I can take care of you and you won’t hurt yourself again!
August 26th, 2009 - 20:27
fuck dude…fucking injuries..
but..streetboarding is a extreme sport..everybody knows about injuries and bails..
if any person dont know that …then go play videogames or shits like that..hahaha
robert..you have a big fucking balls..dont quit..if you didnt quit before..why quit now no?
we have to take a lot of pics..we have to skate a lot spots togheter…you will be fine men..dont worry..dont think too much..shit happens always.
take care bro!
peto