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Readers Respond: How Has a Helmet Saved Your Life, or Close To It?

Responses: 13

By Steve Cave, About.com

Wearing a helmet while skateboarding isn't necessarily cool ... but sometimes helmets can save your life! Do you have a skateboarding story about how a helmet kept your brains intact? Share your story here! Share Your Story

Broken Brain

I have been skateboarding for about a month and a half now and am pretty good with the balance on my board. I tried to drop in on a ramp that goes down into a steep ramp like thing. I dropped in perfectly. When the ramp came, my front wheels got caught under the ramp. This was the last thing paved in the park so it is very sketchy. I spun out, bruised my side and smacked my head on the pavement. Without that helmet, my brain would still be on the ground.
—Guest Sk8 Kid

scary

I was skating down a half pipe at the skatepark I tried a 180 but my wheel hit a nail protruding I wasn't wearing a helmet then I face planted and I lost my two front teeth they chipped bad. Then I couldn't skate for 4 months had to get get stitches too. If only I was wearing a helmet.
—Guest John

lucky

my friend was cruising down a hill with a hlemet on she hits a crack and goes flying she slams a tree so hard with her head that her helmet cracked in half. The ER said her head would have cracked like a hammer hitting a watermelon if not for the helmet
—Guest Sk8r boy

face first

i wanted to drop in. my first time ever. i fall face first in the quarter pipe and if i had not been wearing my helmet and pads my nose would be poking out the back of head
—Guest bob the giraffe

id be dead

so I am a scooterer and I have a freshpark launch ramp and I was up on the coping and I bunnyhopped off and the back of my scooter hit the coping and I fell to the ground and hit my head really hard.I wouldnt be living right now if I wasnt wearing a helmet.
—Guest david

Lost Balance and The Wrong Helmet!

I was Skating on a little path in the park when i lent back on my board a smashed backwards onto the VERY HARD grass. I lost my balence for about a week but I lived. My helmet may have been a Bike helmet but it stopped me from permantently losing my balance and wrecking my skating career. By the way i had been skating for 3 years then.
—Guest Rose

Next Time.....

my friends mum was doing some inline skating one time at a beach. She wasnt wearing a helmet. She went to jump off a little kerb but her skates fell out and she smashed half her head open. She was lucky to not have died or have gotten permanent brain damage. She had weeks in hospital and it was months before she could go around everyday. She had to have therapy to get her to remember normal everyday things. Maybe next time she'll wear a helmet....
—Guest D.

What Geddy Said

I found a video on YouTube in which Geddy Lee of Rush is giving some tobogganing tips, (he's Canadian y'know so that's like, his thing) and at one point he holds up a helmet and says: "Those who are concerned about their brains will want to wear one of these..." I still havn't heard the case for wearing a helment put any better.
—SirBailsAlot

thank god

i was skating gaps at near house and i had a bad ollie so my trucks didnt make it far enough and i flew off my board and hit my head first and thankfully I was wearing my helmet
—Guest sk8ter11

Biffed it

I was bombing this monster hill by my house when i hit a crack in the road. I rolled head over heels. When i got up the was a chunk missing out of my elbow and there was a huge crack in my helmet. Helmets are a GOOD IDEA!
—Kadizzel

Knocked out and CT Scan #1!

Not a skateboarding accident, but snowboarding which is close enough..Concrete is even harder than snow!...Not doing anything crazy, just cruising down the hill on my last run..caught and edge and did a face plant...Next thing I know I'm looking up at ski patrol and getting the toboggan ride down the hill and into an ambulance. Quick 4 hour $4,000 check up at the ER and I walked away fine...Doc's said it most probably would have been different if I had not been wearing a helmet. I drive the guys on my skate team nuts bugging them about helmets but I won't ever stop. Helmet's save lives it's just that simple. I'd also really like to see the big companies start promoting helmets by letting / making their sponsored riders wear helmets. Please check out theiantillmanfoundation.com for more info about helmets and the consequences of not wearing one. You don't have to be riding the 16 foot vert wall to get a bad injury...All my injuries have happened during mellow riding.
—grindzskateteam1

Knocked out !

While skating at a park in GA (where helmets are required) I saw a guy fall face first down a ramp. Thank god he did have his helmet on as he laid on the concrete unconscious for 8 minutes while waiting for the EMS. Without the helmet his head would have cracked open like an egg.
—Guest Anne

Fell Backwards

I fell back off my board, when trying to stop, and hit the back of my head hard on the concrete at the skatepark. It was a very hard hit. I know I heard something crack somewhere, but it was my helmet I think!
—Guest Joey

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