Keeping Your Child Safe While They Shred: Skateboard Safety Accessories

Blog

Sixty percent of skateboard injuries involve children 15 or younger.  If you bought your child a skateboard for Christmas or their birthday recently, you want to make sure that they're safe while they skate.

Here is a quick parent's guide to buying the right skateboard accessories to keep your young skater safe while they shred:

Head Gear: Choosing a quality helmet

Your child can recover from just about any skateboarding injuries except traumatic brain injury. You probably also know that the only way to protect their brain while they skate is with a quality helmet.

• Quality helmets are fabricated from four materials: ABS plastic, fiberglass composite, carbon fiber, or Kevlar. Although carbon fiber and Kevlar helmets are stronger, ABS plastic and fiberglass composite helmets offer adequate protection as well. The easiest way to guarantee that a skateboard helmet is "quality" is to look for ASTM F1492 certified helmets. Although there are some "quality" skateboard helmets without this certification, the only way to guarantee that your child's skateboard helmet offers sufficient protection is with ASTM F1492 certification.

Head Gear: Choosing a quality helmet your child will actually wear.

Once you settle on an ASTM F1492 certified helmet, now you're pitted with a less objective, sometimes far more difficult, task: choosing a quality helmet your child will actually wear. After all, if your child won't wear the helmet you buy, it won't do them much good when they fall.

• You will need to make them part of the process. Even if you plan on purchasing the helmet online, you may want to visit your local skate shop. Touching, holding, and physically seeing a helmet will help you and your child choose a better helmet. Also, seeing the helmet in the skate shop can legitimize the helmet in your child's eyes. Once your child chooses a helmet that you both approve of, you can order the helmet online (often for much cheaper).

Knee and Elbow Pads

Some most common skateboarding injuries are fractured elbows and wrists. Although protecting your child's knees while they skateboard isn't a bad idea, outfitting them with elbow pads is more likely to offer protection they'll need. Simply put, when your child falls off their skateboard, they are more likely to brace their fall with the hand or elbow. When you're looking for elbow pads, look for pads with jointed, hard-plastic, plates. The hard-plastic offers protection, the jointed plates offer flexibility. Visit an online skateboard shop to see what is available.

11 January 2016