Protect Your Noggin ! ! !

If you are a seasoned electric skateboard rider, you should already know the importance of wearing a helmet, but I have to emphasize again today that "you must wear a helmet to ride".

Five days ago my friend got his first electric skateboard. The last time he rode a regular skateboard was decades ago in elementary school. He has skateboarded with his kids a few times over the years, so in his mind, it's a skill never forget. However, I'm here to tell you that electric skateboards are a whole different thing. It dawned on me when I fell on the first electric skateboard I purchased that this is different from traditional skateboarding, you're now dealing with strong acceleration and quick reaction deceleration, and high speeds, all while going through a learning curve. But apparently, he didn't realize it yet.

The next day he dropped his left wrist several times, but fortunately, it wasn't broken. On the third day, he went into the hospital emergency room because he hit his head on the road while riding to avoid a deep pothole in front of him that he didn't see until the last second. So, in that split second, he had to decide whether to go through the pothole and then be thrown out for sure, or jump off the board. He wasn't skilled enough on this electric skateboard to get around it, plus he would have been exposed to possible car traffic behind him because he was on the right side of the road and he was riding to the left, always reacting to the left. He suffered a head injury because he wasn't wearing a helmet. Why wasn't he wearing one? Because when we were kids, we didn't wear a helmet whilst on a skateboard. He had purchased protective gear online but apparently, it hadn't been shipped yet.

He scraped skin on his left knee and elbow, but the worst part was when he rolled over and hit the back of his head on the asphalt. He felt the back of his head and there was a slight dent and he knew his skull must have shattered. I took him to the emergency room and after several hours of admissions and enduring in the waiting room, he finally got his CT scan report, which ended up being: Brain: no edema, hemorrhage, mass, acute infarction or inappropriateness, Brainstem: no acute inferior hemorrhage or severe structural abnormalities, Skull: no masses or other obvious visible lesions, Sinuses: no mucosal thickening. In other words, as bad as this accident may have been, he's fine. He was very lucky. If it had been me, I would have probably died. He hasn't ridden his electric skateboard since the accident, but it's in his room now, and he told me he won't ride it until his protective gear arrives. He learned his lesson, and hopefully impressed others, to wear a helmet from day one; you don't have to risk your life, your health, and your future quality of life just because you think you don't need to.