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Comment by kop316 | Hacker News Reader

If I may ask, I thought it'd be fun to try skating, but to be honest, whenever I get on and try it I always worry that I will fall and really hurt myself (May I just need to buy pads).

Do you have the same worry, or you just find that you fall, it's ok, and just get back up?

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That's the same with anything. How many endeavors have you thought "I'd love to do that but what if I got hurt in the process?" Relationships, startups, new jobs, everything contains a risk.

If it seems interesting, just do it. You'll thank yourself after you get over that fear. (Also buy a helmet and learn how to fall[1], you'll need it. Pads may be overkill but couldn't hurt.)

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hundbrub8iQ

Unless you are bombing hills, from just cruising around the worst you will do is sprain your wrist catching yourself awkwardly falling, or skimming some skin off against the pavement. I've never had a head injury because the instinct is to catch yourself with your arms. Seems bad, but I think you get beat up a lot worse falling while learning to bike.

I accept that I'm going to fall. I have fallen. It's not that bad. I learned a lot about how to fall while minimizing injury from martial arts and there are other skaters who've picked up on that intuitively and have videos about falling and how to do it to prevent injury.

Wear protective gear. I wear a helmet. I know older skaters who wear pads. It's fine.

And skating within your limits means enjoying what you're physically capable of and the risk you are comfortable with. Myself, I don't plan on jumping huge sets of stairs or grinding stair rails. But I like to skate at the park and want to grind ledges and have fun on the boxes.

Hope that helps.

That helps a lot! Thank you very much for the thoughtful response.

I cannot recommend enough you give half pipe a try. Not talking about mega pipes, just the small ones with little to no vert. Lots of fun and fairly safe since when you fall you _usually_ end up sliding down the curve. No need to do jumps or crazy stuff, just do tricks on the coping and enjoy the ride.

falling is part of skateboarding as are the cuts and bruises that come with it. with that said, if you learn how to fall correctly (something surprisingly few people know how to do) bad injuries will be extremely rare. slamming is honestly one of those things that is easy to build up in your mind and then when it finally happens it's not bad at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxRHTr_PkOU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-W7pl1uYcM

as a general rule, speed is your friend.

>go fast

>lean forward

>stay on top of the rail

and most importantly:

>commit

It's a learned skill to fall, and to accept falling.

Try some ukemi (aikido falls) training.

The psychology of falling is fascinating. There are some well done videos about the "unbendable arm" on YouTube but if you have a dojo nearby there's nothing like a couple sessions.

Another thing is to bend your knees, like, always. A natural but incorrect safety reflex is to extend the legs and lock the knees, which makes you a stick ready to flip over. So, do held squats and get comfortable with the lower center of gravity, which makes you that much more stable and that much safer to fall on your butt.

The next step is to transition that fall into a roll, this reduces the jerk and shock to your bones and makes you less likely to break something.

Exactly! See mae ukemi and ushiro ukemi

I think this is one of the reason's it's great to let your kids get into it. Teaches them confidence through punishing trial and error. For you, either option is totally viable, but at the beginning on flat ground your probably better off with just learning to fall and get back up.

learning how to fall is huge. of course falling down onto asphalt/concrete always carries some risk but once you get comfortable falling safely, it's pretty unlikely you'll do any serious damage to yourself if you're not straying too far outside your limits as you learn.

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