Every kid or a starter always stays confused about the safety measures before joining the longboarding community. Longboards provide excellent opportunities for transportation and enjoyment in spare time. But, there would hardly be a skater who hasn’t got injured at any point of his riding career. The most common injuries include skin scratches, knee sprain, or bone misplacement due to crashing into something or falling off a moving longboard. That’s the reason why people ask “is longboarding safe” before they start riding a longboard.
Due to these occasional injuries, one frequently asked question is, “Is longboarding safe?”. The safety of the rider completely depends on the rider itself. You will feel safer around the corners and at high-speed rides with more safety gear you wear. Some of the longboarding techniques involve riding at a high pace; hence the chances of injury increase. Controlling a moving longboard, the riding track you are riding on, the safety equipment you are wearing, and the riding style are all factors that can minimize the possibility of the rider getting injured.
Safety in different longboarding styles
This section will discuss the level of safety you’ll initially have for a certain riding style. We will also discuss what additional measures you need to take to secure yourself from possible injuries. All the common riding styles are discussed here. So, you just have to specify your longboarding style to BoardsOnTop and we will help you enjoy this adventure with completely safety.
Cruising on a Longboard – Is it Safe?
Cruising is undoubtedly the safest riding style among all. It doesn’t include high-speed movement or highly professional skills; you hardly need to wear any knee or elbow pads to cruise around the skating park. In our years of skating experience, we have hardly seen a skater getting injured while cruising. Of course, there is a chance of you getting hit by a small rock or crack on the road; you can get off the board if the speed while cruising is high.
If the pace is higher than 15 or 20 miles an hour, it will become harder for newbies to handle the longboard after it crosses a crack or pebble-full road. As a result, you might have to jump off that moving board onto the pavement. A minor scratch on the arms or legs can happen in such a case. For the same reason, all professional skaters recommend wearing proper safety gear, even for the easiest riding style.
Wearing a helmet isn’t necessary while cruising, but keep the best longboard helmet if you bring it with you and want to keep your head safe at any cost. The gears you need while cruising is knee and elbow pads. If you want to cruise around the beach, we recommend you untighten the trucks a little bit to turn comfortably and pass through the obstacles flawlessly.
Is Dancing on a Longboard Safe
Dancing is an innovative style of riding pretty common among young skaters all around the globe. The style involves cross walking on a flexible & long deck while the complete longboard keeps rolling at an average pace. Rolling a dancing longboard on flat terrain is as important as wearing a safety helmet for downhill riding.
Though there is no involvement of pace when you dance on a longboard, there are still possibilities of you getting minor injuries like muscle or ligament misplacement. The knees, legs, or feet can feel pain because of continuous dancing on the longboard. Because you are constantly spinning and twisting while dancing on the longboard, there is a chance of getting fallen off the board. That is why we recommend you wear the best longboard helmet during this riding style.
Commuting on a Longboard – Is it Safe
Commuting on a longboard means covering long distances with the help of your commuting-specified longboard. Traveling on open roads for miles is what commuters have to face. So, the safety precautions should be limited to the specified circumstances. When a rider wants to ride a longboard and travel to his college or office or a nearby station, getting the speed higher than 30 miles an hour on a commuter longboard is normal. Hence, a proper helmet and elbow and knee pads are necessary for this riding style and elbow and knee pads to keep the arms and legs safe from severe injuries.
The safety gear won’t help you stay safe in this riding style. It would help if you were skilled enough to face any situation while using a longboard as transportation. Learning how to stop or break a moving longboard is the most important thing in this case. Foot-braking or sliding are the common techniques to reduce the speed of a moving longboard. Learn these skills first and then go for a ride of miles.
Because you’ll be moving along the road, keep yourself in the lane of skaters and cyclists. Being in your lane will help you stay safe and predictable by the car drivers. Following the rules and regulations set by authorities and avoiding traveling against the roadways will keep you safe from catastrophic injuries.
Is Downhill Longboarding Safe?
Downhill longboarding seems threatening due to the speed that a rider achieves. A rough estimate says that an average speed for longboarding down the hill is 40-50mph, and the highest speed can be around 60-70mph. Keeping the answer simple, if you are a beginner, you don’t know how to stop on a longboard, and you go for the ride without longboard safety gear, it is not safe for you. So, you must be thinking about how to make downhill longboarding safer.
You need to go against what compromises your safety during the downhill rides. For example, you should know how to stop on a longboard, balance your rides, and wear helmets, gloves, and pads. By taking such steps, you will stay on the safe side. Hand-sliding is one of the most beneficial ways of controlling the longboard’s speed. In this case, sliding gloves keep you secure and allow you to control your riding speed.
Downhill longboarding is safe for you if you take care of all these things as an experienced rider. There are some other safety techniques as well that make a rider confident as well as safe. Before you start riding, give the riding surface a quick glance and see if there are any cracks and bumps on the road. Secondly, for downhill riders, when practicing or actual riding, get help from your skating fellow whenever you have to take a turn because some vehicles can ruin the whole journey.
Is Freeride Longboarding Safe?
When we talk about freeride, we involve the speed factor automatically. Though the actual meaning of freeriding is to control a speedy longboard by doing carving or sliding, so when you can control the board, the speed relatively gets lower than usual. Sliding proves to be the most difficult way to reduce the pace of a longboard coming down the hill. There are multiple chances of the slide getting failed. You may fail to push the longboard correctly sideways or may not shift the required weight to the right side of the longboard while sliding; this failure in sliding can cause a severe injury.
Hence, you need the best longboard helmet to absorb immense shocks from outside and keep the head safe as much as it can. Elbow and knee pads become essential when talking about speed, carving, and downhill riding. The best sliding gloves are also important if you love to slide while riding down the hill. Besides safety gear, a tip to keep injuries away from you is to learn how to roll into or away from a fall.
Longboarding or Skateboarding | Which is Safe
Throughout our longboarding journey of several years, we have come to know of various riding styles and techniques. Most of these riding methods require high-speed and speed-controlling techniques simultaneously. The major difference between longboarding and skateboarding is the place where you ride. Longboard riders go for open places busy and open roads for riding. On the other hand, skaters go for a park and comparatively safer place than longboarding.
This analysis clarifies that skateboarding is safer than longboarding. That’s an opinion; skating and longboarding should not be dangerous because safety gear protects you completely. So if you skateboard without any safety equipment, it can also cause you injuries or any other mishaps. See the safety tips below,
Safety tips:
Make it your habit that you won’t ride longboard or skateboard with a helmet, pads, and gloves. Riding with protective gear is the biggest safety tip for all skaters.
If you love to longboard, try to work on your stopping and speed controlling skills from the beginning.
Don’t ride in a way that does not suit your level. For example, a beginner or an intermediate rider is not allowed to go for downhill rides.
Go through your riding surface first and make sure there are no bumps on the road, especially if you love to ride faster.
FAQs
Are longboards dangerous?
Yes, longboards are dangerous if you have no idea about stopping a longboard, don’t wear longboard protective gear, or your momentum and stability are not good. Longboards are longer than skateboards and move faster than them. Therefore, it is necessary to take care of all the possible injuries or issues you might face during the rides.
Should you longboard on the road?
It is not too dangerous to longboard on the road until you follow the safety tips. Move within your side of the board on the roads, and don’t go outside your area. Wear sliding gloves to stop the longboard instantly. In the end, protect your sensitive body parts if something bad happens.
Why should you wear helmets when longboarding?
Confidence in rides is one of the major benefits of wearing a helmet. Secondly, longboards move comparatively faster, and if injuries happen, it hurts your head the most. Therefore the answer is yes; you must wear a helmet when longboarding.
Conclusion
Anyone who rides the longboard for the first time asks, “is longboarding safe?” To answer this challenging question, we enlisted the most-liked longboarding methods and analyzed them completely to know if they were safe or not. If you ride downhill, slide, dance, cruise, or commute on a longboard, above, you will get to know if your riding technique is safe or not. Also, you will find some beneficial tips regarding rider safety to bring more joy to your rides.
