I’ve had a few bad accidents in 2016 broke my collar bone snowboarding.
In 2017 broke my leg once I got into eboarding (it was a freak accident where my foot slipped and fully extended on the ground)
Late 2017 early 2018 got in a crash where I work up in the hospital with a broken thumb and massive concussion where to this day I do not know what happened.
Had 3 surgeries in 3 years and to this day I do not regret it. It also helps that I am in NYC and the crew here is very supportive and we are all a bit crazy. When I broke my leg and during recovery after like 6 months before I was ready I was riding around around 10-20 mph only around my neighborhood for like 2 months. Took my time getting comfortable at my pace. Then took the KALYNYC out once I got my legs back and my confidence back. Also I’ve always had alot of support from the NYC crew and it helped alot. And I don’t ride as much as life catches up with me but I still love the rush of going 30-40 mph and weaving through NYC traffic.
But at the end of the day I guess I’m saying find a group of guys you can ride with and encourage you to ride safe but also at your pace. Don’t rush into anything you are not comfortable with.
I compressed 3 disks, cracked a vertebrae and tore a mussel in my back.
This was last spring and it still hurts. It not in my head that’s the problem, its the pain, and not wanting to do a prescription to counter it.
Long after the anxiety has gone, its the physical recovery that remains.
Also broke my Scaphoid and fractured my Radius in a separate incident, was pretty much standing still and went strait down on it … 4.5 months for that one as well.
I think the major problems of riding electric skateboards are that nobody(cardrivers)can handle and even realize that we move motorized and the speed we are going on roads or even on bike lanes. When I see videos of people riding eboards in traffic, specially in the USA, there are much more reasons for bad accidents then they imagine. Wearing safety gear does not save you from anything that could happen if you are not seen by car drivers or if you just go down your board at 30mph. Even green lights are no warranty you can cross the road as ( save) as walking or driving a car, because nobody knows about this type of motion we all love so much and car drivers are just Overwhelmed to situations like that.Another problem is that very much of electric skaters are newbies to skateboarding in general and they get hurt very fast if something gets them in trouble while riding. They never learned how to fall the right way (mostly possible) and surly break their bones at their first crash.I wish for much more respect about their boards and much more respect in traffic and others around them.
Example: When I go for a ride to the supermarket which is about 1 mile away, I would be dead three times if I’m not focused as fuck and could not break for everything at any speed, even when i cross the road by having green lights.Thats fact!
The most seen riding style you can watch in videos is to get on the road and going as fast as the board goes. Like them idiots in their AMGs or Porsche cars, not caring for others and themselves.This behavior will automatically lead to bad accidents specially for newbies in skateboarding in general.I can tell you from my own experience that going fast on a boards is dope, but you always have to know your limits and you always have to pay a lot of attention to others in traffic.Otherwise you will be dead, sooner or later, even if no other traffic member is the cause for that, because it was just your high speed run the last time…
Sorry for not staying on topic and sounding like a geek or something, but fear is some kind of a protection system. If you are afraid of riding, don’t ride! If you want to ride Nevertheless, realize you are one of the weakest parts in traffic and ride slow and save not to hurt others or get hurt by them. Just ride well known routes, where you know every crack and bump in the street. Be ready to break every time to zero and beware of dogs and kids on the sidewalks…
Something about lights: In germany where i live is electric skateboarding illegal. That is one of the reasons i do not use any lights on my boards at night, because I DONT WANT TO BE SEEN. I got many,many years of experience on skateboards and this works totally fine for me. Now some or maybe all of you say that I am an idiot and that myself is to blame if something happens. Hahaha, thats right! But so are you. It is just your fault if you cannot handle the device you are riding or if you ride like everybody has to notice you as a cool and hip electric skateboard rider going full speed in traffic by watching clouds in the sky. Just by being legal on the streets doesn’t mean you can skate, even if you were without any accident for lots of miles. Keep that in mind.
Another thing I need to mention are the trigger style remotes. I know lots of us love them and they are used to them, but in my opinion, they could be an additional problem when things get out of control. the fact that your fingers are “trapped” on the trigger seems deadly as fuck for me, but everyone has to know for his own. Same I think about a dead mans switch, but I’m just mentioning.
Hopefully you get rid of your psychological warfare and hopefully you can enjoy electric skateboarding again, maybe with a different style of riding.
Stay save my friends.
peace
I won’t lie… after my last crash it took me a while to get on my board again. Shit sucked, since I love my dual 6374 setup. It was my third build, on a drop deck, 107s… smooth ASF, and just a blast to ride around the area. Then the antispark failed and left me with slight concussion going around 30-35mph.
I have gone down on a mountain bike countless of times, skateboards, and even my motorcycle yrs ago. None of those phased me, mostly because I think…I saw it about to happen. Like on my R6, I went down because of a chick in an SUV clipped me onto the shoulder and i laid the bike down. I was highly upset but a week later I was riding again.
I think it was the unexpected failure of electronics which has caused me angst… which isn’t me and that bother me even more. When my head bounced off that pavement which such force it just made me think differently about esk8. I then realized that without that helmet, it was done dealing. I mean I got whiplash from this accident. Neck and ribs were sore for a week.
After the crash I had my board in pieces figuring out what the hell happened. After I figured it out, it stayed in pieces for weeks. When buddies were asking when we were going to ride, I would then just say, well…waiting on my helmet, can’t ride. Even though I have a half helmet and can easily ride my less powerful board… I chose not to even chance it.
It has taken about a month to get over that anxiety…I guess you can say, and I am back in full force going on to the next build. I am very determined to get back into the swing of things and let loose. The first real test is going back up to max speeds and feeling comfortable. Still waiting on my full face to get here, but when it does, I will take that challenge. I am sure it will take me a week or so…but I will get back to it.
Weather is getting warm again… and it is time! Can’t wait to finish my new projects and start enjoying my ride!
I lost my arm above the elbow less than two years ago in a work accident. I picked up esk8 because I lost video games and guitar, my only two hobbies.
Then about 2 month in I took a NASTY fall, breaking both sides of my jaw and half my teeth. I got a full face and it was easy to step back on.
3 weeks ago my metroboard dual locked the wheels at 25+ mph. I fell, knocked the wind out my chest. Finally sat up and my vision went 99% white. Was out in the middle of trails and was freaked out. Knew I had broken my stump and my knee was killing me. I rode home slowly and after sitting down I instantly passed out. Woke up and my hoodie sleeve was saturated with blood. Turns out the tip of the bone broke off and was sticking out the end of my stump, and had another massive break half way up. My “scraped “ knee ended up looking like an axe wound. Went to the ER. Had knee and arm surgery the next day. Was super hard mentally to realize that I had once again just destroyed myself. My prosthetic company was supposed to be making me an arm protector.
But every time I fall, I hit my stump. There was literally just skin between cement and bone. No fat or muscle.
I went for a ride a few days ago, and I’m totally freaked out about falling and hitting this arm again. I’m going to snag some high end knee pads, but am lost on how to protect this arm. And it’s really kinda freaking me out, especially with me moving to a newer faster board. Fuck.
Do you wear a prosthetic? If you can afford one they’re pretty neat, just slap a slide puck to the palm of it lol. It sure is nice to have a built in knee pad when I fall in mine.
Fuck dude… we gotta find a solution for protecting that arm.
I know it’s not the same thing but when I was riding around with my broken arm in a cast I would strap my arm to my stomach to prevent me from putting it out and injuring it in a fall.
Need like a little stump helmet or something…
For me it has always been important to get right back in the fray as soon as possible after a crash. Stems from my days on the BMX track and learning to clear a huge tabletop, failing and getting back up to hit it again.
Recently I took a massive hit to my left side and it was important for me to at least get back on my board and cruise, I need to continue to take it easy for another 3 to 4 weeks but I am making sure I am getting out for some rides to keep from feeding the anxiety.
Main lesson learned is I need to practice riding in a crouched stance more, being 6’2" makes for some wicked forces when falling at 40 mph. My crash would have been nothing if I had been crouching better.
It is similar to PTSD. The feeling of anxiety and try to get back on. I have a few but I manage to overcome the anxiety to get back on. But it does not mean you get rid of it. But it makes you to become more conscious.
I’d hate to break a $10,000 body powered arm or a $125,000 myo arm. I use ottobock liners and all I need is basically the top half of my body powered arm. They tried to go all complicated with a one way air valve and a silicone inner/carbon fiber outside shell and a weird parachute thing to pull my arm in.
The PTSD is real. I can’t fall into a deep sleep without having insane and terrible nightmares, so I “sleep” on a 4 foot long couch (I’m 6’2”) with tv and lights on. I don’t really sleep but I also don’t wake up to the cops beating down my door because I’ve been screaming “help I’m going to die, 4850 Leetsdale!!!” over and over again for half an hour. Not ideal I suppose.
Young men by nature take risks. These electric skateboards are great fun but we are risking our well being every time we go out at speed around the streets. The anxiety you experience after a trauma like this is normal IMO. It is telling you to reassess what you are doing. We all need to take a close look at what we are doing. We are standing on a small flat board going at high speed on rough asphalt with bumps and holes around cars with drivers who will not always see you. It is very dangerous. After having a couple of mishaps I only ride around 20kph max. I ride natural so I have my left foot toes angled towards the front of the board so it makes it easier to jump off if I have to and the speed is not so high so I can slow down on my feet. I try to use cycle paths only and just take it easy going to destinations. Yes I did get back on my board when I fell off and the anxiety I had getting back on the board was telling me take it easy, stop taking risks.
