Intermediate skater learning a lesson the hard way
I wanna pass this lesson on to any new skater who might listen. I'm 28, so I'm approaching uncle status, and I've been skating on and off for about 10 years. I took about a 5 year break before recently getting back into it. So, all in all, I've been skating for around 5 or 6 years. I have a medium-sized bag of tricks on flat and vert, and I enjoy getting creative on street. I've always found it ironic that public places prohibit doing skateboard tricks, because I rarely get hurt doing tricks; I'm always ready to bail out, and when I do fall, I tuck my chin to my chest to protect my head pretty well. I have never, ever hit my head, in all of my days of skating... until yesterday.
I wasn't even trying to do any tricks. I was cruising around the park like normal, doing some really easy stuff. I rolled up a bank, short axel stall at the top, on the way back down, I somehow managed to step one foot off the board. Due to the decline of the ground underneath me, my front foot didn't make contact, and my board slipped out. This is usually no big deal, because I'm good at protecting my head, but because I was on a bank and unprepared, I would have had to tuck my head a lot more to avoid smacking it, and I did smack it, pretty hard.
Over 10 years, I've never had a slam immediately force me into considering a future of helmet-wearing. But the second my head hit that ground, and then bounced up away from it, I realized exactly what happened and admitted to myself that I had never considered the possibility of falling on a surface that puts the ground closer to my head than my back. Where I live, with my medical insurance, I wasn't able to be seen at my urgent care, and the ER is ghetto and had people already waiting 3+ hours. With blood coming out of my head, I took my chances and went home to wash up and rest while a friend watched me. My neck hurts like hell, but I'm lucky not to have gotten a concussion or worse. I've seen people riding around in wheelchairs with messed-up heads who used to be normal like you and me. Don't let that be you one day because you refused to put on a helmet.
It doesn't matter how confident you are with skating, or how long; don't bust your head like me and be forced into the realization of how important your head is. Be safe, wear a helmet, it's not embarrassing, and if people laugh at you, chances are they were never going pro anyway. You can't skate with a head injury, if you're like me and you hate taking rest days off, hitting your head is a good week off AT LEAST. Whatever reason you have to find in order to wear a helmet, please find it, because you only get one brain.
tldr; wear helmet.