Tag safety gear

When shopping for roller skate parts and accessories, you might feel in over your head. You might come across knee pads, helmets, elbow pads, and even gloves. But what safety gear do you need for roller skating? Below, we cover the essentials and some specialty gear you should consider.

Roller Skating Safety Gear: It’s the Law

Parents should know that many states legally require minors to wear at least a helmet when roller skating. The same goes for riding bicycles, skateboards, and scooters. 

If you are 18 or older, you can legally roller skate without any protective gear. Still, for your safety, you absolutely should wear all appropriate gear even when the law does not require it. 

What Safety Gear Do You Need for Roller Skating?

Whether an adult or a minor, you absolutely need some safety gear while roller skating. Without the right gear, you set yourself up a range of injuries, including:

• Concussion
• Wrist sprains or breaks
• Skinned knees
• Bruises

A Helmet

The idea that you should wear a helmet when skating is widespread. Still, many adults choose not to wear them. All that stands between your brain and rock-hard concrete is less than a millimeter of skull. Admittedly, the skull can prove mighty durable, but even casual skating can lead to unforeseen and potentially severe injuries.

Studies show that wearing a helmet can reduce your risk of injury by about 29%. Even better, they can reduce the risk of injuries requiring an ambulance by 56%. Compared to ambulance rides, which can cost thousands of dollars, a helmet is a reasonable investment.

Elbow Pads

Part of the point of protective gear is to give you more options for falling. If you have protected areas, you can focus on landing on those parts safely. Elbow pads protect you when falling at unusual angles or at speeds when you cannot catch yourself.

Wrist Guards

The human wrist can take about 400 pounds of force before it breaks. That might sound like a lot. But a fall from standing can generate around 500 pounds of force. Yes, you can dampen the force of that fall on your wrists with excellent timing. But wrist guards do not require timing. They simply work. Keep your joints in good shape by protecting them with guards when roller skating.

Knee Pads

Like elbow pads, knee pads give you a safety net for falls. The more protected points of contact you have during a fall, the better you can come out on the other side. Your knees often take the brunt of force from falls, so durable knee pads will save your joints from that impact.

Gloves

Gloves are often overlooked when considering skating safety gear, but they can be an extremely helpful tool to add to your inventory. While wrist guards keep your bones safe, your finger skin will still be exposed. Gloves can prevent you from losing skin if you take a nasty fall. High-speed skaters will benefit the most from gloves, but any skater can benefit from using them. This is especially true when one is learning to skate, as falls tend to happen more frequently.

When to Wear Roller Skating Safety Gear

Below, we break down several categories of skating. In each situation, more protective gear is always better, but we lay out the essentials you must have for each type.

Casual Skating

We define casual skating as riding along designated paths at a leisurely pace. Casual skating can also count as merely riding up and down a safe neighborhood street or sidewalk.

What to wear:

• Helmet

Skating for a Commute

Roller skating to class or work will put you on sidewalks and streets. The sidewalks usually pose only minimal risk. But streets come with additional dangers. There, you run the risk of a driver not seeing you and being clipped by a passing car or having a parked car door opened into you.

What to wear: 

• Helmet
• Elbow pads
• Wrist guards

Recreational Skating

We define recreational skating as skating at a roller rink or a skate park. You should encounter fewer unknown risks in this situation, but collisions at skate parks are an unfortunately common occurrence. We recommend the full setup, but you could get away with only a helmet. Going to a skate park can also fall into this category, which does require the full setup.

What to wear:

• Helmet
• Elbow pads
• Wrist guards
• Knee pads

Extreme Skating

Attempting tricks, racing, and skating in dangerous terrain define extreme skating. If you skate with the goal of getting air time or reaching high speeds, you will want to gear up.

What to wear:

• Helmet
• Elbow pads
• Wrist guards
• Knee pads
• Gloves

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