Staying safe

Helmets

Wear your f**king HELMETS!! I cannot emphasise that enough. Out of all the injuries you may incur, a head injury is the most likely to mess you up proper and potentially forever. Helmets are cheap, easy to strap on and will save you when something unexpected happens. We could easily name 10 people in the last year who have been saved from serious injuries by their helmets. There's no good reason not to wear one, don't let your crew ride without them.

Half shells

Half shells are great for day to day riding, sliding, carving it up, ripping ot the shops, whatever. After you've been rocking one for a bit, you won't feel right riding without it.

Full faces

When stuff starts getting a bit more gnarly, a full face is a really good idea. If you're riding faster, you slam faster and it's easy to mash your face into the ground before you even know what's happened. On top of that, you can mod a visor on your helmet to stop stuff hitting you in the face (bugs, rocks etc) and make you a bit more aero for going FASTER muahaha!

Gloves

Gloves can not only save your hands when you crash, a good pair of slide gloves can potentially prevent that crash in the first place by allowing you to smash out a tidy shutdown slide or pendy. They can also be used for rider to rider communication through a good clap or two.

Knee pads

After a helmet and gloves, knee pads are the next most important piece of safety kit you can get. Once you learn to get onto your pads and gloves in a crash, you can prevent almost all on road injuries by just sliding out to a stop. Less injuries == more skating! Easy. Mod some side caps on and you can lay down fat cap slides for more steez.

Reflective stuff

So the UK is cold, wet and DARK. If you're going to be riding on roads that potentially have traffic, you can help them see you with just a touch of reflective gear. Good minimal ideas are: Helmet stickers (Just bought some skull ones off Ebay!), arm/wrist bands, jackets, headtorches. A Taxi driver once stopped next to us skating a steep hill in the dark and said "You know those reflective things you've got? Best purchase you ever made."

Top tip: Get your spotters to wear reflective jackets too and it makes them look like they're all official from the council like.

Other gear

That's the basics covered. There's a variety of other gear you can wear as well to prevent more injuries, but make sure you have at least the stuff above.

Leathers

Leathers will save your skin when you crash riding fast. Especially useful when riding in close with other skaters because you never know who is going to crash out and make you slam too!

Back Protectors

With the recent spat of back injuries in DH skateboarding, a back protector is looking more and more like a must have item for faster riding. You can get a lightweight one and jam it under your t-shirt!

Check yer nuts!

Before you ride, just have a quick check that everything is properly tightened down like wheels, trucks bolts etc. Might be a good idea to check your helmet/pads too. Not much fun losing a wheel halfway down the hill!

Spotters

If you're ever riding blind corners or anywhere you might come tanking in but can't see whats coming... get spotters! Take turns with your mates standing on the corner to let other riders know if it's safe to keep going. Nothing worse than tanking round a hairpin to find an unexpected van waiting to kill you eh?

Walkie talkies

Brilliant if there's a few of you or if you have multiple spotters. If you're standing up top waiting to drop the hill, you can communicate with your mates and check if it's safe to bomb and also let them know you're on your way down so they can stop traffic if they HAVE to.

Red/White torches or red/green flags

Getting a bit more advanced here, but again great if you have people spotting a corner. While a hand in the air to indicate 'danger' works, a proper signalling system is much more effective for your reaction times.

Ride within your limits

Not sure about a hill? Try it from part of the way up where you know you can ride it safely and work your way up. Getting out of control puts you and your mates in danger and perpetuates the "dangerous skateboarder" image which leads to blown out spots and people calling the cops. Don't ride faster than you can footbrake. While safety gear will help you when you get into a bad situation, knowing your limits can stop you getting into that situation.

A little quote from Rich at Lush Longboards (he knows what's up!):
Skate well within your limits on open roads. You main goal ALWAYS when skating an open road is SURVIVAL. Obviously sometimes we all take risks and do stupid things :) - but skating at half-throttle and staying alive is way better than full tilt and dead. It's amazing how stupid and aggressive some drivers can be.

Braking

One of the main dangers and causes of complaint with skateboards is that they are out of control and cannot brake. With a few skills, this is far from true. It can and WILL save your life or at least an injury or 2! Which form of braking to use depends on the situation so have them all at your disposal.

Look behind you before you brake or slide, you can stop faster than a car so if they are already up your ass then you're in trouble.

Footbraking

The first and foremost method of braking you should learn is footbraking. Never ride faster than you can throw down a footbrake. Even if you can't stop in time, being able to slow down gives you time, which means OPTIONS. Footbraking can be used to stop at any speed from 5mph to...well... as fast as you can go! Get good at it quick.

Airbraking

If you're riding fast, a good option to shed off a bit of speed for a corner or to keep your distance from the rider in front is to pop up into an airbraking position. As long as you're going fast enough, the difference between a tuck and an airbrake will drop your speed pretty well. Doesn't really work so much below 30mph though.

Sliding

The fastest (and coolest looking!) form of braking is sliding. It's also the one that requires the most room and the most practice to get dialed.

Shutdown slides are great in an emergency if you have enough sideways room, they can stop you faster than a bike or a car travelling at the same speed.

Pendys and predrifts are good for controlling your speed or making sure you can stay in your lane going round tight corners. You do need to watch for them when riding with traffic or in packs of other riders as they take up more room than normal and kill your speed very quickly so they can cause crashes if you throw one at the wrong moment or don't communicate to your fellow skaters.

Pack riding

Once you've got all that covered, time for some more advanced pack riding. Pack riding is wicked fun and opens up things like draft trains, bump drafting, racing and stuff that can turn a dull hill into some serious fun! In a pack though, you've not only got to cover yourself, you need to think about the other riders and what's going down with them.

Communication

Remember to communicate with your other riders. Work out a system of hand signals to use with your crew so you can tell other people if your taking a left/right, chucking a pendy, they should back off, car danger etc etc. Sucks when someone randomly slides in front of you and then makes you both crash because you weren't ready.

Some common signals we use round our way:

Double clap when coming up behind someone

I'm right up behind you and am probably going to overtake. Remember it's your responsibility to overtake safely, if you can't, don't.

After someone has clapped you, pointing left or right

Over take me on this side if you can. Also try to let the guy overtaking pass easily.

Shouts of 'car up' or 'car down'

Car coming up then hill/car coming down the hill. Sound it off, if you hear it, repeat, even if nobody is skating

Circle with your hand in the air above head

I'm gonna pull a slide, watch out. REMEMBER TO LOOK BEHIND YOU.

Pointing left or right

Going this way

Shout of 'inside' or 'outside'

I'm gonna take the inside/outside line through the corner

Spotters hands above head

STOP! DANGER!

Never shout "GO" as it sounds like "NO"

Use "OK", "YES" or "CLEAR" instead

Changes to riding style

Finally, you might wanna adjust your riding style when in close quarters. Maybe throw a footbrake instead of a slide, maybe come into the corners a bit slower to give the guy in front some room. Use your common sense. Always better to hold back a bit and ride it out, rather than go nuts and crash.

Traffic

Two main points with traffic. 1 - It's the most dangerous thing you can encounter while skating. Hey you can slam left, right and centre, but if you've got safety gear on you'll probably be mostly ok. Hit a car, especially a moving one, and there's a good chance you'll wind up in hospital. They say if a car hits you at 40mph there's an 80% chance you'll die. Well what if YOU are moving at 40mph? Stay the hell away from them. Also, remember to check behind you often (every other carve or so) as there's nothing worse than finding a car right up your arse, probably getting pissed off.

Which brings us to 2 - people in cars can be arseholes and are more likely to call the cops. They generally feel it's THEIR road and you sure as shit shouldn't be playing in it, causing a danger to yourself and others (Or that's what they think). If possible, when you encounter traffic, brake smoothly and safely (I like footbrakes where possible) to a stop and move to the side of the road. Give them the "car drivers wave/smile" and then continue once they are not an issue any more. This not only prevents them getting pissed off, it demonstrates that skateboarders can ride safe, in control, with full braking ability. Hopefully they'll remember that next time they see a downhill skateboarder.

Local residents/Police

Just like the car drivers, the local residents may get pissed off at you "making noise and doing reckless activities" as they see it, in their neighbourhood. Be respectful and friendly to anyone local to your hills, they are the reason you can still skate there. In conversations, remember to emphasise your braking techniques, safety gear, responsible road usage etc, same goes with the cops. We live in a legal grey area where skating is neither legal or illegal, but they can stop you if they want so don't give them a reason to.

Smile and wave at pedestrians and drivers. Say hi to people! A little interaction can change you from a "dangerous and threatening youth" into a "nice friendly chap(ette)". It makes you more approachable and less anonymous. Defeat hating with incredible charm and friendliness.

Stay out of the road when you aren't skating. If there's no pavement, walk on the right hand side so you can see approaching traffic and get out of their way. Move to the side and give those drivers another little smile and wave.

Quote from the Road Policy Unit of UK law:
Skate/Longboards are not mentioned in any specific road traffic law, however, they must be ridden with care and consideration for other road users. I agree it would be prudent for your own safety and the safety of others on the road to follow the law as laid down for cyclists. You should also note that any large group of skateboarders in the road may amount to an obstruction. Some precincts/parks etc may have bye laws prohibiting their use.

Closed paths like parks

Even though there's no cars, you need to be MORE careful in a park area as people won't be expecting you. Sending your board flying into an old lady or a pram is not going to endear people to your presence so the best bet is if there's someone walking the hill, don't skate. We have a rule at Greenwich, if there's a pram or small children on the hill, stop skating.