Skateboard competitor Nick Robles Jr., 13, of Hammond, was riding a rail — one of the tricks of his trade — during a competition last month in Green Bay, Wis., when something went wrong. He hit a snag and fell forward onto the concrete course.
“I immediately felt pain; my arm was hanging strangely,” he said. “And I noticed swelling.”
Robles, who had been wearing a helmet but no other protective gear, went to the local emergency room, where doctors diagnosed a fractured arm and dislocation of his elbow. His elbow was placed back into its socket, but surgery on the fracture would have to wait until the swelling went down.
After returning to Hammond, Dr. Robert Wysocki, of Midwest Orthopedics at Rush in Munster, performed surgery on Nick’s arm to repair a fracture caused by the dislocation of his elbow.
“We see accidents from skateboarding one or two times per month on average, sometimes more in the warm months,” Wysocki said. “Wrist fractures … as well as elbow fractures and dislocations are the most common as they often result from a fall directly onto an outstretched hand.
“These injuries can often be worse than you would intuitively think, since they are often the result of what we would term high-energy injuries, such as a fall from a height and fall at a high speed.”
But many of those injuries can be prevented, or reduced in severity, by a few safety measures.
“Wearing safety gear and learning how to land can go a long way toward preventing injuries,” said Paulina Guerra, who assists with The Younginz, the skate team Robles belongs to.
But to many young skateboarders, safety gear is uncool. Greg Vitale, director of Munster Parks and Recreation — which operates one of the area’s more popular skate parks, said part of the appeal of the sport is its inherent risk.
“There is a stigma out there that you’re not legit if you wear the gear,” he said. “Skateboarding is also a thrill sport. Part of that thrill is to see how far they can go before injuring themselves. As with all activities, certain safeguards need to be taken. However, with skateboarding, it’s a culture change that is needed.”
So when Vitale heard about the Skate Safe Initiative, a public awareness program launched by Wysocki and fellow surgeons at Rush who have seen too many preventable injuries, he wanted to participate. He convinced town leaders to adopt the initiative and make Munster’s skate park the host site for the program.
“We have a popular skate park, so we felt that it would be a good fit. We are assisting with the marketing efforts through our seasonal recreation brochure and we are also advertising at the skate park,” Vitale said. “We haven’t had many accidents at the skate park, especially serious ones. However, that risk always exists.”
The program is a step in the right direction, Wysocki said, but there is at least one measure he’d like to see become mandatory.
“While I don’t know the exact logistics of laws regarding protective gear, I think if you compare skateboarding to cycling — for which helmet laws are common — it does make a lot of sense for, at a minimum, helmets to be made mandatory, ” he said.
More Top Picks Ratings
Having firsthand experience with the consequences of forgoing safety equipment, Robles said he’ll be outfitted properly from now on.
“I will wear my pads,” he said.
His dad, Nicholas Robles Sr., said Nick has become a role model to his peers, and as his popularity increases in the skating community, he’ll be an ideal ambassador for Skate Safe.
He’ll get his first experience in that role at 2 p.m. June 16, when he’ll speak at a Skateboard Safety Demonstration at Munster Skate Park. It’s a worthwhile endeavor, said Guerra, of The Younginz.
“I’ve seen a lot of accidents with skateboarders,” she said.
More information on the Skate Safe initiative is at skatesafer.org.
Sue Ellen Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.