Riding The Rails
By Adam Wilkenfeld
CWK Producer

Grinding: What Is It?

Why You Should Care

"You're walking along and you see something you can grind, you just grind it. People are like'whoa, look at that kid.'" Nick, Age 15.

Grind shoes can be worn anywhere, and ridden any time.

Fifteen-year-old Nick puts them on in the morning before school and wears them all day. Grind shoes look just like regular athletic shoes, and Nick says few people even notice how unique they really are. But with only a moment's notice he can turn a walk into a ride. "You see something you want to go grind, you can do it, it's like, whenever you want to," Nick says.

Rails, stairs and curbs, Nick rides them all. A hard plastic "grind plate" screwed into the arch of these shoes is what makes it possible, and what turns walking into an extreme sport.

Like any extreme sport, though, grinding can be extremely dangerous. Soap Shoe, the company that manufactures grind shoes, includes bright yellow warning labels on their product. But even the company's own promotional videotapes show experienced grinders riding without protective gear. "Helmet, I guess, would be good 'cause you can always fall and hit your head," Nick says. "But most people don't wear them."

The problem is that carrying a helmet around takes planning, whereas grinding is supposed to be spontaneous.

Brian Martin has been skateboarding for 18 years, and in that time he's broken 24 different bones and learned the dangers of extreme sports. "Helmet, every time," Brian says. "Be aware of what your child is going to do with those shoes. Just make sure you know that there is a risk involved, as there is in any extreme sport."

Grinding: What Is It? top

Aggressive skating is a type of skating (usually performed with inline skates) where the emphasis is on stunts, performed either on street courses or specially-built ramps. Skates, wheels and protective gear must be extra heavy-duty to withstand the rigors of aggressive skating, whether it's practiced on streets, ramps, or half-pipes. Because it is very often spectacular, aggressive skating has received much media attention and impacted fashion and music trends among its teen practitioners.

Some other terms you're going to hear:

· grind - to slide along a rail or other edge, using skate surfaces (see grindplate) other than the wheels.

· grind plate - a piece of metal or plastic affixed to bottom of skate frame between middle wheels, which makes grinding possible.

· half-pipe - a U-shaped ramp on which skaters perform a variety of moves.

· quarter-pipe - a ramp that is flat at the bottom and curves to form a vertical skating surface. · road rash - the scrapes and burns that come from falling on unprotected flesh.

· vert - 1. Short for vertical, refers to inline skating on ramps and -pipes; 2. The part of the riding surface in a quarter- or half-pipe that rises straight upward.

Source: IISA

Why You Should Care top

· Inline Skating is one of, if not the fastest growing sports in the United States. Industry sources estimate that approximately 26 million people age 7 or older had participated at least once in Inline skating in 1997 alone.

· According to SafeUSA since 1992, at least 33 children age 14 and under have died from in-line skating injuries. The majority of these deaths were from collisions with motor vehicles. In 1998 alone, nearly 67,700 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for in-line skating-related injuries.

· The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warns that in-line skating can be hazardous if skaters do not wear helmets and other safety gear or do not learn to skate and stop safely. CPSC estimates that approximately 100,000 consumers annually receive hospital emergency room treatment for injuries associated with in-line skates. Most injuries were to wrists, arms, and legs.

What Parents Can Do top

Aggressive skating carries risk of serious injury by its very nature. Parents need to seriously consider whether or not to allow their children to participate in this particular activity. Should parents and children decide to accept these risks, the following are some suggested tips to make the inline skating experience as safe as possible for your child:

1. Make sure your child wears the proper safety equipment - The CPSC recommends the use of safety gear to help prevent injuries with in-line skates. Recommended safety gear includes:

· HELMETS - Helmets help prevent injury to all areas of the head. To be effective, the helmet must fit securely and must be buckled, with the front of the helmet coming down to just a finger's width above the eyebrows. Helmets should be ANSI-, ASTM-, or SNELL-certified or approved by another nationally recognized standard. Head injuries are the least common inline skating injuries, but they can be the most severe.

· KNEEPADS -Knee pads should be used as the first point of impact dispersion in the event of a fall. Pads should be securely fastened around the leg so that they do not come off during a slide. By redistributing the force of a fall, kneepads also minimize the risk to elbows and wrists.

· ELBOW PADS - Elbow pads give incremental protection during a sideways fall. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control found that failure to wear elbow pads accounted for 82% of reported elbow injuries.

· WRIST PROTECTION -Wrist protection should incorporate hard plastic which allows the skater to slide on the pavement during a fall. The sliding action reduces the force of impact. The wrist is the most commonly affected body part in inline skating falls, but 87% of reported wrist injuries could have been prevented had proper protective equipment been worn.

2. Make sure your child gets some instructions on how to use and maintain the equipment properly - There are certified inline skating instructors from which to take lessons. Skaters need to learn such skills as striding, turning and most of all stopping. Most inline skates may be safely stopped by using the brake pads at the heel of the skate.

3. Encourage your child skate safely

· Inline skaters, particularly those involved in aggressive skating, need to make sure and skate under control at all times.

· Skaters also need to watch out for road hazards, avoid water/oil/sand, and avoid traffic. · Do not skate at night -- others can't see you and you can't see obstacles or other skaters

. 4. Encourage your child to skate intelligently and legally - When skating, your children should always consider themselves subject to the same obligations as a bicyclist or a driver of an automobile. This means following traffic rules such as:

· Obey all Traffic Regulations

· Skate on the right, pass on the left

· Announce your intentions by saying, "passing on your left"

· Always yield to pedestrians

5. Always know where your child is skating and who he or she is with - Peer pressure can lead to dangerous experiments.

6. Make sure your child knows how you expect them to behave when skating, what tricks or tips they are allowed to try, and what the punishment will be if they don't follow the rules.

Sources: CPSC, IISA

Resources top

U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
http://www.hazelden.org/newsletter_detail.dbm?ID=497