This doesn’t solve all problems and wouldn’t have helped at all there. And I know that lots of people don’t like them. But after watching too many YouTube videos of skating tricks in concrete environments going very badly wrong, I’m convinced that having a helmet on while skating is something people should do. You don’t have pads or something, you mess up, grind off some skin, at least you’ll heal. But you land wrong on your head, that doesn’t always heal.

I don’t skate, but I always wear a helmet on a bike. I haven’t had to learn this one the hard way, but I’ve had a bunch of friends who biked a lot. One was a bike messenger, biked all the time, knew his way around a bike, worked in heavy traffic. Then, late one night, someone decided to blow through a stoplight, did a hit-and-run on him. He got really lucky – his dad happened to be out late, found him dying in the empty street. He almost didn’t make it, suffered permanent brain damage, lost memory and stuff. After that, he always wore a helmet. His biking buddy, who previously never wore a helmet, had a huge head of curly hair blowing in the wind, always wore one after that too.