Moms, Do You Know What Your Skateboarder is Doing?

Helmet-less boys soar twenty feet in the air. A trick biker skids eight feet on his shoulder blade, stopping inches from my feet, while his bike careens in another direction. He yells, "F***!" I imagine the road rash under his t-shirt and cringe. And I hope my kids didn't hear what he said, but it was loud and he enunciated quite well through the pain. The road rash boy reunites with his bike and pedals up another concrete slope, launching his bike and flipping it around in the air. This time he nails the landing.

I'm at the Skate Park in Menlo Park, CA and I've tentatively brought my six year old son, Guy-Guy, here to use his RipStik in the "shallow end." The park is a caged set of four connected concrete swimming pools, with no water. I'm letting Guy-Guy go in the "wading pool" - which is what it would be if it were filled. I tell him he's not old enough for the deeper pools. He complains as I suit him up in a helmet, elbow pads, wrist guards, and knee pads. Seven pieces of equipment. Ten minutes of tugging and adjusting. I'm freaking out that I promised he could come here as a reward for sitting through his sister's gymnastics class which has just ended. The skateboard park seems crazier and busier than other times we've looked in on the action.

We wait until a few boys leave then enter when it feels less crowded. The safe place for me and my daughter to sit is opposite the skate park entrance. Dashing between the "wading pool" and the first of the deeper pools, I feel like a refugee running across Highway 101 - we look like the illustrations on the odd orange road sign I see along some busy highways that features a silhouette of a woman running and dragging with outstretched arm, a child. I hold Guy-Guy's twin sister's hand - she's dressed in a sparkly purple gymnastics leotard -  and we dash across during a safe-looking opening in the action. We hear calls of "LOOSE BOARD!" as skateboards fly out and their riders earn more rashes at the bottom of a pool.

As I imagine one of the loose boards flying up and knocking out my teeth or hitting my daughter in the head, I wonder why I thought this would be most dangerous for my son. I'll take two Michelin Man suits, for protection, please! If only there were such a vendor today,I'd have made his day with a big purchase for me and my daughter.

As we settle in, Guy-Guy gets his RipStik going - it's that new skateboard that has two wheels, each on a caster, front and back. The middle of the board twists on metal tube. Guy-Guy wiggles and undulates, getting his board going, doing a great job looking out for older boys and getting up from his minor falls without complaint or tears. He is thankful for his pads, he tells me.

"Mom! It would be safer here if there were no gravity!" says my daughter, "Then, when kids or skateboards go in the air, they would just float!" I laugh and agree with her.

I take videos and photos of Guy-Guy and then snap one of the helmet-less redhead boy who seems to be defying gravity. Every time he flies out of a pool I take in my breath, in awe. Must be fun, I think to myself, but how freaking dangerous!

I ask him how old he is.

"Eleven."

Other boys are cheering for the eleven-year-old since he's getting the highest jumps. At one point, the boy puts on a helmet. The other boys (all helmet-less) notice the dangling straps and yell that it won't help if it's not attached. (I'm relieved to hear the tiniest bit of sanity here!) I told the boy I just got a photo of him at the height of his last jump and ask if he wants me to email it to him.

"No," he replies very matter-of-factly as he sets up to glide back into a pool, "I wouldn't want my mom to see it."

So there you have it moms, I spied at the skateboard park and I'll tell you, if your son (or daughter) is there or you even think he might be there, you better spy as well. In violation of the posted rules, he is not wearing a helmet or pads and he might be twenty feet in the air. And, Menlo Park, are your officers too busy to patrol the Skate Park for safety? I'll have to figure out how to keep Guy-Guy safe when he no longer wants me to come to the skateboard park, but in the meantime, I'll be cultivating his interest in a safer sport.

Alix also writes for www.mednauseum.blogspot.com, a blog devoted to research supporting dietary and environmental causes of chronic illness. She is currently writing a book about wind energy.

An original Silicon Valley Moms Blog post.