What is a skateboard wrist guard?

Wrist guards are essentially gloves with wrist support. This safety gear is meant to protect your electric skateboards for kids wrists while you’re engaging in activities like skateboarding or longboarding. They’re padded on both sides with “splints” inside of them.

Made of a harder material, these splints help your forearm and palm (instead of your wrist) deflect energy caused by the impact of hard falls. Instead of bending, causing injury to your wrist, the wrist guards keep the area rigid and help it slide across the ground. This sliding motion eases the amount of weight pushing your hand down into the ground.

Wrist protection styles vary. There are some that you pull on like gloves while most use adjustable straps to secure the fit. There are full-finger (less common for skateboarding), half-finger, and fingerless options. Which one works best for you depends on how much hand movement you want.

Should I wear wrist guards when skateboarding?
Wrist guards for skating keep you safe from fractures, sprains, cuts, and other injuries to that area of your body. When you fall, you’ll naturally throw your hands out to prevent falling on your face, but then, you can end up hurting your wrist. Both little falls and big crashes can cause injuries, so whether you’re a beginner or an advanced boarder, wrist guards can protect you.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you can be reckless when you’re wearing wrist guards. They are designed to protect you when you fall forward. If you fall backward, the support on your wrist isn’t the same. In addition to wearing wrist guards, you want to learn how to fall “the right way.”

There are several techniques, many of which involve sliding on your knees (with knee pads) instead of catching with yourself with your hands. If this is the case, why wear guards at all? There is some debate on if wrist guards encourage people to fall on their hands, which is risky even with guards. However, unless you can master the proper fall, it’s better to be safe than sorry. It only takes one fall and one lapse of memory to throw your hands out in front of you, and if you’re not wearing guards, you’ll suffer the consequences.