As reported by the Australian media:
A 29-year-old man died yesterday of injuries sustained after he slid into the path of a truck coming up a Barrengarry Mountain road in NSW. He was airlifted to Liverpool Hospital but died soon afterwards. The 59-year-old driver of the truck was breath-tested for alcohol and a negative result was returned, said police.
This is a tragic loss for our downhill community and our condolences go out to the fallen skater’s grieving family & friends, The entire Australian DH community, as well as to the driver of the truck.
This is a stark reminder that downhill skateboarding can be extremely dangerous and that we must all remain diligent in our pursuit of safety and raising awareness of the inherent risks involved—especially as our community grows.
If nothing else, we hope that by posting this story we might open further positive and constructive dialogue in our growing community about riding safe, skating within personal limits, teaching new & younger skaters the skills to skate another day, proffer a more fully realized understanding of the inherent risks of riding open roads, reaffirming the need to work with the larger communities we live in to build safe places to ride like the (Kamloops Downhill Park in BC, Canada), as well as share information on how to throw safe, sanctioned events whenever possible.
Please feel free to comment and share your constructive thoughts and ideas below. Grieve, Heal, Grow.
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We were hesitant to post this originally as this is truly a sad loss of life and it is always difficult to adequately express oneself at such times. Also, being that our focus here at Wheelbase is on inspiration and stoke for all skaters, the initial desire to gloss over this and replace it instead with some fun new edit featuring so-and-so was entirely palpable. That said, we strongly believe that in times such as these silence is complicity, and we feel that to ignore such tragedy would place us at further hazard in repeating it. Again, our condoleneces go out to the fallen skater’s family & friends, to the entire Australian DH community, and of course to the driver of the truck. Shredlove!
My condolescences to the family and truckdriver! Even thou we never met I too lost a family member with him. The one thing to everybody shredding out there with the words of my idol Xavier Rosset: A good rider is a OLD rider… Listen to those who put into you that you’re being dangerous or sketchy. Think of it. They’re saying it for a reason. They’re saying it because they care. If you ride with dangerous or risky people, if you really care: tell them! Our inner perception often differs from what it looks like from the outside. The more people tell one dangerous guy that he should calm down a little, the more likely it is that self reflection will take place. Build your skill, ride at 70% of your ability on open roads, there are enough events to go to your limits. Tell your furious friends to calm down if it’s getting too risky. I don’t know what exactly happened, this is no too late accuse. And we are all just humans and get carried away sometimes, and or the times when shit hits the fan out of nowhere there’s no cure either. Don’t make your life depend on luck, consider a safety margin for the guy not looking properly before pulling out of his driveway, the guy swerving cause he checks his phone while driving and the guy dreaming behind the wheel. For the deer, the camel and the kangaroo popping out of nowhere. These things happen. Be prepared, ALWAYS! If it will happen it will very likely come from where you don’t expect it, so not being at your limit can make the difference between keeping your shit together and just make it or it being your last run EVER. Ride safe! Use protecao!
Quality ideas here and we really appreciate you laying them down here. To any one who hasn’t read them, ^^^ PLEASE RAED THE ABOVE ^^^ Thanks and Shredlove!
I completely agree with building parks for downhill skating, but I think that having closed, long downhill runs it would take far too much land to BUILD. It will always have to be on open roads, illegal or not it is our way of life.
We hear ya, but we have one at this point, so DH parks are not outta the question and should not be disregarded as a quality component to a safer future. That said, you are right, we will continue to skate roads that are open as it is our way, so we definitely also need to focus on minimizing risk and teaching the new comers and all else how to ride safe and thus protect each other and our mountain road assets. BTW, Samy Cantieni has some quality ideas in this comment section. Shredlove!
Damn, that is a huge loss. I hope everyone is safe out there
Agreed. Thanks for the kind words.
I think you guys did it right, not talking about it would not help, and there is obviously something to be cured. Hearts, minds, wounds.
As there is no way to reduce risk down to zero in riding open roads, we have to refine our consciousness about the fact that beyond our own skills, there are lots of uncalculable factors out there.
Exactly. Great thoughts. Also thank you.
Huge loss for all of us. My condolescences to the family and truckdriver!
Russian rider here. At 28th of january our brother and friend left us the same pity way. Ride safe guys, never forget the price. Think about another run, not about pushing your limits. Sad. Here’s link to the crimean article(it’s in russian, just use google_translate):
http://news.allcrimea.net/news/2015/1/28/luchshego-longbordista-rossii-sbil-nasmert-v-yalte-pyanyi-voditel-shesterki-30070/
Thanks for the heads up. We heard about this and our condolences to your loss. What you said is spot-on. We have to thing with foresight. Act safe and know the risks. Stay good and hope top see ya up in Russia soon!