Close calls in downhill skateboarding and how they're portrayed/shared in the community

Downhill skateboarding is inherently dangerous, regardless of how you look at it. There are so many variables (cars, telephone poles, animals, other skaters, guardrails, rocks, road conditions etc) that skaters are doomed to fail eventually, and some of these fails happen to get caught on video.

While Ed remains completely safe and in control, there's a guard rail on one side of the road, a truck in the oncoming lane, and rocks to avoid in his own lane.

Everyone loves to watch videos of people failing, falling, getting hurt, you get the point. When it comes to downhill skateboarding its no different. However, downhill skateboarding is currently in limbo with legality and the public eye. Many people do not understand how "in control" we are while skateboarding, and how easy it is for us to stop quickly and in our lane. However, most of this knowledge stays within the downhill community, as does most of the standard videos. However, occasionally a video with someone hitting a car, guardrail, or extremely close call will go viral. 

The above video went semi-viral, and I chose not to share a video of someone getting hit by a car on purpose. When videos like this come out, its often the first and only video someone has seen of downhill skateboarding. They then get the impression that all downhill skateboarders have encounters like this very often and these things are unavoidable. 

This is a video that did go viral (3 Million + views), and features no unsafe riding. As a downhill skateboarder, watching videos where people mess up is fun, and I know not to judge all downhill skateboarding like this. However, I think it severely harms the sport when people do share those videos, which only hurts the downhills public image.

Follow Runs - Their danger and necessity in downhill skateboarding media

The most simple and common form of video in downhill skateboarding is referred to as a "follow run," or "raw run." Here are a few examples:


Raw Run - Justin Rouleau from SkateHouseMedia.com on Vimeo.


Fun fact: both these videos are filmed on the same road.

This type of filming produces very clean footage, and shows the skaters in their truest element. It is all one clip so you know the skater didn't take 15 tries to nail the right line. A skater's true style is apparent with raw runs.

However, good footage comes with high risk. To get a shot like this most filmers take a suction cup mount, put the camera as far forward on the hood as possible, and follow the skateboarder down the run. To make the footage look the fastest and most impressive possible a wide angle lens is often used, somewhere between 10-20mm. These lens create a slight distortion around the edges which makes the skating appear much faster than with something like a 50mm lens. Because of the short focal length this requires the driver to be dangerously close behind the driver, often 7 feet or less, all while going upwards of 50mph.

To make a quality downhill video follow car footage is pretty much a requirement, regardless of how dangerous it is. The driver is knowingly risking the skaters life just to get the shot that will most likely be seen by less than 10,000 people. This is a shot I will definitely be getting for my film, however we are taking precautions to make it as safe as possible. 

There have been a few cases of people getting hit by cars while driving follow runs, however no one has died to my knowledge. Here are some videos of follow car driving going wrong. No one in these videos were hurt from the car, however in a few cases the car ran over the board or the board flew up and dented the car. 

 Skip to 2:54 for the dangerous part.

S1 Helmets / Bails Bails Bails Bails from s-one helmet co / s1helmets on Vimeo.


This can only end well.