Unless you are super curious about the inner workings of your local hospital emergency room, it is best you wear safety equipment when PowerBocking. Even the experienced guys who are tops in the field wear some safety equipment - so that should tell you something.
HELMET
Any good helmet will do. Bicycle, skateboarding, hockey, etc. Always protect
your melon, expecially if attempting new stunts.
WRIST GUARDS, ELBOW PADS, & KNEE PADS
Usually come together in one package. Be sure to wear them. If your head
doesn't hit the ground first, most likely one of these other points will. Broken
joints take a long time to heal. Solomon® has a nice line of equipment. So does Rollerblade®. If you prefer a knee pad/shin guard combo, MTBZ
carries a really sweet pair.
SHIN GUARDS
Some people wear hockey shin pads for
protection. Larger sizes may not fit through the knee loop so keep your receipt. (Photo
from Regine - Nacogdoches, Texas)
BODY ARMOR
You might consider donning some plastic body armor (used by dirt bikers) if you like to
run as fast as you can with your risers. A fall while running flat out is the
equivalent of falling head-first off the front of a fast moving bicycle. A website
like RockGardN® carries some nice
equipment. So does Tramdock®.
TAIL BONE PROTECTION
Falling backwards onto one's butt from such a height can easily cause a painful tail bone
injury. A simple padding solution is to cut four 10" lengths of foam pipe
insulation tubing and tape them together with duct tape (see photo).
Then, all you do is slip the home-made pad vertically down into the back of your
pants as part of your bocking safety equipment. You may be very glad you did.
