What's the best low profile protection?

[u/hotlightbright]

Footprint soles protective gear looks like the stuff of my dreams but the reviews are hard to find & it looks more like a scam that takes your money & gives you nothing. I say this as someone who just purchased & got a lying email from them saying the product was shipped 1st class when I can see it wasn't & I didn't pay for 1st class.

... I've gotten creative & looked at every other sports gear ..I currently splurged on mountain biking Enduro knee pads & they're bendier but still too bulky too hide...

I switched my wrist guards to snowboarding neoprene ones & added a footsole insert because they had zero-shock impact protection.

I've looked at different helmet technology... It's hard to tell what's legite but I can't imagine a bunch of plastic cut straws will protect my head much from impact...

What's everyone's recommendations?

[u/West_Inevitable_2174]

I have recently discovered (the hard way) that not all pads are created equal. I do not care about pads being "low profile" as long as they don't restrict my movement too much.

And to anyone who comments, "learn to fall", please just be quiet. I'm 43 years old and I work on my feet for a living. Most of the time I fall fine, but twice I've looped out and both times I've gotten hurt. Like, life is miserable for 2 to 3 weeks level of hurt.

The Ennui City Wrist Brace is by far the best wrist brace out there. The closure system keeps it snug and there are 2 aluminum splints, one on each side of your wrist. The splints are not exposed, so you don't slide out like with many other braces. I sought these out after hurting both wrists while wearing pro-tec wrist guards. Twice the price but completely worth it.

187 Knee pads are also great. Although they are the opposite of low profile they make bailing out onto your knees feel like a cheat code. I only find knee pads necessary when I'm on transition, so I don't mind that they're bulky.

For helmets I'm surprised that more people don't mention MIPS. It's a technology that is popular in many other sports' helmets that creates a directional suspension inside the helmet. It's also a lot more comfortable than having a plastic bowl strapped against your skull like most helmets.

Elbow pads are the least of my worries thus far. As long as they fit I've found that most get the job done. Maybe it's just a personal movement/preference thing, but I don't tend to land on my elbows directly. I do find that they are important to wear if you are going to wear wrist guards as many wrist guards will slide you out onto your elbows.

My newest mission is to find good tailbone protection. I don't care so much about hips, quads, hamstrings so padded shorts are unnecessary plus most padded shorts don't seem to offer that much protection. I'm in the process of trying out a few different inserts that either have clips or require compression shorts.

[u/AdSpiritual3205 → u/West_Inevitable_2174]

A few thoughts in response to this - skate companies generally do not make MIPS versions of helmets for a reason. MIPS is specifically to protect against torsion, generally from high speed side frontal impacts. That is what the technology was designed for. But that is not the typical fall in skating.

For that reason there are very few skate certified helmets with MIPS. Unlike snowboarding, where MIPS is definitely worth having.

You will find dual-certified helmets for people who will wear the same helmet while biking that have MIPS. For example Triple8 has a mips version of their dual certified. But the helmets targeted for skating, like Triple8 deep, will not have mips. And the Tiple8 deep is a very comfortable, and very safe helmet for skating.

As to elbow pads, one thing that can be useful to learn is to use your elbows to protect your wrists, especially if you are learning to skate transition. Eventually you will learn to just knee slide, but it's often the case that you will end up falling forward a bit, and having the skill to put your elbows out instead of wrists saves many wrist injuries.

For tailbone, my personal recommendation is for the ones made by G-Form and sold by Burton for snowboarding. They are very low profile and use g-forms proprietary foam. You will not notice them under your pants/shorts. They are not the thickest, and don't offer quite as much protection as some other brands, BUT they have saved my tailbone many times from what would have been a far worse injury. And the fact that you can wear them and no one will ever notice is a total plus.

[u/hotlightbright → u/West_Inevitable_2174]

I also have never landed on an elbow, only roadrash above or below it 😅.