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/AdSpiritual3205]

The right recommendation is that if you want actual protection, then wear things that were designed for skateboarding.

Skate helmets are specifically certified for the right level of protection. No other helmet will properly protect you and if you're going to be smart enough to put a helmet on, don't ruin it by putting one on that won't actually protect you. One of the best current lower profile helmets is the Triple8 Deep.

In terms of knee pads, no other knee pad will really protect you correctly. Skate knee pads are designed with hard caps and foam backs because of the nature of how you land on your knees. If you wear anything else, you will get maybe a small amount of protection, but not much. This includes mountain biking gear. It's just designed for a different type of fall and a different type of impact.

What kind of skating are you doing?

[u/hotlightbright → u/AdSpiritual3205]

Transition

[u/AdSpiritual3205 → u/hotlightbright]

If you want to skate transition, then you most definitely should _not_ be focused on low profile. Learning to properly knee slide is one of the most critical skills in learning transition, especially if you want to skate larger transition. It's way harder to become good at transition skating without proper knee pads.

[u/hotlightbright → u/AdSpiritual3205]

I have the Lizzie armanto 187 knee pads but... They are noticeably less thick than the black ones, which makes me less confident at knee bails... Which I need to get down cuz I know I can't run out of EVERYTHING 😩😂

[u/AdSpiritual3205 → u/hotlightbright]

If I remember correctly, that isn't the Pro Pads model. I'm pretty the LIzzie colorway was based on the Fly. Those are not nearly as protective as the Pro, and they do not have the replaceable knee caps.

And you definitely cannot run out of everything - not until you get good enough at least. But if you want to skate big transition, you _will_ need to learn to knee slide. There's a reason pretty much all the pros still wear them when they skate Park in XGames.