On snowboarding: Preventative measures work better if you buy them before you need them

[mattbell]

On the ski lift today:

Me:  The fall wasn't bad. I had knee pads.
Woman: You have knee pads?
Me: Yeah.  I also have a tailbone pad and body armor -- that's wrist, elbow, shoulder, back, and chest pads -- and a helmet.
Woman: Wow... you must have been in a terrible accident.
Me:  (laughs)  No.  I want to avoid being in a terrible accident.  That's why I bought all that stuff.  
Woman:  Oh.  That makes sense.



---

People don't get it.  You can do more cool things in your life if you lower the cost of failure.  I was able to learn to snowboard faster because I was less afraid to fall and because the falls I did take bruised me up less, allowing me to spend more time on the slopes and less time sitting around feeling achey.  

This is one of those useful general purpose life lessons.  "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is true, but many kids are likely to ignore it because it sounds burdensome.  However, if it's reframed as "You can do more fun things if you also take care of these precautions", it's more positive and gets the point across better.  

Comments

[sacra-imbri.livejournal.com]

The average human learns from its own mistakes. The small child burns a hand and learns not to touch the hot stove. It is the exceptional person who learns to use precaution from someone else's injury. Thus, I'm thoroughly unsurprised at the woman assuming you've been in some terrible accident.

On the other hand, your body armor does look nifty. Back before Adam's bike got t-boned by a land-yacht I loved riding with him if for no other reason than to wear my splendid helmet and matching protective jacket.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, except that as a beginner snowboarder you take lots of little falls, and they hurt. So you are getting lots of data points from the beginning.

This is what happened to me. I thought "My tailbone hurts, and it would hurt way more in a big crash. What can I do about this?" and then I did some internet searches.

I recently met a woman who broke her tailbone while snowboarding, and if I hadn't bought armor already, her story would have made me go out and buy it immediately.