Skateboarders Casey Griffith, 17, and Chris Neyman, 18, share three ways to stay safe on the board.

If you want to skateboard like the pros, learn to fall.

“When you fall, roll with it (and) absorb the momentum,” said Steve Keil, a truck driver and volunteer instructor at the city of Chattanooga’s Chattown Skate Park on the Southside.

Parents whose children skateboard often worry about the sport’s dangers. They’re right to be concerned, safety groups say.

In 2002, more than 60,000 skateboarding children were treated in hospital emergency rooms, according to the National Safe Kids Campaign.

By comparison, that’s less than the 274,800 children treated for bicycle-related injuries and the 74,600 children treated for trampoline-related injuries.

The injuries are typically less serious than those related to all-terrain vehicles. ATV injuries are six times more likely to result in a hospital stay and 12 times more likely to result in death, compared to bicycle injuries, the Safe Kids Campaign reports.

But skateboard injuries can be serious.

If properly protected, though, a child’s skateboarding passion doesn’t have to result in a hospital stay.

“The pros fall, everybody falls,” said Isaiah Taylor, a skateboarder and specialist at Chattown Skate Park.

Parents can — and should — pad their children’s heads, elbows, wrists and knees, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends.

And it helps to line a young athletes’ brains with information, local instructors added.

To promote safe skating, Chattown has been offering safe-skating lessons on Saturday mornings in January and February. The city offers 8-week group lesson sessions two or three times per year, said Glenn Neyman, father of Flamingo Skateshop Owner Chris Neyman, 18.

Flamingo Skateshop in Brainerd also offers private lessons for $20 per hour by appointment, Mr. Neyman added. Lessons cover etiquette, safe falling technique, good form and gear maintenance.

Etiquette prevents most dangerous events, Mr. Taylor said. Never head onto a steep ramp when someone else is already on it, for example, Mr. Taylor said. That can lead to boards or people colliding. It also makes other skateboarders angry.

“The first rule of our park is that when you see somebody in a run you don’t start your run,” he said.

Proper riding form promotes safer rides, Mr. Keil said.

Place your feet over the wheel bolts, bend your knees, and point your feet toward the sides, he instructed at a recent Saturday lesson.

“You’re a lot less likely to fall down, and you’re braced for whatever might come,” Mr. Keil said.

Parents, or older skateboarders, also need to keep an eye on their wheels.

“Tighten the trucks,” the metal axle-and-wheel units bolted to the board, Chris Neyman told his younger students.

Too loose, you get a bad case of “wheel bite” — the edge of the board suddenly smashing into the wheel, Mr. Keil said.

Too tight causes dangerous stiffness, he explained.

Falling happens in skateboarding, so be prepared for it, expert skaters say. Land on the fleshy parts of your body. Roll, rather than catch yourself with your arms. Relax, don’t stiffen. Crouch on the skateboard, so you won’t fall so far, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends.

Beginners also need to know they not to try a manual (rolling on back wheels) or roastbeefing the gap (holding the board in a jump) the first day.

“Skate within your own risk; skate within your own abilities,” said Casey Griffith, a 17-year-old Whitwell High School student and volunteer skateboarding instructor.

Parents of the 36 children attending the lessons last Saturday said they conquered their fears by covering their kids with pads.

“You can tell we’re the overprotective parents, there’s nothing he doesn’t have covered,” said Chris Albright, a Dunlap resident and father of Paxton, a 5-year-old Griffith Elementary student.

Nicholas Meyer, a 7-year-old Calvary Christian School student, said he didn’t mind wearing helmet and pads.

He skinned his hands, but helmet and pads protected him from serious injury when he dropped into a ramp for the first time.

Chattown’s lessons also reassure parents, added Jacqulyn Knee, a Lookout Mountain resident and mother of skateboarders Nicholas, 6, and Christian, 8, both Fairyland Elementary students.

“We come here for lessons instead of sticking them on the street and saying ‘go figure it out,’” Mrs. Knee said.

Skate Safely SKATE SAFELY

* Never ride in the street.

* Don’t take chances: Practice complicated tricks carefully in a safe area.

* Only one person per skateboard.

* Never grab onto a car, bus, truck or bicycle.

* If you lose your balance, crouch down so you don’t fall as far.

* In a fall, try to land on the fleshy parts of your body; and roll rather than catch yourself with your arms.

* If you fall, relax if you can, rather than stiffen.

Source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.