

As reported by the Australian media:

A 29-year-old man died yesterday of injuries sustained after he slid into the path of a truck coming up a Barrengarry Mountain road in NSW. He was airlifted to Liverpool Hospital but died soon afterwards. The 59-year-old driver of the truck was breath-tested for alcohol and a negative result was returned, said police.

This is a tragic loss for our downhill community and our condolences go out to the fallen skater’s grieving family & friends, The entire Australian DH community, as well as to the driver of the truck.

This is a stark reminder that downhill skateboarding can be extremely dangerous and that we must all remain diligent in our pursuit of safety and raising awareness of the inherent risks involved—especially as our community grows.

If nothing else, we hope that by posting this story we might open further positive and constructive dialogue in our growing community about riding safe, skating within personal limits, teaching new & younger skaters the skills to skate another day, proffer a more fully realized understanding of the inherent risks of riding open roads, reaffirming the need to work with the larger communities we live in to build safe places to ride like the (Kamloops Downhill Park in BC, Canada), as well as share information on how to throw safe, sanctioned events whenever possible.

Please feel free to comment and share your constructive thoughts and ideas below. Grieve, Heal, Grow.

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We were hesitant to post this originally as this is truly a sad loss of life and it is always difficult to adequately express oneself at such times. Also, being that our focus here at Wheelbase is on inspiration and stoke for all skaters, the initial desire to gloss over this and replace it instead with some fun new edit featuring so-and-so was entirely palpable. That said, we strongly believe that in times such as these silence is complicity, and we feel that to ignore such tragedy would place us at further hazard in repeating it. Again, our condoleneces go out to the fallen skater’s family & friends, to the entire Australian DH community, and of course to the driver of the truck. Shredlove!

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