In reply to Neil Anderson:
I started skateboarding at 43, af that age u don't really care whether or not cool trumps safe. I wore helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, and finally got padded shorts, as my hips were taking some heavy landings more than anywhere else, big swolen bruises, from failed drop ins.
I eventually mastered the basics, got confident, and started leaving the gear off.
Doing easy stuff, no need to worry now.
Dropped in, got it wrong, bang went the back of my head. Nothing serious, just lots of fairies dancing around my head. But geared up more often afterwards.
Another time i had something more serious with gear on but it resulted in a face plant, squashed nose and bust eyebrow, from 5 ft above concrete. Helmet wouldn't have helped but that's not my point.
My point is that you could be confident, as warming up way below your grade, done it loads of times etc, so think, nar, don't need my helmet for this, but still slip off and end up getting badly injured or worse.
If you have a helmet, wear it as much as possible. If you haven't got one just cos u don't think its cool, start thinking it's cool instead, and don't worry what your mate thinks. Your mate will probably start thinking it's cool + get one too!
Obviously it'll always be horses for courses, and the risk is less from place to place.
At Malham catwalk (+ many steep solid sport venues) no rock is likely to hit you from above, but i bet it's as polished (on the warm ups) as stoney or Chudleigh there these days.
At Chudleigh last week a large rock was thrown down by kids. They probably saw no one was under it?
I wear my skateboarding helmet for climbing, it's not ideal, it's better than nothing, i'll upgrade soon.
I'll probably need a clip stick soon too, and may be more often clip the 2nd or 3rd bolt.
Thanks for your message Toby, best wishes with your recovery, and look forward to seeing u out on the crags one day soon.
Post edited at 14:08