Why Skateboarders Don’t Wear Helmets: Managing Risk at Hong Kong’s Public Skateparks

Skateboarding has a global reach and has been shortlisted for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games. How can we make sense of the fact that this risky pursuit is commonly performed without helmets? This research looks at attitudes to helmet use by applying Lyng’s (1990) concept of edgework. It focuses on the introduction of a mandatory helmet rule in a skatepark in Hong Kong and contrasts the practices and opinions of users with content of skateboard media. It finds that choice and competence is an important component of attitudes to helmet use. It argues that the valorisation of skateboarding is part of a larger process of the confused neoliberal appropriation and sanitising of risk taking activities. Helmet use represents a swing between two poles, one of the anarchy of edgework, and one of conformity to the self-interests of neoliberalism.