BMX, Not Beijing: Shawn White, 50, Shows Skills at First Bike Safety Event

Shawn White performed BMX bike tricks before an appreciative audience Saturday in Chula Vista.

While he’s not the 35-year-old red-headed Olympic snowboarder wrapping up his career in China (and going by Shaun), the 50-year-old White was cheered for his bike safety and anti-bullying message.

Always wear your helmet while riding and don’t let bullies ruin your fun, White, a 30-year professional BMX rider, told a small crowd at Mountain Hawk Park near Otay Lakes.

White showed off basic to advanced skills in the first of a new series of Love to Ride SD events in February, offered Saturdays by the San Diego County Bike Coalition to focus on safety on wheels.

The event features free bike helmets and safety gear, a bike rodeo course, a family bike ride and bike and scooter demonstrations and prizes.

Events continue from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 12 at Gompers Preparatory Academy, 1005 47th St.; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 19 at Linda Vista Library, 2160 Ulric St.; and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 26 at The Island at Carlsbad, 5806 Van Allen Way.

Said Will Rhatigan, an advocacy manager for the bike coalition: “We want to show people that biking is a safe, convenient and fun option to get around the communities.”

He hopes the events will encourage people to choose bikes over cars more often.

Representatives from the groups Safe Kids and My Grey Matterz were on hand along with Bird scooters, a bike repair vendor and e-bike demonstrators.

Spokespeople talked about the latest trends in independent travel.

Paige Colburn Hargis, who works in an adult trauma center, said she’s seeing a big increase in injuries in the 55-65 age group.

“Maybe the kids are gone now and they start to get back into biking, and unfortunately, the majority of crashes are actually solo falls,” said Hargis, injury prevention community outreach coordinator for Scripps Memorial Hospital.

“We really encourage people to get involved in safe cycling classes,” she said, pointing out classes through the Bike Coalition.

Hargis said the most significant problem is cyclists not obeying traffic laws, performing risky behaviors and riding unpredictably — darting in and out of traffic. Distracted drivers combined with unpredictable biking is a recipe for a catastrophe, she said.

The necessity to always wear a well-fitted helmet was the overriding message of the event.

Hargis’ passion for encouraging helmet wearing followed her son Alex’s severe, traumatic brain injury in a skateboarding accident at 13. He spent nearly a month in a coma but has since recovered and is attending college.

“If my son had been wearing a helmet, he would never have had the devastating injuries that he sustained,” she said.

Hargis said there has been an increase in skateboarding injuries due to unhelmeted riders and that girls are less likely to wear them. So statistically there are more injuries among girls even though fewer girls ride skateboards.

“It’s not about cramping someone’s style or taking the fun out of anything,” said Hargis, president of Safe Kids San Diego. Rather it’s about protecting the brain.

Hargis runs a website, mygreymatterz.org, that seeks to change the anti-helmet culture prevalent in skateboarding and other action sports.  

“We encourage participants to protect their most valuable asset…their brain,” says the site.

At the event, David Groff of Bird Scooters said: “A lot of time people think they don’t look good in it or the helmet is not comfortable. There’ a lot of reasons people come up with. Let’s keep the brain safe.” 

“The helmet is not the most important piece of safety equipment; your brain is the most important part of safety equipment,” said Groff who distributed free bike helmets from his booth. 

When choosing a helmet, one should make sure it fits snugly, “not too tight where it’s painful,” Groff said. “It could be uncomfortable for people who haven’t worn a helmet that way before.”

There should be a two-finger distance between the bottom of the strap and the chin and the same distance between the helmet and the eyebrow, he advises.

A loose strap is the biggest safety error, he said. You should feel the strap when you are talking with the helmet on.

“You want to make sure you have a proper fit on the helmet, so if you come tumbling off of the bike, no matter in which direction, the helmet is going to contact the ground first,” Groff said.

While the amount of protection from bike helmets has been fairly consistent over the years, manufacturing advances have been focused on comfort, he said, adding that a $15 helmet should provide adequate protection.

Just as important, adults need to be good role models, wearing a helmet because it teaches children that it’s a important safety habit in adulthood as well, Hargis said.

However, she said that even while wearing a helmet, a rider can still suffer a concussion or serious injury if hit by a car or falling and hitting the pavement.

Hargis noted that electric bike sales have surged, and riders need to be aware that they handle and operate differently from a standard bike.

Lorrie Lynn, injury prevention manager for Rady Children’s Hospital, advocates family biking, so children are supervised.

Among the children who come into the hospital after bike accidents, about 25% weren’t wearing helmets, she estimates.

Lynn is also the local coordinator for Safe Kids, a worldwide organization that addresses injury prevention for infants to 14-year-olds. Suffocation while sleeping is the number one cause of deaths for infants. Drowning is the top cause for toddlers.

For 7- to 14-year-olds, the leading cause of death is car accidents — including when seat belts aren’t worn or children get out of car seats.

Rhatigan with the local Bike Coalition said bike riding in San Diego has grown, but that many people still don’t feel safe on local streets.

The city is “making progress, but it is not comfortable for the majority of people,” he said.

“Although we have some really nice bike paths, they often aren’t connected with each other,” Rhatigan said. “So if someone wants to go from their home to their workplace, they often have to go through one or two short sections of very unsafe roadway to get there.”

Therefore, making connections with existing bikeways would have a “huge impact” in getting people on two wheels, he said.

The bike advocate concluded: “We have perfect weather all year. We have an active culture. There is no reason to believe we can’t reach the kind of bike ridership levels that other cities in this country have.”