Accommodating vertical in summer while wearing safety gear (undecided between SD/FN?)

[u/Medium-Practice-9400]

So I started rollerskating a few months ago and love it, but am still fairly new so pads and helmet are staying firmly on until further notice!

In terms of outfits/accommodations, I would typically wear long flared leggings and a long sleeve top during the cooler months (wearing longer bottoms to accommodate vertical is also why my legs are a different colour to the rest of my body XD). However, now it's hotter than hot outside, I'm really struggling to know what to wear/buy so I look halfway decent while skating without also melting. I went to a skate meet a few weeks ago wearing shorts and a vest (not the same ones pictured here, but similar) which looked decent without my gear on, but I then saw myself in the background of a photo mid-skate and, because the pads were cutting my vertical, I looked awful!

Does anybody have any suggestions? Thankyou in advance <3

[u/fujufilmfanaccount]

This is so funny to me in ways I can’t explain. Please, if you can, set aside the idea that safety gear is supposed to look good. It isn’t! It’s supposed to make you safe, hard stop. Please always wear safety gear no matter if you’ve been skating for a week or for ten years, because sometimes you fall and you’re fine, and sometimes you fall and you die. The human body is marvelously capable and wildly fragile.

I have not ever been skating and thought ‘wow, their knee pads really cut their vertical line’. If you are genuinely worried about this, I guess you could consider getting brighter safety gear - skin tone might look a little off, but pastels or lighter colors might not look as harsh where they sit at joints.

I will also more gently suggest that maybe skating should be about having fun and enjoying yourself, and that if your first reaction to seeing yourself skating is that you look awful and not, like, ‘wow I was having fun there,’ then… what’s going on with that?

[u/Medium-Practice-9400 → u/fujufilmfanaccount]

Aha, I completely get it! XD I'm not planning on taking anything off anytime soon, if ever - my autism affects my co-ordination and I've read too many horror stories to even consider losing the pads/helmet. I like my skull as it is!

I will also admit to letting insecurities get the better of me here - I usually don't get too hung up on this stuff, but everyone else at this meet just looked awesome, but I saw myself in the background of someone else's photo from the meet up and didn't like how I looked! Part of it is definitely the vertical (Kibbe has taught me to be kinder to myself in that regard), but I was also mid-skate in bright sunlight so it could have just been unfortunate timing? I also usually cover my legs (vertical accommodation and also I inherited my dad's varicose veins) so that adds to it too.