I've always been a strong supporter of helmets in all action sports. It just doesn't make any sense to me to not wear a helmet because of the risk. I grew up knowing that and never doubting it. At 3 years old, I was on a motorcycle with training wheels before I could ride a bicycle. In the (responsible) motorcycle community, there's no question about wearing a helmet: you just do it. It feels weird to be on a motorcycle without a helmet. You'd never see a pro motocross rider on the track or trails without a helmet. It just doesn't happen because they understand the risk. The pro motocross racers wear helmets that meet 2 or 3 safety organization standards (DOT, ANSI, Snell), they cost as much as $600, and they replace them often. They understand the value of their head and they protect it accordingly.

It's Ask ScooterDad time again! If you missed the other volumes, you can find them here: Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3. 

If you have any questions or topics you'd like me to cover, just let me know. Send me an email at kenny@scooterdad.com, post on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ScooterDadBlog, or message me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ScooterDadBlog. Look for more installments to come!

I might not be a scooter rider, but I've been around enough scooter competitions to know what kind of performances are successful. In fact, you can watch other sports, such as skateboarding, BMX, inline skating, and freestyle motocross and learn about things that score well with judges. I suspected that scootering was no different and, over the last 3 years, I've seen first-hand that my suspicions were correct from big competetions like CooterCon, the Razor Exposed Tour, and the Epic Jam to smaller competitions like our own NW Scoot events.

As we prepare for the RDM Summer Classic, I've been thinking about this a lot and talking to my scooter kid and his friends about the topic, so I thought I'd share some of those thoughts with our readers.

The Pacific Northwest is about to have another scooter competition, but this one is a little different. The focus of the 5th Annual Subway Washington Games is fun and participation. It's not nearly as serious as many other scooter competitions and it's broken up by age groups, so it's a great opportunity for kids who have never competed before or who are still new to the competition scene.

We went to the Subway Washington Games last year and we had a lot of fun. It has previously been held at Skate Barn, but with it's closure, this year's even will be held at the Mukilteo YMCA skate park. We've never been to this park, but it looks pretty cool. Skate Oregon has some information and photos of the park.

UPDATE: See the newly updated flyer below (the green one).

For those of you in the Pacific Northwest, we have a scooter competition coming this August! The Northwest has been soft on comps over the last year with the loss of Skate Barn, but Trinity Bikes in Redmond, OR is stepping up to throw an event for us. Thanks to the support of title sponsor Phoenix Pro Scooters, in addition to many other generous sponsors, this should be a great comp at a fun park.

If you haven't seen this announcement yet, Madd Gear is sending their team around the West Coast on a skate park tour, so be sure to get out and see the team! There will be demos, prizes, and lots of free stuff! Look for a stop near you!