How We Got Here
The My Grey Matterz campaign was born from the personal experience of one family who’s 13-year-old son, Alex, was placed in a medically induced coma due to a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained while playing on a skateboard in their front driveway. Over the course of the next 61 days, where they were unsure if he would even survive, the family learned of the near epidemic rise in traumatic brain injuries from skateboarding accidents. From 2013 – 2015 there were an astonishing 373 skateboarding injuries in San Diego County that resulted in emergency room admissions. Of those 373 injuries, 81% of those sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury, and only 9% were wearing a helmet. This staggering number motivated Alex and his family to bring awareness to this very preventable tragedy.
As a child, Alex had always worn a helmet, but as he got older, he, like many of his friends thought it wasn’t cool anymore. Many of the professional skateboarders that he viewed as role models, do not wear helmets and young children look up to and emulate these skaters without the knowledge of the dangers of skating without a helmet.
We look forward to highlighting more and more professional skateboarders and industry leaders that are willing to speak out and embrace changing the prevalent culture in the world of skateboarding.