An Idiot’s Tale… A Case for Snowboard Body Armor

An Idiot’s Tale… A Case For Snowboard Body Armor

For winter road bike conditioning, I ride rollers. I’ve been riding them since 1986. If you don’t know, bike rollers are basically an indoor trainer without training wheels, meaning they’re tricky to ride at first and you can fall off them if you’re not careful. However, after you’ve been on them awhile, you get the hang of it and that’s that.

Okay, so in the past 23 years, I’ve fallen off my rollers maybe ten times, never with any consequence. This past weekend was different. I was riding, saw some dirt in a crevice of my right brake lever, and decided to scratch it out. I got carried away, scratched too hard, and pushed my wheel nearly off the rollers. Then I overcorrected and flew off the rollers to the left.

Normally, I can get my foot unclipped, but this time I couldn’t. I fell onto a metal frame chair and toppled over into the fireplace tools which went crashing into the fireplace. I’m not sure if it was the back of the chair or the tools, but it hurt like hell. In an out of body sort of way, I pictured the whole scenario as a cartoon, which made me laugh, but laughing hurt like hell to laugh, too. Here’s why. Turns out I cracked three of my ribs (the chair back was the culprit).

It’s snowboard body armor for me…

Now I’m not going to wear snowboard body armor when I ride my rollers (maybe I should wear a bike helmet though). However, I’m definitely going to wear snowboard body armor on the slopes this winter. Currently it hurts just sleeping on my right side. I would hate to find out how it feels after a full-fledged wipeout.

I need quality snowboard body armor at a nice price… I need Demon

I’m an athlete, a writer, and a product tester. And I’m not famous, so unlike Tiger Woods or Lance Armstrong, I don’t make a lot of money. I need something that’ll work for me, yet something I can afford. I need Demon Flex Force High. I like that

• it’s lightweight
• it’s comfortable, and
• that you can keep all your mobility when you wear it.

The Demon Flex Force High is like a padded sweatshirt. Every shoulder, elbow, rib, spine, and collarbone pad sewn into this breathable, crewneck-style ski and snowboard upper body armor is made from foam, not hard plastic, so I’ll have protection without feeling like a running back in a Friday night football game. I can wear the Flex Force High as a base layer or wear a base layer under it. I can wear it all day in the park, then all night après-ski. And I can even sleep in it (which I might). Last but not least, it sells for 58 bucks, which even a poor writer can afford.

Look for me this winter in Demon Flex Force High. Hell, for 58 bucks, I might even buy two of ‘em!