The safety gear __is__ the freedom. You have minor crashes, bails, small accidents every day, sometimes almost every run. It's normal, it's a part of the sport: you're pushing to improve yourself, you're racing other people competitively. The helmet is an "extra life", but the sliding gloves (think velcro hockey pucks) are about as essential as the wheels themselves; you wear them even in "no paws down" (standup slides only) races, they're what's keeping your palms from becoming meat crayons.

The safety gear allows you to just walk away from some otherwise life-ending accidents like nothing happened.