Helmets or not ?

[Jack M]

I actually don't feel like wearing a helmet on the mountain is a necessity, like it is on a motorcycle. <i>Not</i> wearing one is an acceptible risk, in my book. I survived about 25 years on the slopes without one, and only had one incident where it would have been nice to have one. However, I was given a Giro 9.9 as a gift, and I find it to be just as comfortable as wearing a knit hat, if not moreso. So I have no excuse not to wear one anymore.

[carvedog]

The speeds and forces seem to demand it. And the skiers that can take you out.

For some reason when I go in the trees I can't stand to have my helmet on. Dont know why. My wife thinks I am nuts - probably right.

I don't wear one when teaching (except carving either). But I am probably the most aware person on the run at any given time too. Constantly doing threat assessment on my student from dingbat, tail skidder, speed wedgers.

My two centavos.

[veector]

I sometimes wear a helmet.

For example if im just going to a small place with no people and easy runs, i tend not to bring it. But if im going out to a bigger place or riding more challenging runs or im in the park i'l bring my helmet. When i bike and longboard i usually wear a helmet. Concussions arent fun, and i have had one too many.

[sic t 2]

sobering story from Whiteface last week .....

One of their patrollers is now in a Burlington, Vermont hospital in a deep coma with massive head injuries. He was actually patrolling there when a boarder (on an intersecting trail) used the corner to grab big air and struck the helmetless patroller. So he's fighting for his life now. Been in the coma for a few weeks now. I got off the Cloudsplitter gondola, after hearing this from another one of their patrollers, tightened my own lid another notch and just thanked my lucky stars I was wearing one when I got cut down at Stratton a few years back. You just never really know when your number will come up.

Sic

[Guest tdinardo]

I actually don't feel like wearing a helmet on the mountain is a necessity, like it is on a motorcycle. Not wearing one is an acceptible risk, in my book. I survived about 25 years on the slopes without one, and only had one incident where it would have been nice to have one. However, I was given a Giro 9.9 as a gift, and I find it to be just as comfortable as wearing a knit hat, if not moreso. So I have no excuse not to wear one anymore.

I agree with your assessment. For most sports and activities where helmets are now in fashion, I don't consider it necessary. It is all about risk assesment...and assumption of that risk. I generally try to weigh out the risk verus the cost of increasing my protection level. In most cases it's so cheap to reduce the risk with a helmet or other protective gear, and there's no restriction to my movement or comfort, that I just do it.

I, like you had ridden for years without a helmet on snow and never had an issue. All of the incidents i've had over the years in other sports, and the increasing length of time recovery seems to take, have me constantly adding to my preventative arsenal. I regularly wear a helmet now. I generally wear body armor when I plan to ride more challenging terrain now too (I just wear my base layer motocross stuff which is all soft armor and really comfortable). I try and keep the old rule in mind, dress for the crash, not the ride. In general, none of this stuff is uncomfortable or restrictive; it's not expensive for a total cost perspective; and it means that if I have an issue, the probabilities are that the issue will be mush smaller. That means more time on the hill!

Note, I'm saying this while sitting on my couch, in a Percocet induced haze, recovering from hand surgery to fix a hand injury I incured last summer setting up a motocross bike. One second I'm looking at a double jump. The next thing I know, I'm lying on my back looking up at the sky. Gotta love those times when you loose 5-10 seconds of your life and you have no idea where they went.

Thankfully we still live in a country where they haven't mandated putting corks on forks to prevent eye injuries yet.

[Brian]

Always ride with a helmet. After reading the posts of crashes & mishaps with other riders it makes sense. About 9 yrs ago my son wanted to start riding a board, I told him he'd have to wear a helmet and I'm really happy he agreed.

I'd rather have helmet head, not lobotomy head.

[Derf]

I bought one two years ago for a couple of reasons:

-Lots of people seem to be wearing them, there must be a reason

-A friend of my father banged his head quite solidly when snowboarding, so I didn't want it to happen to me

-I've been wearing one for cycling since 1991. When carving, I'm going fast, there's some ice, I can fall, hit my head, so why not. My GF thinks that its overkill, but I prefer to be safe and buy something that I will never use (I mean wear it but not fall on it) than sorry.

[scotts.Scheinman]

i dont do too many crazy things so i dont see the retionality of it. If i think of doing somthing crazy i dont do it.

[big mario]

I lost count of how many I have replaced for mountain biking, so to me it makes sense to wear one when riding. At beaver creek today I watched an exceptional rider ,whom never biffs, wash out his toeside, then catch his heel edge, and get sent over backwards, slamming his head. I was 75 yards away and heard the impact, It scared the S**T out of me. He was okay, due in a large part to his brain bucket. My feeling is that it is not a question of if, but when.

[BobD]

I actually don't feel like wearing a helmet on the mountain is a necessity, like it is on a motorcycle .

Your choice, as long as you're not in my insurance pool.

BobD

[LeeW]

ahh, my reasons for not wearing helmets is that i wear hearing aids. it just doesnt work with the helmet. i rather to be able to hear the radio or cell phone (mostly work related). I suppose its safe to say that we, the park crew, do play it conservatively. but yes, its the other people that you gotta watch out for as well as random accident. today, at vail while working on the clock, i was carving pencil lines, and i forgot i was in my softboot outfit. i had a toe drag, and i flipped real hard raggedy ann doll style. now my entire right side of my body's sore (upper ankle, knee and elbow). -sigh-

[philfell]

Most of the time I'm on the Mt. I don't wear one. The times I do are usually on powder days. I spend a lot of time in the trees on these days so it make sense to wear one then. I've also lost many pairs of goggles due to high speed rag dolls in powder, a helmet keeps them on my head. I used to hate riding with a helmet, because I had trouble hearing whats going on around me. I also got a lot of input from listening to the sounds my board makes during a turn. I finally found a helmet that didn't have much wind noise and I was able to hear well out of it. Now I spend most of my time on the side of a run with a camera and a radio so I don't have much need for a helmet most days.

It always amazes me how your body protects your head when you crash. I went Mt. Biking. I got a brand new helmet for the occasion because my current one was probably 5 years old and was falling apart. I haven't gone over the bars in years, but I did on christmas, very violently. When I got my self untangled from my bike and upright again, I checked my helmet, not a scratch on it. I always laugh at myself when I go rock climbing with my helmet also. I'm constantly knocking my head against the rock. The extra inch or so the helmet sticks out is enough to throw everything out of wack. Your body knows where your head is at and does an amazing job to keep it safe.

[Baka Dasai]

I'm unconvinced by helmets. There are two (quite separate) reasons for my skepticism:<ol><li><p><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation">Risk Compensation</a></b></p><p>This is the phenomenon where people compensate for their perception of extra safety by taking greater risks, and therefore returning to their pre-"safety" level of risk. Basically, people have a level of risk they are comfortable with, and if you make them safer they'll respond by going faster/bigger/higher then they were before.</p><p>There's nothing wrong with that - in fact it's great. But it doesn't make a helmet a safety device - it makes it a "go faster/bigger/higher" device.</p><p>Most people's reaction to the idea of risk compensation is to claim that they are immune from it. But that's unlikely - the numbers show that most people are not immune from it. What's worse is if the perceived safety benefits of the helmet are greater than the actual safety benefit of the helmet, the helmet-wearer is likely to increase their level of risk <i>beyond</i> what it was. I think that's a likely reason for the supposedly "non-intuitive" situation where safety benefits actually cause a reduction in safety. This is what happened when bicycle helmets were made compulsory in Australia and New Zealand.</p><p>Here's some <a href="http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/~jadams/publish.htm">more reading on risk compensation</a>. (Interesting stuff in there. Amongst other things he examines the statistics involving car accidents and compulsory seat-belt legislation. Very eye-opening.)</p></li><li><p><b>Skepticism about how effective a helmet is in a crash</b></p><p>This is the weaker of my two points, but I think there may be something in it. Like philfell says about his rock-climbing experiences, when you have an extra inch of stuff around your head you start hitting it more often because you no longer know how "big" you are. Also, the extra size of your head may cause extra rotational force on your head and neck in a fall.</p><p>Basically, people are pretty effective at protecting their head in a fall, and even when they don't, skulls are quite strong. And plenty of people get head injuries when wearing a helmet, and the response is always "it would have been worse without it", which seems a very unscientific assumption to have.</p></li></ol><p>A lot of my skepticism comes from following the endless debates over <a href="http://www.cyclehelmets.org/">bicycle</a> <a href="http://www.cycle-helmets.com/">helmets</a>. It's a highly contested area, but my conclusions from reading the research are that helmets are NOT effective in reducing death or serious head injury in bicycle riders.

Snowboarding is different to bicycle riding, so that conclusion may not be relevant. But it also might be. Who knows? Nobody bothers to research it.

Having said all that you might be surprised to know that I DO wear a helmet when snowboarding. Hell, it's damn convenient - it's warm, keeps my goggles on, and makes a nice basket for carrying gloves, goggles etc. And I think that it would be particularly effective in reducing injury from a sharp ski/snowboard edge to the head.

And I like to go fast (the side-benefit of risk compensation!)

[Gecko]

I can't imagine not wearing a helmet...I wear one bike riding, motorcycle riding, skateboarding (most of the time anyway) and Snowboarding (always). Someone else said that helmets keep goggles in place...this is in my opinion the best thing about helmets. I never had goggle behave on my head until I got my helmet

[FTA2R]

I see many boarders wearing them wrong. Seems to me it's crucial to wear them right, they can't be on you in "relaxed" mode. I think carvers are a bit more in tune.

didn't wear one in college, back then (96-00) not many did anyway (and I didn't carve), been wearing one for at least 3-4 years now, use the same helmet for skating parking garages (yes, it's very hot in summer but I deal with it). Had a few collisions with other boards in college, nothing serious, but it makes you think. Lastly, with my earbud rig, I can still listen to music while riding with helmet (w/out one of those audio helmets)

[joecarve]

I'm thinking about going to a full face model when replacing my current helmet...looks like at least ChrisH wears one - anyone else? The extra face protection is an obvious plus, though I'm a little concerned about catching the front of it and wrenching my neck in a toeside fall. Any thoughts one way or 'nother?

joe...

[Brian]

Full face is good to have, it protects your mouth/jaw. At the end of the day you can eat your dinner instead of drinking it through a straw. Have not had any issues catching my helmet on the snow, been riding with the full face for three yrs. aloha

Brian

[Guest thomas_m]

...by Univ of Washington Sports Medicine. The verdict, helmeted snowboarders have less injuries and there is no evidence of increased risk-taking due to compensation. It may not be that helmets prevent injuries, it could be that people who wear helmets tend not to be crazy jackasses...

"Further study is necessary to

determine if the skiers/snowboarders

who wear helmets are self-selected

and may be safer people in general, or

if wearing a helmet actually changes

behavior patterns. In either case, these

data do convincing demonstrate that

in this population, wearing a helmet

does not result in increased injury rates

via increases in risk taking behavior

or other mechanisms."

Page 42-44:

http://www.orthop.washington.edu/UserFiles/File/research/2004.pdf

T.

[carve4life]

i wear one for the simple reason of if i didn't i would not be typing right now, twice.

[ARCrider]

never wore one skiing except for racing/training but on my first ever day of snowboarding I was without helmet. I managed to catch a heelside edge and slam the back of my melon hard enough to see stars and feel nauseous. went back to my skis for a few more years before trying boarding again with a helmet. always wear one now along with light armour. hopefully a shorter recovery time for my next biff. I can deal with the pain of recovery. What I don't like is the forced time out from any athletic activities.

its a matter of when not if for your next biff.

[surfinsmiley]

Let`s see now.

1st time......hit a Kangaroo doing about 140km/hr on a bike.....Helmet saves Brain.

2nd time....over the falls on a ten footer at Padang Padang at low tide on the inside bowl section, head wedged into sharp limestone reef.........Helmet saves Brain.

3rd time....Kiteboarding in high wind and big surf, body dragging to my board and the board gets pitched by the wave at the same time as I got lofted towards the board........Helmet saves Brain.

4th time.........high speed, low skill, snowboarding through the trees, didn`t even see the branch that sat me on my arse. From fast to stop in zero seconds.......Helmet saves Brain.

I LOVE my Helmets, I`ve got a quiver of em`.

[Derf]

Baka:

On risk compensation, I agree with you to some point. It depends on the person. When I ride, I forget that I'm wearing a helmet, I'm just riding and trying to improve, not go faster. And for me, I feel that my head is not my weakest point, it is my shoulder. I've suffered so much shoulder dislocations in the past that I fear more for them than for anything else. I've even stopped rock climbing because of this.

On helmet safety, I disagree with you. IMHO, the rock climbing example does not apply to snowboarding. When climbing, you head is inches from the rock/wall, when snowboarding, you head is a couple of feet from the ground, like in cycling. The problem when falling is not the skull hitting the ground, it is the brain hitting the inside of the skull. A helmet will reduce the strenght of the impact by absorbing the force in the impact, which compresses the foam. The assumption that an accident would have been worse without a helmet is right, where the difference is that with a helmet you get a brain commotion, without one you get a brain contusion or a skull fracture. This applies mostly to cycling (higher from the ground, harder surface), but it can apply in snowboarding (catch an edge while standing up on ice).

[Guest screaming]

guys i wear a helmet every wear i ride if i dont omg i have tooken to many hard falls.

[Guest rc30rob]

A short story to make you think.A bunch of us returned to a pub after a days ride out on the bikes .In the car park(parking lot) we all swapped bikes just trundeling about no speed higher than walking pace ,no silly tricks,no beer .Woody a good mate jumped on a kwack 1100 did a slow turn and dropped the bike ,he hit his head (temple ) no real force just the wrong place, no lid , He lost all motor functions but the docs thought he was fully aware of all that was going on around him ,trapped in a none functioning body,after 6 months they let pnemonia take its natural course.a ten year old could have hit him harder so WEAR A HELMET! Anyway brains make the snow to sticky.Ps it wont be long before insurance companies will say you didnt take adequate precautions to protect yourself so go and blow it out your arse ,no pay out.

[ar(angel]

before I bought one. Had been getting steadily faster on my alpine set-up and decided it was time to get a brain bucket. Low 'n' behold, next trip out got creamed by some guy trying to follow me on his beat-up old board and did a complete flip through the air landing on.....you guessed it, my head. I agree it's a personal preference issue, but I'll never board without one again,

Ride safe,

Paul