Again with the helmets

[paappraiser]

Carvers Almanac was right

http://www.alpinecarving.com/safety.html

""For reasons not entirely known to science, people will generally assume that you will leave 3 feet of space open for them on each side of the slope. Keep this tidbit in mind when you are maintaining your situation assessment (SA). ""

I am very cautious about people and look up ever 3-4 turns. I dont know where this kid came from. I was on a run and someone kid was flatboarding it. I was about 3 feet away from the slope just locking in a turn and Whamooo---

Im Ok (a little of a sore neck from the hit), but I dont think the kid was ok. But he just took off complaining about the elbow.

This is what happened to my helmet on his elbow.

I hope he is ok.

Matt

[RDY_2_Carve]

Glad your ok! Never seen a helmet split like that!

Today I just purchased a helmet after about 75 days under my belt since starting snowboarding in the 03-04 season. It might have something to do with the header I took @ Monarch Mountain. Should be here by Tuesday so I can bring it to SES.

[Phil]

Glad you are ok.

A similar thing happened to me 2 years ago. I ended up with stitches over my eye - cut from sunglasses. My helmet took most of the impact. Unfortunately, the girl the I collided with ended up being deaf in one ear. I am not sure if it was permanent or not. I heard a month later that she still was. I never heard anything else.

I have broken many bike helmets, but only one snowboarding helmet (big air jump at Mammoth). Yours looks like a nice clean break.

[Guest thomas_m]

This is from an instructor at my local hill when we had the annual helmet thread on a locals website:

"...Side note for real time stuff....

Saturday morning at West, nobody over on Dodge Ridge but my group. Two very experienced riders collided at a good speed head to head. (Both were coming in on heelside turns.)

One got a concussion. lost two teeth and had some stitches in his face. Ambulance ride into North Bend...

The other now has teeth marks in his helmet.

Both were wearing helmets.

Stuff happens.

I can only imagine how much worse it would have been without helmets..."

Ouch!

T.

[alexeyga]

Thomas,

I think I'll start tightning the buckles on my full-face... Though I have to note that it already protected my teeth once...

[Guest jschal01]

full face...really not a good idea. Reference prior helmet thread, I think helmets may make sense for alpine riding, though oversold. Full face: you have a beautiful lever there to twist your neck with. Yes it does happen. Slalom skiers will take their chinguards off when they freeski for this reason. Personally I'll go with the busted jaw and dentures over the neck injury.

[paappraiser]

I just logged on to GIROs website and they have a three year replacement on the helmets.

Im supprised!

If they will replace this, ill buy Giros from now on!

..

I like the full face Idea, but I think you look like a total tool. :rolleyes:

..

[alexeyga]

full face...really not a good idea. Reference prior helmet thread, I think helmets may make sense for alpine riding, though oversold. Full face: you have a beautiful lever there to twist your neck with. Yes it does happen. Slalom skiers will take their chinguards off when they freeski for this reason. Personally I'll go with the busted jaw and dentures over the neck injury.

Maybe, but if it wasn't full-face I'd be having a huge burn on my face at best, busted jaw at worse... So i'd rather look Darth-Vader...

[Surf Quebec]

I bought a helmet last year to prevent from cold, I always feel the cold wind on my ears even with a big tuque.

My helmet is so comfortable and warm.

On my first run this season I did fell right on the head, I will never ride without it.

[Guest owaysys]

Is is just me, or does everyone whack their skull way harder when they're wearing their helmet? I never had a really bad heelside fall until I started wearing one. The first day I wore one, I caught a my heelside and catapulted myself backward down the hill on a pretty icy slope. Glad I had the helmet, as I still saw stars...

[Neil Gendzwill]

I wear a helmet but I believe the proportion of incidental whacks is way higher. We all know where our head is, but that extra inch of circumference screws us up.

[snow|3oarder]

wow....slopes are too crowded these days too.

[Guest]

Well, it all depends where you ride...

And on that note, everyone coming to the SES: watch out. Tons of carvers on the hill can be crazy. I know I had a collision at 04's ECES and by sheer luck neither of us was hurt. I was coming across the bottom of a knoll and he was going over it. I t-boned him and split my board down the center of his edge. Fortunately we, and his coiler, were ok. Accidents can happen much easier at the sessions.

[surfinsmiley]

The way that helmet split is just crazy, I wonder if the kid scored a fractured bone out of that?

I had another helmet loving expirence last week. Gunning down a powder field on my new Tanker 200 at a speed where it was shaking like a wild animal under my feet, POW SMACK BOOM, three cartwheels and about a 10 metre slide on my head later I come to a stop in some sort of natural mogul field made of ice with all the holes filled with super soft powder.

I Love my Helmet!

[willywhit]

http://prorider.com/pro/product_info.php/products_id/20?osCsid=1066bc8c8289fd71995ba7661e8499e4

[Dan]

Available sizes are M and ML only, but it's a great deal if they've got your size: http://www.sierratradingpost.com/xq/asp/base_no.71974/special_type.bargain_barn/dept_id.L2~2246/qx/product.htm

[Corey]

full face...really not a good idea.

{snip}

Full face: you have a beautiful lever there to twist your neck with.

Is this really true? I currently use (and love) a full face helmet, but it's time to replace it. I've been looking for a full-face helmet all over but they just don't exist here in the prairies. There is every kind of open-face helmet available that you could imagine though.

Is this potential for neck injury real or just a justification for a fashion choice? If it's real, I'd consider buying an open face lid. If not, I don't care how it looks as I'd rather have the added protection.

Either way, I don't want to buy via mail-order. Probably only about 1/3 of helmets out there fit my head comfortably, I don't want to take the chance of ordering one of the other 2/3rds.

[Gecko]

full face...really not a good idea. Reference prior helmet thread, I think helmets may make sense for alpine riding, though oversold. Full face: you have a beautiful lever there to twist your neck with. Yes it does happen. Slalom skiers will take their chinguards off when they freeski for this reason. Personally I'll go with the busted jaw and dentures over the neck injury.

damn that excuse sounds similar to what Harley guys say about full face helmets (or any helmet for that matter)...the face is more fragile than the neck...if you have ever seen the damage from a face drag you wouldn't a statement like that and if you had ever had a crash with a helmet on any comments about neck injury would be forgoten. I could find a full face helmet that fit both my head and my bank account I would wear it...so far I haven't found one that meets the first so the second doesn't matter.

[Guest jschal01]

damn that excuse sounds similar to what Harley guys say about full face helmets (or any helmet for that matter)...the face is more fragile than the neck...if you have ever seen the damage from a face drag you wouldn't a statement like that and if you had ever had a crash with a helmet on any comments about neck injury would be forgoten. I could find a full face helmet that fit both my head and my bank account I would wear it...so far I haven't found one that meets the first so the second doesn't matter.

Snow is not asphalt, and skiers/snowbaorders don't wear motorcycle fullfaces (or have a bike to disengage from), they wear basically a bmx with a pointy-style chinguard. Put one on, press the side of the chinguard against, say, a doorframe or a buddy's stiffarm, and imagine that is a treelimb/snowgun/the stiffarm of someone you just collided with. YMMV. If you must wear one, at very least I'd suggest looking for one of the round-chinguard BMX's, they do exist but everyone on the slopes seems to go for the pointier look. Motorcycle fullfaces (except for motocross) have round faces for the same reason.

Also, what on earth will so meone be doing where a fullface really is needed? Charging in rocky, thin-cover backcountry it would make sense to me to wear a motorcycle fullface, but no one here is talking about that. Even carving Stratton at a "ballistic" level, it's sort of hard to see where the need for the fullface would come into play.

[D-Sub]

Even carving Stratton at a "ballistic" level, it's sort of hard to see where the need for the fullface would come into play.

LOL!

Ive never hit my face on the snow...but I did actually hit a tree once, softly, face first. from a side angle, and if I had that thing sticking out from my chin I could have busted my neck!

[Gecko]

well probably 15 the concept of full face in MTB's was a laugh, look now. I presently have a scar on my chin from "soft" snow (nice boiler plate at Loon), nothing major but it makes shaving a b!tc4. A BMX/MTB style full face would be nice, I've just not found one that feels right...yet. Regardless the concept that a helmet could cause greater injury than it protects against is silly and has been disproved in too many sports to name

[Guest jschal01]

Regardless the concept that a helmet could cause greater injury than it protects against is silly and has been disproved in too many sports to name

Helmets aren't intended to protect against neck injuries, or the "brainstem" type concussions from getting your head whipped around by your chin, either. Thinking the helmet protects against everything above the collarbone is silly, or more accuratley superstitious: thinking the helmet will ward off all evil.

If leverage at your chin wasn't an issue, facemasking would be legal in football. The tackle highlights would be more spectacular, that's for sure!

[Gecko]

Helmets aren't intended to protect against neck injuries, or the "brainstem" type concussions from getting your head whipped around by your chin, either. Thinking the helmet protects against everything above the collarbone is silly, or more accuratley superstitious: thinking the helmet will ward off all evil.

If leverage at your chin wasn't an issue, facemasking would be legal in football. The tackle highlights would be more spectacular, that's for sure!

you certainly are paranoid about having your neck broken from a chin bar getting grabbed...yet this isn't an issue in BMX or MTB (or for that matter on a motorcycle). No a helmet (full face or otherwise) isn't going to protect from everything. Obviosly you have your opinion and I have mine good luck

[Guest jschal01]

you certainly are paranoid about having your neck broken from a chin bar getting grabbed...yet this isn't an issue in BMX or MTB (or for that matter on a motorcycle). No a helmet (full face or otherwise) isn't going to protect from everything. Obviosly you have your opinion and I have mine good luck

Actually, it is an issue and a source of design debate in all three of BMX, MTB and motorcycles. Not a big deal in the overall scheme of things, but if you're interested here's some interesting discussion of full-face motorcycle helmets, for example:

"Also unlike the Snell Standard, the COST [Euro] Standard includes a chin-bar test that limits peak gs. This is important, because a blow straight to the face is a relatively common accident—and one that often results in a fatality, from a basilar skull fracture. " from http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/hatz/

[Gleb]

last night i hit an ice patch on the backside of a whale hump and whiped out big time. My head hit really, really hard on the ice. I saw stars for a sec and that was with a helmet. If i didn't have one, i would've been out. Never ride without one.