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hat or helmet?

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luv_2_ride13
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 5:35 PM GMT

The question should really be...... Do I ride to the edge of my ability in seek of the utlimate rush while refining my skills? Am I aware of the fact that while doing so there are inherant dangers? Are there factors outside of my control while riding that can have an impact on me, my health and safety? Do I want my experience on the mountain to be ruined by something that could have prevented?

Our minds have enabled us with the ability to feel free, express ourselves and perform. Protect it! Pretty Simple.

Consider these things and make up your own mind....

Have I ever been layed out on ice? Crashed and burned and hit my head on the snow? a tree? a rail? Ever been blinsided by some A hole out of control? Hit in the head / face with a ski pole? Smacked in the face with a tree branch while riding through the woods? Ever had a wet hat at the end of the day?

I love wearing a Helmut + Googles and would never ride without them again. There is one thing that is critical here.........get good equipment that fits wells and is comfortable...if not, whats the point.
To me they have only provided benefits. A few suggestions when considering a purchase.

Removable vents for warmer days!
Removable earflaps to hear better on warm days and keep your ears warmer on colder days! A skull cap to wear under your helmut on cold days! a slot or strap to secure your goggles on the back of the helmut The envirnment changes constantly and so you must to maintain optimal comfort.

Once you have picked your helmut.........Now get a pair a goggles that fits the helmut, maintain a seal on your face and have room to vent on the top. If not, they are worthless.

Tree_Skier
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 5:55 PM GMT

For me it's not really a question of whether I will do something that will cause me to need a helmut but of some Joey running into me or some other stupid thing in front of me. Thus I wear a helmut all of the time now plus it makes my wife feel better

tommyadrian5
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 6:15 PM GMT

yea, my other reason is i've never found a hat that could keep my head at an even temperature (cool on warm days, warm on cold days). Even with nice big hats my ears always got cold. My first helmet was great (boeri) and lasted me several years. I now have last years Giro Flint (with the visor and removable chinguard). I will say the worst part about my helmet is that it easily allowed me to install headphones in it to hook up to my mp3 player, but i only actually listen to music while hiking or hitting open face.

Brian
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 7:05 PM GMT

a hat!!!!!!!!!!!

BRIAN O.

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"riders on the storm" JM

skirick
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 8:16 PM GMT

In my 35+ years of skiing, I've only worn just a hat. But before a trip to tuck's last april, I bought a helmet and now I don't think that I will ski without it. I think that I ski better, kind of more secure if you know what I mean.

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galvin1
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 8:46 PM GMT

I wear a Boeri...and one of its very best attributes is that I don't get itchy like I used to with my wool hats. I used to spend the better part of waiting in lines adjusting the durn hat. No longer.

I bought my helmet back in 98...one of my brothers came out to visit me on the east coast to ski. He and his friends had a good long laugh at my expense when they saw me put it on. Whatever. I wipe out a lot, so I'm a good candidate for extra protection.

And they aren't laughing anymore. Whereas 5-10 years ago, you'd get that "you're a dork" look in the lift lines, I think most people now know and realize the benefits of added protection. You don't see too many kids riding around nowadays on bicycles without their helmets and I know it wasn't that way when I was a young'in.

Its true that helmets may not prevent every kind of injury. I had a friend that had a horrific headfirst wipeout into a tree, so hard it snapped her skis in half --that resulted in a compression fracture of her top vertebrae. She was wearing just a hat...the docs said A) she was lucky to be alive and B) a helmet would have only spared her the monster gash on her noggin'. But still...she's back out there...and we're all wearing helmets now with her. I can see maybe going out in a hat on a nice warm mellow day, but once I saw my friend in that scary halo, I didn't have to think twice about incorporating it into my habits. 16 weeks in a halo...or dorky helmet...I'd pick the helmet everytime.

SNOWTURX
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 9:13 PM GMT

OK, Helmet Nuts, tell me this:
If you have an impact on your helmet, do you throw it away and get a new one, like you're supposed to ?
Just about all safety helmets, with foam insert, are made to absorb the impact by deforming, Once.
Yeh, I know some manufacturers have a return your old one, get a break on a new one, deal.

Are you all going to go out and get one of these "Multi-Impact FlexFoam™" BrainBuckets from MARKER ?

Or just avoid them there tree's

TX.

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Don't Sweat The Petty Stuff, And Don't Pet The Sweaty Stuff

gravitylover
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 9:45 PM GMT

There are single impact and multi impact helmets. Most bike helmets are single impact designs because they disperse the energy through the structure better. You're right, those should be replaced after an impact significant enough to have compromised the structure. At this point most ski helmets are of the multi impact design. Take a look at race helmets and the hard shell helmets with a structure comparable to a skateboard helmet, they can sustain many impacts before needing replacement. The theory is (supposedly) that the shell will bear the brunt of the minor impacts and the foam will not be affected until the impact reaches a predetermined threshold. The issue then becomes how stuboorn the user is, will it be repaced if necessary? I know my old Boeri took some serious shots without any deformation to the foam on the inside and my current Louis Garneau has been nearly bombproof, both due to the hard shell. The new soft designs are somewhat questionable (in my mind) as you will feel many of the small impacts and I don't feel comfortable when I can feel those little shots. In their favor though is that they rebound to their designed shape usually without any ill effects. Personally I don't know that I want my helmet shell to be flexible.

loafasaur
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 9:57 PM GMT

From the Jurassic to '99, hat only. Then I bought helmets for the family after my daughter got a Grade II concussion getting caught off guard on a mogul. The lid is light, comfortable, warm and windproof, minimal effect on hearing, zero effect on visibility. It's saved me a glancing blow on a tree that probably would have been a cut/abrasion, and several whacks from chairlifts. I wear a helmet on a bike, and I ski a lot more agressively than I bike ride. For what it's worth, I estimate 55-60% of Loaf regulars now wear helmets. They're serious skiers, and anything warm quickly becomes stylish there. So I wear it and enjoy it, unless it's 60 degrees and I'm wearing my faded blue corduroy baseball cap with the distinctive blue triangle logo.

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skipatrol40s
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Posted: Nov 05, 2004 - 11:23 PM GMT

Edited: Nov 05, 2004 - 11:31 PM GMT

For all you cool people that may not ski with a helmet check out
Slope Style with Una and Per Olav Listen to the cool snow snake.

BTW here is cool snowboarder game.

MrMagic
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Posted: Nov 06, 2004 - 12:59 AM GMT

i have gone though a few helmets in recent years, and im glad to say there a few times i have been glad i had a bucket on my head.
hey its your choice.

Live2Ski
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Posted: Nov 12, 2004 - 6:31 PM GMT

Here we go with the same old song and dance that happens every year. The great helmet debate and somebody here said it best, "the choice is yours."

I have 35 + years in the skiing industry from running my parents ski shop, teaching lessons all over North America to ski patrolling that I'm currently doing now.

Yes helmet use will prevent many minor injuries and some major ones too. However, they do nothing lets say it together NOTHING for injuries due to sudden impacts. It will not stop your brain from slapping up against your skull, broken ribs, punctured internal organs or broken bones. In fact several people have died by sticking the landing off a jump just right and tearing their aorta thus dropping dead right on the spot.

The lesson to be learned and should be conveyed to all is to ski or board within your ability and do not substitute a helment for control.

As far as I'm concerned helment use is a choice, skiing or boarding in control within the responsibility code is not and could land you with many legal bills if not praticed.

MadRider
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Posted: Nov 13, 2004 - 1:35 AM GMT

I finally got some sense knocked into me one morning while riding my board down Exterminator at Sugarbush North and catching my heel edge on the top of a mogul. Seeing stars in broad daylight is not an experience I care to repeat. My hat and goggles had been flung a good 25 feet down the hill from me. That was five years ago, and I'm now that much less able to absorb a hard landing like that. I'd like to think that I'm that much smarter and better when it comes to skiing and riding, but an occasional crash can still sneak in.
Another aspect of boarding was my discovery of the high-speed monster carve. You carry A LOT of speed out of a turn like that, even if you ride soft boots and highbacks like I do. I feel much safer doing this with a helmet on than not. (BTW, this is controlled carving, on appropriate terrain and crowd conditions.)
When I finally found a helmet that actually fit me, at the right price, I grabbed it, and I seldom go without it, unless it's a very warm day.
Somebody mentioned "seeing the light" up at Tuckerman's regarding helmets. Good idea- not just for the descent, but for the climb, in case somebody above you knocks a small amount of ice or rock loose. Of course it won't save you from a big chunk of material, but those smaller pieces can hurt, too, if they fall far enough before they strike.
I remember the days when I rode my bicycle or skied without a helmet, and thinking nothing of it. I was skeptical at first, but sometimes new ideas take a while to sink in. Now that the outdoor recreation industry as a whole offers helmets for nearly every pursuit, it seems to me imprudent not to take advantage of it.
I'm a firm believer in allowing people to take responsibility for their own safety, so I do not advocate laws requiring them to do so. I'm also a firm believer in minimizing the risks I take, so I wear a helmet.
That's my choice.

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Surf the woods and live forever!

ismrider
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Posted: Nov 13, 2004 - 3:21 AM GMT

I choose the good old hat becuase when you wear a helmet you get the feeling that you can just go faster and faster and then you have the really bad crashes. The beer helmet sounds good for spring skiing.

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I Dont Have To Outrun The Bear, I Just Have To Outrun You.....

gravitylover
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Posted: Nov 13, 2004 - 3:45 AM GMT

[quoteThe beer helmet sounds good for spring skiing.

[/quote]

Let me know where you are when you're wearing the "beer helmet" so I can be somewhere else please.

"Yes helmet use will prevent many minor injuries and some major ones too. However, they do nothing lets say it together NOTHING for injuries due to sudden impacts. It will not stop your brain from slapping up against your skull, "

WRONG! Again, WRONG!!Three years ago I had a customer who went over backwards avoiding a "gaper" and smacked his head hard enough to shatter the back of the helmet. It broke right at the base of his skull, the Medula area. If you take a hit there you will probably not be walking and talking the same way you did before it happened. Long story short, he's fine...

orangegondola
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Posted: Nov 13, 2004 - 6:37 AM GMT

I'll be at evil K with my beer helmet every spring. So if you don't like it look out.

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sledhaulingmedic
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Posted: Nov 13, 2004 - 2:21 PM GMT

Quote:

I'll be at evil K with my beer helmet every spring. So if you don't like it look out.

Can we modify the design to accomodate tequila?

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"Don't piss off the locals, Don't make work for the patrol"

Live2Ski
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Posted: Nov 13, 2004 - 2:35 PM GMT

Quote:

[quote It broke right at the base of his skull, the Medula area. If you take a hit there you will probably not be walking and talking the same way you did before it happened.

Gravitylover I'm not sure of the location you are referencing on the head. There is no "medula area" perhaps you are refering to the occipital bone under which is the cerebellum that coordinates smooth body movements or the maqstoid process. At any rate your friend was lucky that they did not have a cervical injury which often times a helmet inhances.

I'm not saying to ski with or without a helmet I'm trying to convey to all to ski within your ability and in control.

SNOWTURX
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Posted: Dec 02, 2004 - 8:29 PM GMT

Well whadya know

I'm shopping for a helmet

So thanks everybody for sharing your views.
Not sure what swung it, maybe just being enough of a "gearhead" now to want something new

I'm probably going to go with a Giro Nine.9, because of the ConsumerReports article, provided by SP40s.
I'm wondering, though, about going the while hog and getting some kind of Full-Face Helmet.
Would y'all think this OVERKILL, or not a bad idea ? TX.

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Don't Sweat The Petty Stuff, And Don't Pet The Sweaty Stuff

skipatrol40s
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Posted: Dec 03, 2004 - 1:08 AM GMT

To be safe though we need to go much further than the helmet. Kevlar vests like those worn by little league batters may be the next new fad in ski coats. Smart helmets that are linked with other helmets similar to Commercial airlines that have collision avoidance systems. The speaker in the helmet will tell the skier which way to ski to avoid a collision. For the ultimate protection we have this futuristic skier. :

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