 Poster: A snowHead
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snocat, I have skied since I was 12. During that time I have never hit my head or even come close to it, so I don't wear a helmet. On the other hand, I beaned myself on the piste about four times during my first season on a snowboard, so when I'm boarding I always wear one.
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presumably you wouldn't wear a helmet to go for a walk?
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I have no doubt there are people out there who would, given half a chance. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Bode Swiller wrote: |
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The pistes are getting more and more crowded every year
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Then you're going to the wrong places. |
I don't like pistes, but as a general point, people tend to ski on them, so made more sense to me to talk about them.
I'm really really surprised by the balance of replies in this thread, I thought there would be more pro-helmet responses.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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The one thing that really sold me the idea of a helmet is
In Italy last year,
two skiers collided with each other, I was aboout 50m away, I clearly heard their heads collide. Pretty substantial impact
As they both had helmets, they were not injuired, a couple of mins later, they skied off
Without helmets, I'm not so sure they would have skiied off
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Currently only been skiing for three years so I will in accordance with your 'ten year rule' save my reply for seven years time......that's assuming you are still alive or not brain damaged by then.
What an inane post
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I've been skiing for about 30 years and wearing a helmet for the last 7 or so. I don't wear one all the time - e.g., skiing with my 5 and 8 year olds on a hot, slushy, spring afternoon I don't bother. Ski-touring I don't bother (mostly going uphill when they are too hot). Generally though I do wear it. I find it comfortable, warm and trust it would turn a nasty bang on the head into a trivial one. I dont expect it to save me if I head-butt a tree at 30 mph!
Incidentally, I've never banged my head badly skiing but I have seen people do it - I know it could happen to me.
In the trees, it protects me from branches as well as major snafus. Off-piste it protects me from discovering rocks below the snow with my head.
I once cracked a rib falling on a big icy mogul - could just have easily knocked myself out on it.
Gives some protection against out of control morons skiiing into the back of me.
The 15mph thing is a complete red-herring. The speed that matters is the speed that your head hits a hard object. If you take a fall, you nearly always shed some speed before you collide. Crashes that involve skiing straight into something at full chat are pretty rare. Often the impact is more a function of your head hitting the ground after falling from 5-6 feet (you're height!).
I would say that I tend to ski a little faster when I'm wearing a helmet. Perhaps more accurately, I now am more cautious without one.
I don't wear body armour - my brain is more important to me. My job requires quite a lot of mental agility and the ability to concentrate - that's the stuff that can go missing with relatively minor head injuries.
I have had a couple of nasty cycle crashes where my head hit the tarmac hard enough to test my cycling helmet (both front wheel skids where you go down very fast. I'm confident that they saved me from nasty concussion. Clearly risks of cycling are different but this gives me confidence in the technology.
So should you get one? Completely up to you. Totally down to personal preference.
J
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To be clear - both cycling helmets were write-offs after the falls - the foam crushed and cracked as it was designed to.
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| evski wrote: |
| At the risk of seeming dumb, what does TGR mean? |
The Gobshite Rule 
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Crusader, change a few words around and you've just repeated the very same arguments against seat belts 30 years ago.
And this statement is, I'm afraid, just straight up moronic;
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I noted that the first 3 fatal accidents on the slope this year all involved skiers/boarders with helmet. Ultimately. it is your choice, but for me - not on my dead body
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I absolutely understand why some people don't wear helmets but I was surprised at some of the anti helmet sentiments
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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^^ great post, esp point 1
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Jakejenks, Ahh but - if you don't believe in wearing helmets, wearing one sets kids a bad example because you wouldn't want your kids to wear them either.
As has been established ad nauseum anecdotal evidence in this field isn't real evidence, neither are any studies done particularly good. Essentially it comes down to personal profiling and beliefs.
Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Tue 13-12-11 13:53; edited 1 time in total
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I wear a helmet, but that's a personal choice and in the vast majority of cases I think it should remain a personal choice. You have to weigh up the risk and decide if it's worth using a helmet in your case.
Some reasons you might not want to bother:
(1) Sounds like you're experienced. This means that it's unlikely you'll fall on-piste and if you do, you'll probably do it more-or-less safely.
(2) If you ski in quiet resorts, there might not be a whole load of people to collide with!
Some reasons you might want to:
(1) If you can afford it and it doesn't bother you, then why not? It almost certainly won't make the situation worse (unless you instantly betray your experience and start skiing like an idiot the moment you put it on) and it's likely to help at least a little (even if it's just avoiding chairlift bars and careless ski-carriers!)
(2) There's no accounting for the other people on the mountain. This is the one huge reason I wear one: essentially I'm very risk-averse and wary of other, less controlled skiers and I just don't trust 'em. Anecdotes don't count for anything, but I've seen so many nearly-out-of-control skiers on the slopes that I can't help but be wary, and that's what makes me choose to wear a helmet.
Andrew.
PS I've only been skiing for 5 years, but I started off with working a whole season, does that make me eligible to comment? 
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You know it makes sense.
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Lizzard, I don't think I seen that approach to the issue before - you wear one boarding because you have several incidents, but not when you ski - interesting. Would it change your opinion if you did take a couple of head orientated clouts whilst skiing?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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fatbob, It's just my opinion, but even as an adult if you were vehermently anti helmet, I can't imagine any adult wanting to push that view-point onto their own kids. Esp. if the kids could be brought up in a culture where it was deemed acceptable to wear one. Given a free choice would parents stick kids in a car without a seat belt! My adult Swiss friends have skied since before they could walk and never wear helmets - yet they insist that their kids wear one.
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Poster: A snowHead
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fatbob, I take your point, I just couldn't imagine skiing without one, even without hard evidence surely headbutting ice with a helmet on is better than headbutting ice without? Even the best skiers fall, the smallest slips, edge catching can send you over.
Once again, I see the pros to not wearing a helmet and if you don't want to you have every right not to and I would never lecture/berate someone for not doing so, if you aren't used to it it isn't comfortable, just wanting to get my side of the argument across
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I don't have kids myself, but they will be wearing helmets until they're old enough to make their own choice.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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until they're old enough to make their own choice.
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I'm perfectly happy with that concept. It's a bit like the anti-meat eating lobby, or religious groups forcing their will on their kids until the kids are old enough to understand the facts and make their own decision.
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Megamum, I think, given the two choices, I'd rather my (future) kids err on the (most likely) safer side until they make their own choice.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Bode Swiller,
I bought one of those D3O beanies last year, got a new one in a sale for a £5. Only thing i can say is, its better than nout, having said that i then went and bought my first ski helmet for the next trip i did.
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Lizzard, Well I gues so, but gut reaction just suggests that boarding shouldn't be much different risk wise to skiing. The trouble with personal experience in this sort of scenario is that you might only gain the experience at the same time as it being too late to do anything about it!
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Megamum, In my experience, snowboarding is much more of a risk!
When I've tried boarding - and maybe it's peculiar to trying it after years of skiing and being used to flying along - I found that catching edges on a snow board involved concussion nearly every day as the fall you experience (face plant with tumbling at a speed which wouldn't be classed as fast on skis) is much more harsh than what happened when I was learning to ski. My experience of this was about 10 years ago before the great flood of helmets on to the market.
My conclusion is I'm sticking to 2 planks and a helmet. 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Megamum, Every beginner snowboarder will smack the back of their head very hard at least once. Fact. Your limbs have to be doing something very strange to achieve the same thing readily when skiing assuming you aren't backslapping 40 foot airs as a beginner.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I think I've just found an excellent reason to stick to two planks!!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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clarky999, I'd noticed that. Can't work out why everyone seems to feel the need to have their bottoms wiped for them all of a sudden, most bizarre.
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You haven't lived in England for a while have you
Increasingly there's an unhealthy attitude that people can't be trusted to make their own risk assessments, we need 'the authorities' to do it for us
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Really, or is that just a perception some parts of the media like to give us?
I remember last year the HSE had to release a statement contradicting a statement from Wimbledon claiming they'd restricted access to the grounds due to health and safety regulation. The HSE pointed out this was twaddle
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You know it makes sense.
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snocat, Buy a helmet keeps the manufacturers in business, looks trendy, worn with goggles no need to worry about where to put them, stops being nutted on chairs by tit snowboarders not mounting properly, prevents injury by tits not looking and hitting you with their helmet on piste or in cafes, keeps you head warm. I am yet to be convinced until American medical trial results show whether serious head injuries have been reduced. I have never used a helmet in 30 years skiing except for racing but the above idiots not aware of their head position on chairs etc. have changed my mind.
Disadvantages of helmet, awareness reduced sound and sight. Sound of snow underski, people around you. When using a helmet need to turn head further to ascertain position of skiers on piste beside and behind particularly when carving quickly with other fast skiers but as Bode Swiller, implies going to Scotland helps or offP is better, problem with offP lift skiing you can still be nutted on chairs and I'm not fit enough anymore to join the white crag rats skinning up the Pramecou
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| galpinos wrote: |
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You haven't lived in England for a while have you
Increasingly there's an unhealthy attitude that people can't be trusted to make their own risk assessments, we need 'the authorities' to do it for us
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Really, or is that just a perception some parts of the media like to give us?
I remember last year the HSE had to release a statement contradicting a statement from Wimbledon claiming they'd restricted access to the grounds due to health and safety regulation. The HSE pointed out this was twaddle |
I've worked in a place where we had to call maintenance to change a lightbulb - Health and Safety considered it too dangerous to do without proper training. Ditto anything involving a stepladder, even just to clean a window or get stock down form roof storage. Nuts. Could give plenty of other examples too.
The country's bad enough now, but imagine the state of the nation in 50 years - Darwinism/evolution has been stopped, so all the idiots who would previously have died out through sheer stupidity survive to re-produce even more stupid offspring. You only need to look at the London riots to see proof.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I've worked in a place where we had to call maintenance to change a lightbulb - Health and Safety considered it too dangerous to do without proper training.
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That's not due to health and safety legislation though, that's due to your company deciding that it can't trust it's employees to change a light bulb without hurting themselves and therefore causing the company to have to record the accident.
Slightly different.
Having had experience working in the construction industry, I'm amazed how little value a lot of people place on their own safety/health/life!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Cynic,
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When using a helmet need to turn head further to ascertain position of skiers on piste beside and behind
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I would argue that if you are already wearing goggles (even with a beany) that you would already need to be doing this. I don't find a helmet reduces my perception and hearing of others on the piste, but I do find that Googles reduce my peripheral vision signifcantly (and I've tried many pairs really decent and otherwise) and I feel far more out of touch with the other piste users when I have to wear googles.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Megamum, I wear sun glasses with soft hat unless it is snowing and you have a helmet without slalom padding over your ears.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| clarky999 wrote: |
You haven't lived in England for a while have you
Increasingly there's an unhealthy attitude that people can't be trusted to make their own risk assessments, we need 'the authorities' to do it for us  |
| Lizzard wrote: |
| clarky999, I'd noticed that. Can't work out why everyone seems to feel the need to have their bottoms wiped for them all of a sudden, most bizarre. |
Trying to asses risks based on personal experience is a mugs game. You are much better off letting someone else inform you of the true reality.
If you are lucky and ski full seasons over 10 years you'd still only have maybe 1000s of 'data points' available to make your decisions for you, and these decisions will be skewed by all sorts of biases making your decision unreliable. The "authorities" are able to make their decisions based on all of the available data from millions of 'data points', compiled to form evidence, and therefore are able to make the right choice.
You wouldn't base your decision that a particular medication was 'safe' based on your own experience, you let people with the data decide, why not do the same for ski helmets?
Of course the incentive to legislate about helmet use is dubious at best (the comparison here with cycling is quite interesting). It seems the evidence now leans to suggesting that wearing a helmet is safer than not for both cycling and skiing. So you make them compulsory, right? Then everyone would be safer.
But for cycling, although wearing a helmet reduces the chance of head injury in a collision, the best way to reduce the chance of a collision is through increased cyclist numbers on the roads, and forcing people to wear helmets reduces the number of cyclists. So for the individual cyclist it is beneficial to wear a helmet, but for the population is it better not to make helmets compulsory. Which seems a victory for common sense as well as statistics.
So is the same true for skiing? Well no - The number of skiers on a slope actually increases the chance of a collision. So again it makes sense for the individual skiing to wear a helmet (from the perspective of avoiding a head injury) and it also makes sense at a population level to make helmet wearing compulsory.
So why hasn't it happened yet? Well the relative risk, even skiing without a helmet, is actually tiny and although the evidence says it can be made more tiny by compulsory helmet use what is the point? It becomes a cultural issue and a political issue to decide if the population want the added constraint that comes with the legislation.
Comparison with seat belts is fairly pointless since driving is not a leisure pursuit for most and therefore the population level benefit is much more cut and dry. The North American resorts making helmets compulsory for resort staff is much more analogous to seat belts. At an individual level the lifty may choose to go without a helmet due to convenience but at a population level it is beneficial for every member to force helmet use and, as with seat belts, by making them compulsory the personal influence of convenience is taken out of the individuals control.
(Essay over! Stats are much more interesting than ski helmet debates)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Yes you should get yourself a helmet.
Not from a perspective of a retailer.. but simply as a person that has seen enough accidents to know it makes no sense to save your money in this area.
If you have any questions regarding helmets then please feel free to email us at sales@snowtraxstore.co.uk
Thank you
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| andy_snow_web wrote: |
Yes you should get yourself a helmet.
Not from a perspective of a retailer.. but simply as a person that has seen enough accidents to know it makes no sense to save your money in this area.
If you have any questions regarding helmets then please feel free to email us at sales@snowtraxstore.co.uk
Thank you |
Anecdote ≠ Evidence
I wouldn't trust any advice on helmets from this guy after those dubious statements 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Flet©h wrote: |
| andy_snow_web wrote: |
Yes you should get yourself a helmet.
Not from a perspective of a retailer.. but simply as a person that has seen enough accidents to know it makes no sense to save your money in this area.
If you have any questions regarding helmets then please feel free to email us at sales@snowtraxstore.co.uk
Thank you |
Anecdote ≠ Evidence
I wouldn't trust any advice on helmets from this guy after those dubious statements |
Sorry,
I feel that my reply was a helpful response from an honest retailer.
In the past 6 years i have worked within the Ski industry I have personally seen a massive increase in the amount of helmets we sell, and indeed the popularity of Helmets world wide. It is only the UK, in my personal opinion, that has been so slow to pick up on the safety advantages of helmets.
You don't have to buy a helmet. It isn't law for adults to wear them.
As I stated previously, if you would like any assistance with any of the helmets that we stock then please email us. We are always happy to help.
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yes. I have for years. My bald head gets cold and wooly hats itch
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FAQ
