 Poster: A snowHead
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One country where helmets are discussed more than any other is Canada. Last November, the government of Nova Scotia made it illegal ski without a helmet. The question now is ... how far will the law spread this compulsion?
This well-researched article on the Pique website may hold some clues:
In helmets we trust?
http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/in-helmets-we-trust/Content?oid=2455758&storyPage=1
It's tempting to selectively quote from the text, which makes some very interesting points. Better, perhaps, to read most of it. The focus - correctly - is on the issue of concussion.
One way to avoid concussion is to minimise the risk of falling or hitting fixed obstacles.
Anyone got any up-to-date data on helmet sales trends and trends in fatal/concussion head trauma?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Interesting article. I wear a helmet; even on the Dendex at Hillend. As a (motor) biker I would never consider riding without my helmet. Since helmets were made compulsory, using comparable metrics, deaths from head injuries have reduced. However, bike helmets MUST conform to a BSI/Euro standard and must be marked as such. If I am caught riding a bike with a helmet but it isn't appropriately marked, then in the eyes of the law I'm considered not to be wearing one. If legislators are going to make helmet wear mandatory for skiing then they first need to set a standard for what constitutes a helmet and the level of protection that it needs to provide. Without that standard there would be nothing to stop me strapping a plastic salad bowl to my head and claiming it is a helmet.
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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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Gaza, you'd get nicked by the fashion police!!
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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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What my plastic salad bowl doesn't count as a helmet damn 
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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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Is this better than a plastic salad bowl ?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Beautifully knitted, DB.
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| Is this better than a plastic salad bowl ? |
Please don't ski into a tree to find out. Alternatively ... 'Why not spend half an hour in the Mooservirt to find out?'
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The bowl would need a lettuce of vents.
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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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| Comedy Goldsmith wrote: |
| One way to avoid concussion is to minimise the risk of falling or hitting fixed obstacles. |
Back to my armchair, then  . Oh, for a life of perfection!
Taking a parallel from the world of banking and credit losses, you deal with your EXPECTED injury risk by choosing to ski an appropriate part of the mountain at an appropriate speed having appropriate regard to your equipment, experience and skill. You'll struggle to find any leisure skiers who EXPECT to rely on protective equipment like helmets.
Helmets deal with your UNEXPECTED injury risk - the chance that you might have misjudged the snow conditions, grossly over-estimated your ability, encountered another skier who has completely lost control, or simply made a totally uncharacteristic and really dumb mistake in the middle of a high speed manoeuvre.
I never EXPECT to fall or hit a fixed obstacle, and I take care to ski within my abilities. But I recognise that, unlike some snowHeads (oh, to reach Comedy Goldsmith's level of self-awareness!), I'm not a perfect skier and I sometimes make mistakes. My helmet will never protect me against all of the bad things that could unexpectedly happen to me. It was no help when a moose unexpectedly dashed out of the trees and stood directly in my path during a high-speed schuss earlier this year, for example.
For me, it's enough that that my helmet will undoubtedly protect me against some of those unexpected events. It also helps that helmets are much more comfortable and rather less of a fashion disaster than your average woolly hat.
[mutters to self, 'Why do I always feed trolls. Grrr!']
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Don't you just love the stereotypical Weegie Jakey! White trackie bottoms and trainers. All that is missing is the baseball cap.
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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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The article that Comedy Goldsmith cites is the second half of a long and thought-provoking feature on concussions - which occur quite frequently in Whistler, among skiers, climbers, mountain bikers and hockey players: I read the first half when I was out there, recently: it focussed on the long-term effects of concussion and recovery therefrom and is well worth looking up and reading online.
What's interesting is that - from my observation - only about 2% of skiers in Whistler DON'T wear helmets (which are not obligatory, except - I think - for kids in ski school). So if BC (or Canada) were to introduce a law mandating helmet wear, it wouldn't make a significant , er, impact on skier behaviour.
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Acacia, thanks for the reminder. Yes, the journalist who wrote the article linked to in the opening post - Alison Taylor - wrote this earlier article about concussion and why it should be avoided ...
Lives Unravelling
Whistler's concussion victims face a long road to recovery
http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/lives-unravelling/Content?oid=2455087&storyPage=1
Jonny Jones, I can see why it could be interpreted as a troll, but it wasn't intended that way. It's a genuinely-felt point.
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You know it makes sense.
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Comedy Goldsmith, apologies if you weren't intending to troll. I have to say that the article itself is very interesting and reinforces my view that, by wearing a helmet, I have absolutely nothing to lose but that I have a possibility - albeit remote - of saving myself from spending the rest of my life being fed puréed food in a care home. The medical guys cited are pretty unanimous in their support of head protection, and their main complaint - that it's not easy to tell whether your helmet is as good as it could be - is interesting.
I simply don't buy the argument that I'd be less likely to bang my head if I wore a hat instead of a helmet any more than I buy the argument that I'd be less likely to die in a car crash if I had a halberd sticking out of my steering wheel.
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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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This is an interesting and intuitively sensible statement from the second (first?) article:
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| When the weather is right —clear skies, great visibility, hard snow conditions — the injuries are more frequent. |
It's always surprised me that helmets are visibly more common on lifts that serve largely ungroomed terrain when hard snow - the surface that your head is most likely to hit at speed - is much more common on groomed runs. The people who most need to wear helmets are high-speed piste cruisers, not gnarly lovers of powder, moguls and trees.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I think by & large there isn't a helmet debate anymore in N America, the vast majority of people wear them and those that don't are generally at the lower end of the skill/snow days/tourist spectrum plus a few old skool & veteran holdouts.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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What happens if you find religion and become a Pastafarian?
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