[Closed] Dumb ass skiing question,,,

Need? No.

Lots of people wear them though.

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I [s]would[/s] do.

I'm going to Andorra next week, they'll be 8 of us and we all will be wearing helmets, 4 adults and 4 kids. They're cool don't you know!! 😀

Ads, give him a wave if you see him, he is the fastest snowplower in the west :D.
Recommended then rather than legally required?

Yeah no legal requirement but can be useful. Same as with bike helmets though, some people just don't like them.

Edit: Actually, if he wants to play in the freestyle parks he'll need a helmet. No helmet no 1080 mctwist's! What ever that means....

I reckon Michael Schumacher has done more for snow sport helmet sales than he ever did for any of the products he promoted as a racing driver. 🙁

Just don't be tempted to mount your GoPro on top of it.

I suppose the TJ argument would be along the lines of: Schumacher - better dead (if he wasn't wearing one) or alive (and not in great nic having worn one). But I [s]would[/s] do take the option of wearing a helmet every time.

Can of worms indeed...

I didn't used to, then about 3 years ago I started going skiing by myself so thought it would be sensible.

Last Monday at Glenshee on an easy slope, I wasn't paying attention, got one ski on the other and headbutted the slope which was very solid ice.

Properly concussed and had slurred speech the next day. My helmet has a nice dent in the front of it.

I'm not going to do the whole "If I hadn't been wearing a helmet I wouldn't be here" thing. But as you usually wear a hat when skiing anyway, wearing a hat with a hard shell is no bother and might just be beneficial.

Mine was £20 from Sports Direct, and it's fine. Need a new one now though!

They are warm as toast as well. Maybe a bit too warm for a sunny day at the end of March, but a real boon at this time of year. And they're good for carrying your goggles.
Just do it.

I suppose the TJ argument would be along the lines of: Schumacher - better dead (if he wasn't wearing one) or alive (and not in great nic having worn one). But I would do take the option of wearing a helmet every time.

It is suggested that the presence of the sports camera on MS's helmet affected how it absorbed (or didn't as effectively as it could have done) the energy in the crash.

You don't need a helmet in Andorra , the snow is really soft. Break a leg.

Didn't wear one when I was learning as a kid, but wear one now, along with about 90% of other people on the hill (Whistler). If nothing else they've got built in ear warmers.

They've been increasing in popularity for a few years now. I now wear one having seen a few nasty crashes.
The only negatives I can think of are initial cost, potential cost of buying new goggles or shades to fit helmet and if it's really really hot you might feel too warm.
It's personal choice but I don't see why wearing one is a problem or why it upsets the anti-helmet contingent so much

Tandem Jeremy to the forum!!!!

No, but it's his/your choice

Need? No. But I wouldn't be without mine any more.

Looks like I'm off to outdoor action in blackburn tomorrow morning then. Thanks for the input folkes.

I wear one as it allows me to go faster and take much bigger risks than I'd be comfortable doing bareheaded. 😉

I thought I'd hate wearing a helmet, but it is warm, dry, keeps my goggles secure and means I'm less bothered when some uncoordinated muppet twots me with a ski pole in the lift line.

Biggest reason to wear them is that everyone else is wearing them and being hit on the bare head by a helmet would really hurt!

I wear a £25 bmx helmet for snowboarding - although to be fair theres a lot more variety of ski hemlets than there was 5-6 years ago and they're getting more sensibly priced.

Would he wear one riding a bike? Rules are the same for me and mine.
North American ski schools do require helmets for minors.

Skipped out on the board in crap light on ice the day a got my helmet. Hit the back of my head so hard it felt like I broke my nose. Helmet was broke (4" crack in the back), head wasn't. I bought a new helmet that evening. Never been out without one since.

Like biking helmets I don't think there is currently a shred of evidence/research either way.

Personally I think they encourage people to ski / board like morons.

FunkyDunc - Member
Like biking helmets I don't think there is currently a shred of evidence/research either way.

Personally I think they encourage people to ski / board like morons.

I'm sure there are morons in the world. My evidence is the 4" crack in the lid from a slip that would have been my skull. Most other organs heal better than the brain.

Personally I think they encourage people to ski / board like morons.

No, I ski equally badly with or without my helmet.

I can see the use for boarding (due to the way and frequency boarders fall) , for skiing it less useful. Head injuries are very rare and IIRC in all the recent high profile accidents the skier was wearing a helmet.

This article raises some interesting questions :

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/sports/on-slopes-rise-in-helmet-use-but-no-decline-in-brain-injuries.html?referrer=&_r=0

I don't wear one. I ski very much within myself and haven't felt the need, certainly no animosity toward those who do! Definitely in the minority these days.

I'm not going to make any for/against comment.

All I will add is if he is going to have lessons, wearing a helmet MIGHT be a requirement of the ski school. might be a function of his age.

If having lessons, you could check with the ski school.

Cheers

Witnessed the aftermath of a collision where 2 skiers had a bit of a head on coming together and headbutted each other. The guy in the helmet had a broken nose, the guy without was dead.

I'm comfortable that I don't need one for me, but the pistes are busy and there are some spectacular nobheads on them. I wear one because of them.

shades to fit helmet

Keeps your head warm and might save your life. What's not to like?

A little like with cycling , I wear one most of the time, especially in the park or when 'freeriding'. Crusing groomers though I often don't. No logic behind it really I'm afraid.

I really don't think they make people ski or board like morons though. They are just morons

I learned to snowboard in 1991 and I've almost always worn one. On the few occasions that I've worn a hat, I find that my goggles would steam up really easily, especially when putting them up on my forehead.

The most important thing is to make sure there's absolutely no gap between the helmet and goggles.

The brain damage study is interesting but there's a whole range of injuries a helmet WILL protect against. My Mrs got hammered by a platter lift t'other day (the guy coming up.behind her let his go way too soon so it was retracting at speed). The impact was enough to put a dent in her helmet. I don't think it would have been life threatening without but for the cost and supposed inconvenience why risk spoiling your day/holiday?

Back in my day nothing said pro more than a helmet hanging off your backpack as you go though check in.
Tell him the sticker job is the most important factor, never should ski and snowboard brands mix.

If he's a kid some resorts may have a helmet rule. Though it's more the case in North America.

Out of interest, ask the question in North America and everyone would think you're daft for asking. It's just the norm now for most to wear them except for old folk or in posh resorts.

Anyway, my unproven example is a friend wearing a helmet smacked his head on a slab of ice and ended up with brain fluid leaking from his nose. The old "had he not been wearing a helmet" is that back of his skull could have been smashed in and far worse result. Purely opinion and unproven of course.

Me, I've had a few occasions of slamming my head down hard on hard slopes, and yes while skiing, and combined with mostly used to skiing in North America, it's just normal for me to wear one. Plus they're fairly stylish these days and keep my head warm.

Plus gives you that Enduro look 😉

I wear one, mainly in case someone else ploughs into me, which does happen as a minority of skiers seem to enjoy skiing outside their ability envelope on busy pistes and do go ploughing into the back / side of people on pistes.

Like biking helmets I don't think there is currently a shred of evidence/research either way.

Personally I think they encourage people to ski / board like morons.

They may give you protection against minor bumps but I don't think they are very strong and so I don't think they would give you any protection against the kind of impact that Schumacher suffered. Has anybody actually seen the boulder field he was traversing when he hit the rock? Cutting across there wasn't necessary as it was just an "island" in the middle of a wide piste.

To give adequate protection against nutting a rock at speed the helmet would need to be built like a motorcyling helmet, which is too heavy.

I had a very painful crash on New Years eve, didn't spot a hole in poor light and got thrown forward like going over the bars of a bike. Landed very heavily on my head and shoulder on a well packed path and I was seeing stars....Hurt like hell! Theres no indication of the impact on the helmet, but my head was sore for a week afterwards. I suspect it would have been even worse without it.

(got a torn rotator cuff too 😥

Still....only 22 days before Im out there again! 🙂

Never have before, going to now, partly because I'm going skiing with my daughter and since I'm going to insist she wears one I have to also.

Am a bit concerned about a) the heat in the spring b) how it's going to with my prescription glasses.

I concur that glasses + helmet is a big fat NO but do I get a bye for prescription glasses? In goggles they fog up.

I wear prescription Oakley Windjackets with a helmet works really well.

Am a bit concerned about a) the heat in the spring b) how it's going to with my prescription glasses.

I've got a pair of Cebe OTG goggles and suffer no fogging problems at all except occasional when I'm stopped. As soon as I get moving again their fine. FWIW I did ski occasionally last year with prescription glasses and no goggles and it was fine. May of looked daft but no problems caused by the helmet.

Tried contacts?

I use disposable daily contacts for snowboarding, biking and other sports. Whole lot easier, if you can tolerate them.

Windjackets (I'm the one with the beard)

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IIRC in all the recent high profile accidents the skier was wearing a helmet.

Never did but would now.

Having whacked my head on a pile of ploughed snow (actually ice boulders by that point in the season) following a slip on a random ice patch I know how much better it is to just bounce back up and get on with your day rather than nurse a splitting headache.

Bear in mind that once out there the learning curve is very steep, when I was learning with the ESF we were only on the slopes for a couple of days before getting taken down all the fun backwoods stuff. Don't get me wrong, they don't take you beyond your abilities but they do encourage progression. It's only inevitable that [i]someone[/i] will do the comedy 'wrap yourself round a tree' manoeuvre.

Natasha Richardson - on beginner slopes?

IIRC in all the recent high profile accidents the skier was wearing a helmet.

Or "person dies from head injury whilst wearing no helmet" is considered less newsworthy for some strange reason?

Does anyone know if ski helmets are like Motorbike helmets, in that they should be replaced after a big impact?

Or..... are they simply plastic shells with foam linings?

a few years back i whilst on a blue slope i caught the edge of the board and without warning went flying backwards. i came to ( no idea how long i had been lying there..... five minutes? more likely 30 secs, but still.....) not knowing where i was. took me a minute or two to compose myself. got to the bottom and removed my helmet to find a 12cm crack in the back of of it.

wasn't caning it or showing off. was literally JRA.

the number of folks wearing helmets now outweighs those without in the German and Austrian resorts i visit. for this reason as much as any i would say it is worth wearing a helmet. i'm quite confident on my board, i'm less confident ion other people's ability to stop in time.

the pros outweigh the cons as far as i am concerned....
warm noggin. doesn't slip like a beanie. no cold forhead due to a gap (obviously depends on the helmet/goggles combo) letting in wind. safer.

Skiing in Scotland I got a bit nervous of the rocky patches in the thin "snow" (read "ice") I encountered as a beginner, so I wear a helmet.

This is not scientific but tbh it's that or a hat, why not wear one*

* Yeah I would like to see some hard data to at least back up the "if you crash you'll die less with a helmet on" assumption - not too bothered by the "skiing with a helmet on will make you ski like a moron" as I'm not very good at skiing anyway, hence the helmet.

Rockape63 - Member

Does anyone know if ski helmets are like Motorbike helmets, in that they should be replaced after a big impact?

Or..... are they simply plastic shells with foam linings?

They're usually expanded polystyrene foam, same as cycle helmets. These should also be replaced after a big impact.

The foam compresses, as designed, and becomes ineffective in a big smash. The outer shell is more solid with a ski helmet and less just a thin bonded layer on the foam, so less likely the foam will crack in a smaller impact like cycle helmets can do, but still it would be worth checking for cracks.

Ski helmets serve additional functions though. They usually have a warm fleece liner, ear coverings and sometimes adjustable vents, which along with the larger head coverage shape all helps keep the head warm. Which is one of the major reasons I wear them. A white out blizzard in freezing conditions is miserable with a woolly hat.

Oh and goggles fit them quite well.