I became a helmet wearer two years ago - mainly because I was making the kids wear one, and was struggling with the ‘why is it ok for you to get brain damage and not us’, and partly as we were in Jasper at the end of the season and they were offering them at deep discounts! Wouldn’t be without it now. My wife dug her heels in though - until Natasha Richardsons accident last year - although dreadful for her family I do wonder whether one of her legacies will be changing the mindset of thousands of skiers - our local ski shop had sold out within a week or so.

Hi,

I must admit I am on the fence when it comes to my noggin and helmets, I read somewhere that a collision at a speed as low as 12mph can be fatal and I certainly feel for children etc it is a must piece of kit.I suppose they will grow up thinking nothing of wearing a helmet ,and it’s probably us oldies who are maybe more reluctant to start.

Also as I wear a welding mask most days at work when I am not working the last thing I want is another hat…......and if i am unlucky enough to have an accident while skiing .....it’s gotta be better than dropping down dead at work,I’d be happy to go that way.

jon.

Please grow up everyone.

Yes you probably will be safer if you wear a helmet whilst skiing but you will also be safer if you wear a helmet whilst crossing the road, just walking down the street or even driving a car and would you wear one in those circumstances?
And while you’re buying your helmet why not get the body armour and wrist protectors that some boarders wear?

The issue is not whether helmets are safer but whether they offer a significant benefit (A few anecdotes do not make a case).
Where are you going to draw the line?

There are also a couple of other considerations:
Firstly there is the evidence that people are faster and more reckless when wearing a helmet and secondly a certain amount of fear is part of the joy of skiing. Personally, although I still love skiing, I don’t love it as much as when every black run scared me.

P.S. There are times when the number of people on the slopes scares me now but my response to that is not to wear a helmet it’s to go somewhere else.

I personally love wearing my helmet, it’s a lot cosier than wearing a bennie and in a wet snow storm doesn’t get sopping wet (although make sure the vents are closed first ).

As Chris points out, it’s a lot harder to loose your goggles when they’re attached to the back of your helmet; and when sitting at the bar , it’s a great place to store your gloves. Out of my group there is only three of us who wear helmets (none of us are off-pisters, we just like the concept that our heads are more protected with the helmet).  I’ve not noticed a tendancy with myself to ski any faster than without a helmet.

Yet another helmet discussion. I usually let these go by but I fancied a bit of a rant!

Wearing a helmet is a personal choice and unless compulsory, should remain so. The anti-helmet brigade seem to get all defensive as they appear to think they are being pressured into doing so. This is not the case - I couldn’t care less if you wear a helmet or not. What is annoying is when people decide not to wear a helmet and then find some pseudo-science/random spurious anecdote/something their Aunt Audrey told them once to justify themselves. That is not the way scientific evidence works.

So what if someone died in their kitchen as mentioned above? I can imagine the odds of that happening are minuscule. As someone sensibly pointed out higher up the thread, wearing safety equipment such as a helmet must be weighed up against the likely risk. So, no, there is no need to wear a helmet to cover any old stupid anecdotal accident with a very low probability of occurring. Skiing is a riskier activity than most in relative terms, hence some people make the choice of wearing a helmet. Yes, some skiers/boarders put themselves at greater risk than others, but if we are allowed to generalise then as a whole it can be considered an activity with some risk of suffering a head injury.

The other favourite of the helmet-haters is the idea that wearing a helmet making you take more risks. There is no sound empirical evidence of this. Being from a scientific background I can assure you any research of this type would be extremely difficult to reliably carry out plus would probably not get past any ethics approval if you tried to do it properly (i.e. try to induce accidents). All sound medical evidence suggests helmet use reduces, in some instances, the chance of head injury. Not increase the risk of head injury. I have read studies that suggest that the incidence of whiplash type injuries might be increased by helmet use - however, these are unlikely to be fatal.

So Don and Richard - I am not preaching to you that you should wear a helmet. That is entirely your own choice and everyone should respect that. But please spare us the weak arguments you use to justify your choice. The fact you have made a choice should be justification enough. The fact you see yourselves as ‘low-risk’ skiers is irrelevant. My own experience was that my worse head impact by far (which prompted me to get a helmet) was not charging off-piste, but catching an edge accidentally on an icy flat section coming up to lift at the bottom of a resort. Would you suggest an elderly driver, that only does a short local journey once a week to pick up their pension, should not wear a seatbelt? Maybe you would.

“So Don and Richard .... ” (last paragraph in nvel75’s post just previous)

There are some posts missing from this topic (and possibly from the neighbouring topic that Clint started, called just “Helmets”). SPAM ISSUES in the Site Display Problems section explains what happened.