Comments on: My Skid Lid — A Guest Blogger’s Take on Helmets

By: smitty

smitty — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:32:53 +0000

This past summer I took a nasty spill over the handle bars of my mountain bike, somehow didn’t get my hands down and face-planted onto a few rocks. This was on the Monarch Crest trail. I had a helmet on, but still had a concussion. Also fractured my eye socket and cheek bone, each in two different places. Two titanium plates now hold my orbital together. My surgeon recommends a full face helmet and I would have to agree, especially if you’re charging hard and taking risks. I was lucky to have good health insurance.

Purchased the Smith x Troy Lee Design full face helmet today.

http://www.smithoptics.com/Smith-x-Troy-Lee-Designs_72_657.html

I’m a little worried about my goggles fogging because of the helmet, but I think all will be fine.

By: Lou

Lou — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:38:56 +0000

I forgot the wrist guards.

By: Colin

Colin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:26:39 +0000

If I had adamantium claws, it’s likely that my body was able to heal itself from having the adamantium fused to my skeleton. Thus I really wouldn’t be worried about ski injuries, and I’d be more worried about saving the world from bad guys. :-)

Unfortunately, I don’t have adamantium claws.

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I haven’t really considered a mouthguard, but I have considered a full-face. A knee to the mouth has the potential to wreck a couple grand in orthodontic work. I’m saying this as somebody who may drop 15-ish foot cliffs and who teles (if that matters). FF helmets are warm too, and I’m pretty sure they offer more overall head protection than your standard Giro Fuse/G10/Smith Variant, etc. I’m thinking along the lines of the Giro Remedy, SixSixOne, Sweet, etc. I’m also really just thinking of inbounds too, in that when I’m BC skiing I generally ski more cautiously, and I really don’t want to lug a FF around.

Just some thoughts.

By: dave downing

dave downing — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:17:35 +0000

You definitely have to draw the line somewhere on everything you wear to protect yourself. A back guard? Shoulder pads? Adamantium claws? Wrist Guards?

By: Lou

Lou — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:03:55 +0000

Jerimy and associated commments bring up an interesting issue, in that safety gear could be somewhat a matter of style and trend as much as actually being effective in preventing injury. Knees are the best example in my opinion. We seem to have come to accept that ski bindings frequently do not prevent serious and sometimes even career ending knee injury, yet we spend hours debating and discussing how to strap an inch of Styrofoam around our skull that is proven to have little protection against the more powerful variety of impact.

And in a greater sense, what probability of injury type do we accept when it comes to teeth or whatever, do we choose safety gear based on style and peer pressure or because we really think it’s likely to save our behinds?

Another item that’s worthy of discussion is avy gear. Avalung? Airbag?

It’s actually already gotten to the point where you’d have trouble carrying all the stuff you can buy for your personal safety in the backcountry:

A few things I can think of: Avalung, avy-airbag, Spot messenger, PLB, GPS, satphone, kneepads, helmet, mouthguard, kneebraces, bivvy sack, 2-way radio…