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Does anybody still not wear a helmet???

WJenness

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Oct 18, 2007
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Just thought I'd chime in on this one since it's super relevant.

Friday at Saddleback, I panicked while approaching a 4' or so drop coming out of a little woods shot right by the bottom station of the Kennebago quad... I don't know how, but in trying to check my speed so as not to get launched into the air and land on flat hardpack, I ended up going down pretty hard and smacking the back of my head...

I cracked the lining of the helmet (I'll get a pic to put up here tonight), broke the adjustable part inside (my helmet has this floating piece that moves when you turn a dial for fine size adjustment... that part snapped off), and was out cold for what I'm told was three to four minutes before coming to. I had a conversation with a ski patroller and a couple other skiers that I do not remember AT ALL. I was apparently coherent enough that I was able to convince people to let me still ski.

We skied one more run through Casablanca which I don't remember at all (except for one moment of clarity when skiing down where I realized 'shit, I have no idea who I'm supposed to be staying with at Sugarloaf... Also, where is my car?'), I guess I was skiing SUPER slow and the folks I was with started worrying about me.

The next thing I clearly remember was WoodCore telling me 'you should really be done skiing for the day' (I wholeheartedly agreed with him) when we got out of the woods. I skied down to the lodge from there with a wicked headache and my back hurting. After sitting in the lodge for a while and drinking some water, I began to return to coherent thoughts...

My back continued to hurt throughout the day on Saturday (enough that I didn't go back out after lunch), and bothered me a little bit yesterday...

I'm VERY thankful that I was wearing my helmet, because I suspect the kind of fall I took was similar to the one that killed Natasha Richardson a couple of years ago. (I have no info to back this up, but I can see how much more serious my injury COULD have been without the helmet)... I'm not anxious to repeat the fall without a helmet on to see if I'm correct (obviously), but this incident further cemented my desire to always ski with a helmet.

I ordered a new helmet online last night.

-w
 

WJenness

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Messages
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Location
Lowell, MA
Bump (pun intentional):

I'm now SUPER thankful that I didn't fall on my head again over the weekend...

When I was walking out of the office for lunch, I lightly bumped (more of a graze than anything else) my head on the door and got an INSTANT (mild) headache and a bit of nausea...

I thought I was fine... Now, I'm not so sure.

I've got an appointment for a physical with my doc on Friday anyway, so we'll be talking head injuries... yay.

-w
 

hammer

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Apr 28, 2004
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Location
flatlands of Mass.
Bump (pun intentional):

I'm now SUPER thankful that I didn't fall on my head again over the weekend...

When I was walking out of the office for lunch, I lightly bumped (more of a graze than anything else) my head on the door and got an INSTANT (mild) headache and a bit of nausea...

I thought I was fine... Now, I'm not so sure.

I've got an appointment for a physical with my doc on Friday anyway, so we'll be talking head injuries... yay.

-w
I know you have an appointment to see the doctor, but next time you may want to consider a visit to the ER if you take a bad enough hit to knock you out cold with a helmet on. Concussions are serious shti...

Just saying...

Good decision to wear a helmet and an equally good one to make sure you retire the old one. It did its job.
 

billski

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North Reading, Mass.
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Bump (pun intentional):

I'm now SUPER thankful that I didn't fall on my head again over the weekend...

When I was walking out of the office for lunch, I lightly bumped (more of a graze than anything else) my head on the door and got an INSTANT (mild) headache and a bit of nausea...

I thought I was fine... Now, I'm not so sure.

I've got an appointment for a physical with my doc on Friday anyway, so we'll be talking head injuries... yay.

-w

No MD here, but been through that before. You at least have a mild concussion. And don't get it whacked again for at least 3 months, so my neurologist said to me. It will make it much worse. The headache was your warning. No fooling around. Don't be surprised if your internist sends you for a neuro workup.
 

Nick

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Bump (pun intentional):

I'm now SUPER thankful that I didn't fall on my head again over the weekend...

When I was walking out of the office for lunch, I lightly bumped (more of a graze than anything else) my head on the door and got an INSTANT (mild) headache and a bit of nausea...

I thought I was fine... Now, I'm not so sure.

I've got an appointment for a physical with my doc on Friday anyway, so we'll be talking head injuries... yay.

-w

Wow, yeah take it easy. When I was a kid I wrecked my bike on a neighbors lawn and went unconcious for a few minutes. I went to the hospital and they did a CT scan, everything was fine but I remember being totally zoned out afterwards and dazed. I went to the door and asked the lady to call my parents who picked me up but I don't actually remember any of that either.

I was wearing a helmet on the bike, thankfully as well .

I'm gonna have to start looking into them.
 

billski

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Black is in next year. Wear this one the beginner's slope your're sure to scare the cr*p out of the young-uns

MasterReplica_DarthVaderHelmet1.jpg
 

WJenness

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Oct 18, 2007
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Lowell, MA
I know you have an appointment to see the doctor, but next time you may want to consider a visit to the ER if you take a bad enough hit to knock you out cold with a helmet on. Concussions are serious shti...

Just saying...

Good decision to wear a helmet and an equally good one to make sure you retire the old one. It did its job.

Totally agreed...

I don't think I was really coherent enough to understand how seriously I probably had hurt myself at first... It took a lot of talking to people after the fact before I was even convinced that I had been out...

-w
 

o3jeff

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Mar 12, 2007
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Southington, CT
Bump (pun intentional):

I'm now SUPER thankful that I didn't fall on my head again over the weekend...

When I was walking out of the office for lunch, I lightly bumped (more of a graze than anything else) my head on the door and got an INSTANT (mild) headache and a bit of nausea...

I thought I was fine... Now, I'm not so sure.

I've got an appointment for a physical with my doc on Friday anyway, so we'll be talking head injuries... yay.

-w

Hopefully it's nothing too serious.
 

WJenness

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Lowell, MA
Hopefully it's nothing too serious.

I work in a pediatric practice, so I just had a chat with a bunch of the docs here...

The consensus was that I should take it easy (not play soccer tonight) and monitor... once symptom free for 24 hours, try some light exercise (elliptical, jogging, etc.) and see how that goes... if that's fine step it up again (lift some weights, running, etc.)...

I mentioned I was thinking of skiing on Sunday and I was told that if I can work out and be symptom free a couple times between now and then that it was cool to give it a shot, but to stop immediately if I felt dizzy, got a headache, nausea, etc...

So good news...

-w
 

WJenness

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The carnage:

The two lines are cracks through the plastic:

2011-03-29_17-37-27_374.jpg


I don't know if it's what did the damage or not, but they seem to line up exactly with the heel piece of my binding... I'm not sure how I could have done that, but I guess it's a possibility.

Here you can see the crack in the foam, as well as the break on the adjustable piece:
2011-03-29_17-37-44_288.jpg


This last one is just to show how deep it goes through the foam:

2011-03-29_17-37-54_879.jpg



If anyone's looking for a helmet, REI has a good deal on Giro Omens ($129ish) through their website right now... They list normally for $200.

-w
 

planb420

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Nov 30, 2010
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Winsted, CT
Sans helmet here....I have an old RED Skycap for competitions that make it maditory for helmet use but otherwise it gathers MAD DUST all the time....
picture.php
 

Terry

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May 9, 2004
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Fryeburg Maine
Just thought I'd chime in on this one since it's super relevant.

Friday at Saddleback, I panicked while approaching a 4' or so drop coming out of a little woods shot right by the bottom station of the Kennebago quad... I don't know how, but in trying to check my speed so as not to get launched into the air and land on flat hardpack, I ended up going down pretty hard and smacking the back of my head...

I cracked the lining of the helmet (I'll get a pic to put up here tonight), broke the adjustable part inside (my helmet has this floating piece that moves when you turn a dial for fine size adjustment... that part snapped off), and was out cold for what I'm told was three to four minutes before coming to. I had a conversation with a ski patroller and a couple other skiers that I do not remember AT ALL. I was apparently coherent enough that I was able to convince people to let me still ski.

We skied one more run through Casablanca which I don't remember at all (except for one moment of clarity when skiing down where I realized 'shit, I have no idea who I'm supposed to be staying with at Sugarloaf... Also, where is my car?'), I guess I was skiing SUPER slow and the folks I was with started worrying about me.

The next thing I clearly remember was WoodCore telling me 'you should really be done skiing for the day' (I wholeheartedly agreed with him) when we got out of the woods. I skied down to the lodge from there with a wicked headache and my back hurting. After sitting in the lodge for a while and drinking some water, I began to return to coherent thoughts...

My back continued to hurt throughout the day on Saturday (enough that I didn't go back out after lunch), and bothered me a little bit yesterday...

I'm VERY thankful that I was wearing my helmet, because I suspect the kind of fall I took was similar to the one that killed Natasha Richardson a couple of years ago. (I have no info to back this up, but I can see how much more serious my injury COULD have been without the helmet)... I'm not anxious to repeat the fall without a helmet on to see if I'm correct (obviously), but this incident further cemented my desire to always ski with a helmet.

I ordered a new helmet online last night.

-w
My wife and a friend are the ones who talked to you after the crash. She didn't actually see you fall but said you were laying face down and out cold when they got to you. A ski patroller happened to be right there and my wife went to get him. You woke up right as the ski patroller got there. You insisted that you were ok and refused treatment.
 

Nick

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My wife and a friend are the ones who talked to you after the crash. She didn't actually see you fall but said you were laying face down and out cold when they got to you. A ski patroller happened to be right there and my wife went to get him. You woke up right as the ski patroller got there. You insisted that you were ok and refused treatment.

Wow.

WJenness - That crack on the back really does look like the width of a ski, doesn't it. Did you say you held it up and they matched up? Had your skis come off?
 

Glenn

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It's a personal choice. I opt to wear a hat with earflaps instead. I think it should be up to the individual.

To wear or not to wear is akin to a political debate. People get fired up, post a lot of reasons. But in the end, no one changes their mind.
 

Cannonball

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Sans helmet here....I have an old RED Skycap for competitions that make it maditory for helmet use but otherwise it gathers MAD DUST all the time....

Can I ask why? I am always surprised to see how many park riders don't wear helmets. That seems like the most important place to have one. I've always wanted to hear a good reason for it, now is my chance. So what is it?
 
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