Safety Less Speed vs Helmets

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Which is more important to improve skier/snowboarder safety less speed or helmet use?

Given that velocity is squared in the following formula for kinetic energy, mass, and speed, I would think slowing your speed down is more important for safety versus wearing a helmet. Its not like you can square your helmet use by wearing two helmets.

I have no idea..I just like to ski as fast as I can....that was the case before I had a helmet and now that I have one!!!!

 

[campgottagopee]

If you race or do the parks you need one. Enjoy the sport slow down a cruve some turns. Skier and rider awareness. I didn't need a helmet 40 years ago. Instructors teach need to teach how to fall and ski and ride under conrtol and enjoy the sport. Since the new grooming has come of age everyone races down the slopes. Skiing and riding is not a race it's a art to curve turns under control. More bumps and less grooming.[/QUOTE]

The CLITS are gonna love you :razz:

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

This thread is worthless without pictures!!!!

 

[ski220]

Helmets are way OVERrated. Skiing in control is way UNDERrated. The worst ski accident that I've seen was where one women wearing a helmet ran into a girl that was not wearing one. The poor girl had still not regained consciousness by the time the medivac helicopter evacuated her. Does this mean that we should all be wearing helmets or ... skiing under control? I think most people that wear helmets have a false sense of security. Since most skiing injuries these days are knee injuries maybe we should all be wearing knee braces?

I've sustained 4 serious head injuries in my life and none have been from skiing.

 

[boston_e]

Skiing in control is much more important for your saftey than wearing a helmet is.

I'll make a blanket statement that will piss a lot of people off, but from my observation more people without helmets are skiing in control than people with helmets.

A helmet does not make you impervious to injury and give you the right to ski out of control thus endangering yourselves and others.

 

[catskills]

Skiing in control is much more important for your saftey than wearing a helmet is.

I'll make a blanket statement that will piss a lot of people off, but from my observation more people without helmets are skiing in control than people with helmets.

A helmet does not make you impervious to injury and give you the right to ski out of control thus endangering yourselves and others.

Interesting observation. So your saying those people that ski out of control on blue groomers know they ski out of control and make up for it by buying a helmet and telling everyone else why its soooo important to purchase and wear a helmet. Makes sense to me. I think you might have something here.

When you read forums that say you must wear a helmet and there should be a law to force you to wear a helmet, what they are really saying is I ski out of control so much that I really need you to please wear a helmet so I don't hurt you. Well I guess its mighty nice of them to think of my safety.

Next season I am going to keep count how many out of control skiers and riders I see with and without helmets. No counts on green trails.

 

[tirolerpeter]

Skiing in control is much more important for your saftey than wearing a helmet is.

I'll make a blanket statement that will piss a lot of people off, but from my observation more people without helmets are skiing in control than people with helmets.

A helmet does not make you impervious to injury and give you the right to ski out of control thus endangering yourselves and others.

I'm not pissed off, but I am amazed at your comment. This is the kind of drivel that I have heard regarding safety issues for decades. I heard similar crap for many years from people justifying not wearing seat belts while driving or riding in cars. I have heard similar stupidity from motorcyle riders. I now live in UT where there is no helmet law. Every time I see a bare-headed biker I think "organ doner." The concept that a skier could learn how to fall "properly" is absurd. I ski all types of terrain, some of which is considered "extreme." I would not want to chance a fall without a helmet. I have seen very severe injuries on slopes that I would characterize as "bunny slopes." There is simply now way to anticipate all hazards and how they could make you fall. There is therefore no way to tell how a particular impact will affect your head. Whether or not you are wearing a helment you should attempt to ski in control, and in a manner commensurate with your abilites. The same slope with lots of people on it demands slower more careful skiing. That is just common sense. However, no matter how skillful and careful you are someone else could make a mistake and take you down. Your chances for a less serious injury are far better with the brain bucket on. BTW, where is the evidence that skiers with helmets ski faster? What sort of scientific study can you cite to verify your supposition?

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

bump

 

[boston_e]

I'm not pissed off, but I am amazed at your comment. This is the kind of drivel that I have heard regarding safety issues for decades. I heard similar crap for many years from people justifying not wearing seat belts while driving or riding in cars. I have heard similar stupidity from motorcyle riders. I now live in UT where there is no helmet law. Every time I see a bare-headed biker I think "organ doner." The concept that a skier could learn how to fall "properly" is absurd. I ski all types of terrain, some of which is considered "extreme." I would not want to chance a fall without a helmet. I have seen very severe injuries on slopes that I would characterize as "bunny slopes." There is simply now way to anticipate all hazards and how they could make you fall. There is therefore no way to tell how a particular impact will affect your head. Whether or not you are wearing a helment you should attempt to ski in control, and in a manner commensurate with your abilites. The same slope with lots of people on it demands slower more careful skiing. That is just common sense. However, no matter how skillful and careful you are someone else could make a mistake and take you down. Your chances for a less serious injury are far better with the brain bucket on. BTW, where is the evidence that skiers with helmets ski faster? What sort of scientific study can you cite to verify your supposition?

You obviously didn't read the first post. The question was not "should you wear a helmet" the question was "Which is more important to improve skier/snowboarder safety less speed or helmet use?" (See post 1).

I think that controlling your speed has MUCH more to do with your safety than wearing a helmet does. If the choice is one or the other I'll take controlling my speed.

My evidence is from observing hundreds of yahoos pointing their skis down blue square trails and thinking they are expert skiers. Someone even said it in this thread earlier.... "I just like to ski as fast as I can"...

 

[abc]

I was walking in ski boots outside a lodge when I slipped and fell backwards on a sheet of ice disguised by a film of snow from a snow gun. I wasn't wearing a helmet, but I might have shared my friend's fate except that my backpack broke my fall before my head could make impact. I got a helmet after that.

So you wear your helmet when walking from the car to the lodge? (buckled up too, I presume?)

 

[RENO]

I wear a helmet and I ride in control. It protects me from the occasional fall, but mostly protects me from idiots. A curious thing I've noticed over the last 5 years is that more people are wearing helmets skiing/snowboarding and a lot less are wearing helmets biking. :???: When I mountain bike 1/2 the people I come across don't have a helmet and on the road or park paths hardly anyone wears a helmet...

 

[ski63]

Mrs

Very interesting, lots of good info.

Considering how many times I pervented a skier from running my daughter over when she was young back in the 90's, collisions and head injury seem to be the most important part of all this. I estimate I prevented a crash once/ 8 ski days from 1990-99 When she turned 15she need my protection as much. She did get run over by a snowboarder at 19 though.

If I'm skiing trees and I hit a tree I have nobody to blame but myself. Did it once in my pre-helmet days in slo-motion...no damage...just a bruised ego.

We started wearing helemts in 2003 and I know it saved me that first year from a body slam concusion on a steep slope when I lost control and fell downhill over my tips at speed. I was guilty that first year of relying on the helmet and being more reckless.

Plus......helmets are really warm on the cold days. That with removable flaps keeps my happy in all weather.

Just like motorcylce and bike riders, enjoy at your own risk.

 

[legalskier]

I presume?

You presumed wrong; that isn't what I wrote. You also missed the point. If you had read the article I linked to, you would have seen this: helmets "have their most protective effect...for falls leading to blows to the head on the snow surface." That is the kind of fall I sustained on a flat surface, as well as the one ski63 survived on the steeps.



R.I.P. Steve V.