The Ski Helmet Debate

Having just returned from Japan, very few people wearing helmets over there, and even less wearing bobble hats!

surfarthur wrote:Having just returned from Japan, very few people wearing helmets over there, and even less wearing bobble hats!

What no leathers ones even. :wink:

If you have no one who cares about you - siblings, parents, spouse, partner or friends, then I'd say go ahead and don't wear a helmet. If you've no one who might have to suffer the trauma of hearing about a loved one being injured then fine. If you've no relative who might have to care for you as a brain-damaged dependant or nurse you through a long recuperation, then go ahead and ski unprotected.

I've had to accompany my unconscious son off the piste, in a bag down to the base station, in an ambulance to the hospital 30 minutes away; into A&E in a foreign country; then scanned and waiting for the results. Fortunately, he was OK in the end. Since then the whole family always wears a helmet and we have avoided a repetition at least once if not twice in the seven years since then.

You may be willing to take the risk, but it's worth thinking about the effect on others if you suffer an avoidable head injury.

I quite agree. Now many insurance companies will not issue cover for those idiots who don't wear helmets. 'pas le casque, pas l'assurance' look for the signs.

I am a late comer to the helmet debate and have just spent the last hour reading through some of the posts relating to it. Like many I was/am not a bad sportsman playing rugby and cricket to quite a high standard. Yep I wore a gum shield when playing rugby to keep my beautiful looks :lol: but did not wear a helmet playing cricket until the last few years after a bail hit me in the eye when wicketkeeping. I think youth makes you a little less oblivious to risk. I still do not wear a helmet when batting but intent to this year (at 61). WHY? ....because I found out that getting hit on the head...in this case by pack ice after falling a Le Corbier this Christmas hurts like hell, made me dizzy, sick and disorientated. I was lucky. My son and I went straight back to the hotel and hired helmets. I have to say they were comfortable , cool and actually made me feel safer. On returning to the UK my friend showed me his Daughters helmet.....she had crashed at VT and split the lid virtually in half doing a slalom course. He is of the opinion that she would have been dead without a helmet. She still had to go to hospital and undergo a couple of MRI scans after the swelling had gone down. SO I am a convert.
Anyhow I then got to look at all the ski.board magazines out there to see how many folks don the hard hat. Despite the 2 major magazines encouraging the wearing of helmets they do not seem to practice what they preach. In one, nameless but tied to a national paper, over 50% of the editorial staff are pictured wearing ski kit minus helmets. Approx 50% of the advertisers feature piccys of ski/board on and off piste without helmets including (incredibly) a major player in the instruction industry. Even some of the major articles have action shots of skiers without lids. OK people should make their own decision as whether to wear helmets you say, but the fact is serious head injuries would fall if helmets were compulsory. Magazines could encourage this by ensuring all people in their piccys wear lids if skiing (I do like the bobbles thread).I recall the car seat belt debate years before many of you were borne, but we now all put on a seat belt as a matter of course, no argument, no problem. We all have to face the fact there a far more skiers in the same area as there were even 10 years ago so it is obvious there are going to be more injuries. so a helmet as a matter of course aka car belts may be a pain to start with but we would all get used to it very quick. The industry would soon come up with "sexy" lids that even Wickers and Tony_H would wear.Make sure it isn't you who end up of a life support machine! (comment!)

I can see the points that people who have had/witnessed head injuries are making. However, I think you can only warn people. You can't tell people how to live their life. If someone wishes to wear a helmet, a hat, go bare-headed then that is their choice.

I ski with many people who do not wear helmets. They are not idiots. Everything in life carries some level of risk. If a government feels it is necessary to pass legislation to improve safety then we all have to abide by that legislation or risk punishment. If no law stands it's up to the individual to make their own assessment. You may not agree with their evaluation but we're never going to agree on everything.

Mekka wrote:I can see the points that people who have had/witnessed head injuries are making. However, I think you can only warn people. You can't tell people how to live their life. If someone wishes to wear a helmet, a hat, go bare-headed then that is their choice.

I ski with many people who do not wear helmets. They are not idiots. Everything in life carries some level of risk. If a government feels it is necessary to pass legislation to improve safety then we all have to abide by that legislation or risk punishment. If no law stands it's up to the individual to make their own assessment. You may not agree with their evaluation but we're never going to agree on everything.

Mekka, I think for once we totally agree. Like you, I have no problem with people who choose to wear a Lid, especially after a personal experience which no dount brings it close to home.
However, the suggestion that people who ski without helmets are "idiots" as was made on this thread recently is pathetic and embarrassing for the person who made that statement.
I have actively endorsed the wearing of bobbles on here, in a bit of fun, but with a serious side to it because of ridiculous and outrageous statements like this that are sometimes made by Lid wearers. This is why I joke about them being Nazi's, all meant with good humour and respect, but with a serious side to it based on exactly this kind of high and mighty attitude from some.
The mere suggestion that, by not wearing a helmet, you have no family or loved ones to care for or who care for you is insulting to mine and a lot of other peoples intelligence.

Anyway, as Mekka says, each to his own. If law is passed and we are forced to wear a Lid, I will not give up skiing, I will simply conform. In the meantime, I prefer to be Lidless, no thanks to the bullies out there who try to tell me otherwise.

Tony_H wrote:I've reached the conclusion that people who wear helmets are both bullies and think they're better than people who don't.

(I don't think you're a bully if you wear a helmet and I don't think you're an idiot if you don't - Personally I choose not to wear one)