ASRA - Australian Skateboard Racing Association

Just a quicky on safety .I noticed that many competitors at NP09 were wearing mtb helmets.Does anyone know that they are only rated to 65kph and will crush with 50kg force on any angle.Our pro riders wear moto based helmets for this reason..I think if ya competing you need a competion approved helmet.THOUGHTS ANYONE???

Views: 309

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

dude you're going to re-open a huge debate on this topic.
Pretty much until there is an official DH skateboard helmet standard there's nothing you can do.
i wear a helmet that will smash to peices if i hit my head, and if i hit my head again on anything else in the same crash theres a good chance i will die. ive raced with that helmet two years in a row and im still standing =)

read what trav said he summed it up good
the COMPRESSION FOAM in a helmet is called that for a REASON. That in a crash - > 65kph, they will compress around your head and protect it. in the event of that, the helmet has to be replaced, as once it is compressed, it cant protect your head at those speeds again.

Speeds of under that, the helmet may not compress. I trust my bell drop over some massive moto lid. I would have more confidence with a motocross helmets. Still light, but protective.

I dont trust my luck wearing something that will snap my neck in two if i crash.
A lot of what a helmet does isn't about compression it is about dissipating energy . Pro's and cons for both sides i think as long as people are getting the right information to form an opinion of their own great. A full face is definately better than a skull cap and a skullcap is better than nothing.....

Isaac Naumann said:
the COMPRESSION FOAM in a helmet is called that for a REASON. That in a crash - > 65kph, they will compress around your head and protect it. in the event of that, the helmet has to be replaced, as once it is compressed, it cant protect your head at those speeds again.

Speeds of under that, the helmet may not compress. I trust my bell drop over some massive moto lid. I would have more confidence with a motocross helmets. Still light, but protective.

I dont trust my luck wearing something that will snap my neck in two if i crash.
i got 100% trust in my nitro, its a beefy moto cross helmet huge vision, plenty of foam protecting my helmet, if your 100% confident in your gear then your going to be safer then if your not
Moto helmets are way too heavy for DH skateboard and tend to cause severe injury and concussion in even a minimal crash due to the weight of an extra 2kg on the riders head. They also play havoc with a riders balance. This is less of an issue in luge as they are only 4 inches off the ground do not require much balance to stay on board and only move the head minimally to turn. Moto helmets are designed for motobikes that are trying to avoid being crushed by their own 200kg bike or a 2 tonne car, power pole, or tree.

If you separate the human head from the body in terms of weight and calculate the force at 65km/h you will come up with something like this:

Head = 4.5kgs
Accel = 65km/h = 18m/s
force = 81 Newtons

Force weight = 8.2kgs
Add a 2kg helmet and the force weight is increased by 50% which increases the chance of your brain bouncing around in your helmet and your neck being severely injured
The sport is exploding in popularity at the moment along with other sports which will need something similar of the like. Improved helmets are no doubt in the development stage as we speak but as far as standards are concerned it will be a while off concidering the sport is semi illegal.
ie. making a helmet that's rated to high speeds when it's not legal to do those speeds on public roads.
I use a MTB helmet and it dose the trick fine. If mommy and daddy had bought my skate equip for me i would probably have a sick helmet. Look you show me any helmet that will withstand a direct impact over 100km/h that wont! rip your head off your shoulders at the same time. If your crashing at 100km/h and suffer a direct hit to your head your pretty much dead man.
Yer if the helmet is a solid motobike helmet that wont give more energy is going directly to you head and neck. COMPRESSION FOAM is the go.

Jacko said:
i wear a helmet that will smash to peices if i hit my head, and if i hit my head again on anything else in the same crash theres a good chance i will die. ive raced with that helmet two years in a row and im still standing =)

read what trav said he summed it up good
i have yet to see jesse tynan have his head removed from his shoulders
or casey stoner for that matter, i would have thought the whiplash resulting from being high-sided off your motor bike would be pretty heavy,

There isn't really any valid research that i know of that has been done on dh skateboarding in regards to safety aspect like this and and until there has been, it kinda silly to debate about it
Dylan I'm not sure how big your head is but imagine that a case of 24 cans of beer weighs about 9.5kg. If your head weighs 10kg you are saying that your head is bigger than a case of beer. If your head is that big than you should consider wearing a helmet all the time because you could easily knock yourself out tripping over your front step. For everybody else the average weight of an adult human head is 4.5kgs, if you are a grom than it is less.
heard something about a colabo/predator helmet in the works, specific for DH skating. check it out here:

http://predatordesigns.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-downhill-skate-hel...

looks promising, i think the price is pegged at $300-350 as discussed in the fish

Reply to Discussion

RSS

Search

© 2024   Created by Bugs.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service