CRASH HELMETS standards ??

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Permalink Reply by Guff on December 15, 2009 at 15:29

Those guys train hard , harder than anyone i know that rides a skateboard.....Maybe there is something in that?I know a few downhill guys stretch before riding but how many work their neck and shoulder muscles ?? They reckon if a heavyweight like say lennox lewis hit a non boxer he would break their neck it would still hurt a boxer but nowhere near as much damage. Maybe something dudes should be thinkin about .....

tom Crane said:

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

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Permalink Reply by Denham Ewens on December 15, 2009 at 16:08

that looks promising

GerardCancio said:

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

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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Fitz on December 15, 2009 at 16:12

Observe........10kg Head!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Andrew G on December 15, 2009 at 16:14

i think the helmets are fine, If you are hitting an object at 65kph directly with ya head your neck is gonna be fucked anyway even if your head does stay in one piece

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ASRA AdminPermalink Reply by Bugs on December 15, 2009 at 18:03

If you faint/pass out while standing still, your head hits the ground at about 20km/h. That's enough to do you a serious injury (ask Manchild) or even kill you (David Hookes). When downhill skaters fall, the speed of their head in the direction of the ground is usually much lower than this because they usually break their fall with their arms shoulders, legs etc.

Helmets rated for high speeds assume that you're hitting something like a tree or a wall or a big rock, but are worse for hitting the ground because the extra firmness required to protect against high-speed impacts means that the helmet is too firm to compress at lower speed impacts.

The reality is that if your head hits something, er, head-on, at 60km/h you're gonna die regardless of the helmet. Helmets rated for slower speeds are more effective in the types of crashes that skaters usually experience. They are also likely to be lighter (safer for the reasons Robbo mentions), and lower-profile (safer due to imparting less twisting motion on the head during a crash).

Here's an interesting article about motorcycle helmets:
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/motorcycle_helmet_review/...

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Permalink Reply by Robbo on December 15, 2009 at 18:56

That is one epic read bugs

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Permalink Reply by Sean on December 15, 2009 at 23:30

Ahh, you beat me to it Fitz.
Check out Andre the Giant's noggin, its gotta be at least a 10kg melon!!
Thats Ali next to him by the by.

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Permalink Reply by Hank's Place Australia on December 16, 2009 at 0:43

average human head is 12 1/2 lb which is around 5kg AVERAGE some weigh more some less

Dylan Danger Batty said:

dude, a human head ways a lot more than 4.5 kilos, it ways around 10 kilos, thus why some people get gnarly wiplash under braking in cars even at medium speeds. so those figures would probs go up by quite a bit

Robbo said:

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

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Permalink Reply by Gilbert on December 16, 2009 at 3:04

apparently ching was talking to brianne and she said the the predator helmets are going to be safer than paragliding helmets like the charly but not as safe as mtb helmets like the belldrop (in terms of the foam in the helmet). She felt that was silly of them to make a dh skating specific helmet that wasn't up to par in terms of safety with existing options of helmets (such as the bell drop) that work just as well.

But i guess its the convenience of having a ready-made visor and maybe better visibility (perhaps? just guessing) that will sway ppl to purchase. And its probably more air-row!!!

GerardCancio said:

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

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Permalink Reply by Steven Sheely on December 16, 2009 at 5:38

After reading the article Bugs so kindly posted (WOW) and all the other info, i can saftly say,

-A Heaver helmet puts more strain on the neck.
-A softer lined helmet will decrees the G's decreasing the bang to the brain.
-That just because you are travelling 80kmh+ doesn’t mean your going to hit your head that hard, it's downward force that does the damage.
-if we put or selves in the same category as motorcycles then most head impacts are on flat surfaces. Although we are closer to the ground so wont fly as high when we come off. (Unless your Nick hitting the hey bails or steve dong back flips!)
-A Persons Age and physical being will have a factor in the damage done by hitting your head. As well as other injuries that you may incur.

So I guess its up to the individual to make the call on which helmet to use, the more you know the better decision you can make. But in the end it also comes down to a bit of luck because as we all know shit happens. And more often then not somthing is better then nothing.

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Permalink Reply by Robbo on December 16, 2009 at 6:29

Hey Gilbert the Bell drop has no MTB ratings just a simple ASTM DH bicycle rating. Lots of helmets use MTB styles of injection molded polystyrene including normal bicycle, all paragliding and some skid lids like the SCBS. The ASTM rating does not require helmets to be full-face so the jaw area does not come under similar testing as a MTB helmet and is not tested for frontal impacts below the forehead. The level of impact testing in the ASTM standard is greater but only look at horizontal impact so hitting your head at an angle in not looked at in the standard.

Hopefully these predator helmets go for a higher standard than the EN 1385 standard that the rest of their helmets are as it is no higher safety than a skid lid. Personally I think the Paragliding standard is about right for impact in DH skateboarding. They just need to increase the requirements for the chin strap as I have seen too many of these things just snap off.

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Permalink Reply by speedy canuck on December 16, 2009 at 6:56

Until there is a helmet designed specificly for dh sk8ng, any helmet is good. and while some may be better than others at protecting your melon from impacts, its up to you to choose a helmet that you feel safe in whether its light and offers a good field of view or heavy and impact rated. Cuz lets face it if you feel safe it helps your mental game which directly affects your sk8ng. Personally I'll take light weight, the idea of my head having as little addded momentum as possible makes me feel better, and after crashing at over 80kph i'm gonna stick with it.

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