X1n54n3x

ive been wearing a helmet for years (saved me many helicopter lifts) and the only drawback i feel protective gear has is its bulkiness (to any degree). my ideal riding gear is pants and t shirt (which i will rock as soon as conditions permit each season). the more natural feeling the better. so as for advice when engineering protective gear- make it as unnoticeable as possible, while still preserving the protective properties.

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09' Graft
Burton C02's
CALI*MADE

Bones

I cracked the back of my helmet on a nice spill on east coast ice. Pretty out of it for 10 minutes or so. I'd hate to think how bad it would have been without one.

That said...I'd love a moldable helmet or, at least, some moldability. Maybe a 1/4 inch of moldable foam? Just enough so that if the thing is close to the right size, you can get a nice fit. Maybe something along the lines of bike helmets with those stick on pads? I mean, we can shim and mold boots...why not helmets?

And lots of closeable vents. I've got 3 on mine....I'd love 5 or 7 in spring conditions, but they're all closed in the minus 40's.

the_intern

I spoke with some folks in engineering about creating a moldable helmet. One of the problems is how to create the mold. If we did it the same way we mold boots, we'd have to tightly tie a helmet to our head for 30 minutes. I don't think it's possible to do that correctly. We've explored different types of foams that mold over time, but the technology is way expensive. That material is really hard to pass to the consumer at a reasonable price.

I think our liners do a pretty good job of providing better comfort. What sort of problems do you guys have with the liners? How are helmets uncomfortable?

ThirdEye

Do you snowboard, intern guy?

the_intern

Yeah...I've been snowboarding for about 15 years now. I grew up riding at vernon valley ($14 weds night tix). Once I started making enough cash, I'd travel up to VT every weekend. Now I'm on the west coast. The snow isn't as icy, but I can deal with it.

dead2rites

i have a friend who fell without a helmet and went into a coma for 3 months, and now he is normal, but he has 2 giant baseball-stitch looking scars on his head from surgery. from that point on it was helmet for me 100% of the time.
funny thing was when my friend woke up from his coma, all the smells he smelt (?) were colors.

Mysticfalcon

After looking at my helmet I dont think I would dare to ride without one. My helmet is so totally beat up from riding through the trees Id hate to have scratches in my head that deep.

bobepfd

Lol yeah that's called brain damage. Just one more reason to wear one. I've worn a helmet ever since I gave myself a concussion a few years ago. Bought a new one this year with built in headphones.

gibbous

That's actually called synesthesia and it's not limited to people with brain damage, in fact people seem to be more genetically pre-disposed from what I've heard about it.

I don't ride without a helmet unless I'm teaching someone or am just going to cruise around on the groomers all day. But those days are rare, and I just feel safer riding trees or more challenging terrain with a little head protection. Like others have said there are plenty of situations where I've taken a bad tumbling wreck and know that my helmet has saved me some pain, and just as many times where I've found huge scratches or cracks in the shell at the day and don't really know how they got there. Both are good things in my book.

slugsgomoo

While I agree that awareness is key, and that people should be more mindful of their surroundings, I'm not sure that it's the helmet making them invincible, or just that they're selfish bastards. I can't tell you how many times I got nailed by skiers and snowboarders when I was off on a snowbank strapping in last season

However, the 14mph thing... did you just pull that out of the air or somewhere stinkier? Because I'd be real surprised if helmets magically lost their effectiveness when you got to 15, 16, or 20+ mph. You know, given that most snowboarding helmet tech is stuff they learned building bicycle helmets which tend to protect damn well, since snell is fairly tough, and bicyclists commonly see speeds double or triple that (or more) on downhill stuff.

I can tell you that before I got my helmet I got my bell rung a couple times, and since having the helmet it's pretty nice. If your head does hit the ground when you lose an edge on an icy groomer, you're not going to be seeing stars at least.

The best things for me though, is that my goggles never fog up, and if you do fall, they don't go flying off somewhere to get filled with snow. Also, how are you guys overheating in helmets? I have the vent plugs in on mine and wear a balaclava underneath it, but my head is shaved so maybe that's part of it.