Why don't we wear helmets?

[aupatking]

I haven't read this thread until now, for 2 reasons.

1: I totally agree with @eleeski , which no one wants to admit. :smiley:

2: I totally agree with @Billbert

For me, I have a lifelong injury caused by the very product I was using to keep me "safer".

Until the science is better, a handle guard is about all I'm going with these days.

Sorry for all the edits to this post. Having trouble with the phone eating some and leaving some.

[lpskier]

It is my understanding that most helmets do not prevent concussions (see Football, Game of). They help prevent skull fractures. Concussions occur in a number of ways. I suspect that the majority of water ski cased concussions occur when a moving head strikes a non moving surface, such as the water, a jump, the lake shore or bottom, or some other more or less fixed surface. These types of falls typically result in a "contra coup" type injury, where the brain crashes into the opposit side of your skull. So if you fall and hit your forehead on the sidewalk, for example, the injury to your brain will be in the rear of the skull, opposite the point of impact. This is a typical head injury amount bicyclists, and a number of studies have found that biking helmets are more or less useless in preventing brain injuries in these types of accidents.

 

In jumping, where the cranium can mingle with the jump wax, helmets make sense, but to prevent a fracture, not to prevent a concussion.

 

In 46 years of skiing, I have broken two ear drums, one in slalom and one in trick, both prior to the age of 20. A friend of mine wears a wrestling "helmet,"( whatever they are called) with straps around the head and cups over the ears. If I was concerned about the likelihood of another ruptured eardrum, I suppose that is what I would wear. But like Peter Fonda in "Easy Rider," I like to let my hair blow in the wind.

[ChasingOldDreams]

Serious question.

 

How many of you wear a mouth guard? Since one thing it does very well is absorb impact and allows your jaw/head to transfer energy somewhere else preventing concussions.

 

I found this thread through a google search for "Slalom Water Ski Helmets".. 2 Summers ago i had a bad one, at speed on edge when it all gave way and i hit the water the same way you see wake boarders catch edge. I wasn't aware of what had happened, i was dazed, but determined to get up again, so i get up a second time and the next fall, while easier (head over heals) was still at speed...

 

I spent the next 5 days in a pitch black room, with no sound, no light, staring at the ceiling, headache in all.. by day 6 i decided I needed to go see a neurologist. He described what happened as severe concussion, was surprised i did not black out though. Said he would have put me through an MRI on days 1-5 but since i was coming out of it he just wanted to monitor. Banned me from doing anything "risky" for a month.

 

I grew up playing hockey, I also got the pleasure of a smelling salt treatment in my late teens, courtesy of a good buddy who couldnt move me out of the slot with up uppercutting me... Everything changed from a coordination perspective after that one.

 

After reading this entire thread and thinking through several talk tracks, I've come to the conclusion that something is better than nothing. The question is what?

 

A Hockey or Wakeboard like helmet increases surface area, maybe aiding in the amount of force exposed to. Then again water is like concrete at speed and after all helmets are designed to absorb impacts and transfer energy. Hockey helmets have come a long way and can get wet over and over with out any issue. I might consider this route as theres some advanced technology available and they employ a chin strap snap incase of scenarios of it getting caught on a rope etc. IT might also help keep your head afloat in a lights out scenario.

 

Another option mentioned is Rugby type soft helmets. This is what i would have expected to find when first entering the google search. My concerns are the foam absorbing lake water and becoming moldy etc. but then again i suppose i could run the thing through the wash.