Should we be wearing helmets?

[sethjon]

Re: Should we be wearing helmets?

A helmet is never a bad thing, but you will look like a nerd. Remember that your brain is floating inside your head and when you slam it your brain will bounce around. Unless the guy driving the boat is doing foolish things you will be fine w/o a helmet. If you are having second thought then wear one.

 

[YeboGogo]

Re: Should we be wearing helmets?

After seeing my medical bill this morning for a head injury I wish I had bought one.

I will now. $50 vs $3200 for a CT Scan and MRI.. Money well spent

Do you only put on a seat belt when you know your going to crash ?

 

[kyle f]

Re: Should we be wearing helmets?

After seeing my medical bill this morning for a head injury I wish I had bought one.

I will now. $50 vs $3200 for a CT Scan and MRI.. Money well spent

Do you only put on a seat belt when you know your going to crash ?

If you didn't bounce your head of a log, rock, or other obstical in the water, the helment wouldn't do you much good.

Head injuries still happen a lot in football do to sudden stops. However you don't see any skull fractures when heads knock together. So a helment is not goign to protect you from the sudden stops of the water when you crash.

Again though, if it makes you fell more comfortable and confident... get one! If you never want to risk injury, stay on the dock.

 

[slalomskiing31]

Re: Should we be wearing helmets?

I wear a helmet and it does wonders. When you start doing tricks and jumping the wake the board comes off your feet and hits you in the head. This week I got hit twice in the head falling from jumping and grabbing the board (indy grab). They cant hurt either they are only 30$ and can save you from head injuries. My friend got hit in the head by a wakeboard and needed stitch's. I bet it's not fun trying to get in the boat with a split open head.

 

[DennisM]

Re: Should we be wearing helmets?

I wear a helmet and it does wonders. When you start doing tricks and jumping the wake the board comes off your feet and hits you in the head. This week I got hit twice in the head falling from jumping and grabbing the board (indy grab). They cant hurt either they are only 30$ and can save you from head injuries. My friend got hit in the head by a wakeboard and needed stitch's. I bet it's not fun trying to get in the boat with a split open head.

Thats the best advice I think there. As stated, it will not prevent a concussion at all, not one ioda. It will prevent you from cracking it open, thats all they are designed for.

Remember your brain is floating in fluid inside your head, the sudden stop at force of the outer body will cause the brain to continue moving in the same direction as it was previously until it connects with the skull and then will slide back again, depending on the force at play this can happen more then a few times in a second!

The ensuring bruising on the brain caused by the slamming into the inner skull is the concussion. helmet or no helmet face planting into the water can cause that.

 

[Rinker97]

Re: Should we be wearing helmets?

So i went out to the lake about 4 weeks ago got all ready and was about to jump in the water, I told my friends i saw a video on youtube were a guy wiped out and his body flexed with the wakeboard on his feet and hit him in the head...
Seriously about 10 minutes of riding after i said that the same exact thing happened to me.
I went to sports authority after that looking for a helmet i noticed on the bottum shelf shoved to the back there was 2 hyperlite helmets priced at $69.99 marked down to $9.99, lol so from now on ill be wearing a helmet.

 

[Nolaner]

Re: Should we be wearing helmets?

Like others have said, a helmet is to protect you from getting banged in the head by something solid like your board or a rail, you can still get a concussion from hitting the water. The worst concussion I've ever seen never involved my friend's head hitting anything, just his neck/head getting whipped back hard enough. There is no real harm in wearing one though so don't think I'm trying to dissuade you.

 

[taylorray]

Re: Should we be wearing helmets?

Google "wakeboarding helmet" and compare your options. There are many. Clearly there would not be so many for sale if they were not being purchased. Is not uncommon in my neck of the woods to see people wearing them...probably 20% do. I do not. Never said I was smart.

I have suffered the ruptured ear drum, which resulted in about 1 week of constant pus/blood mixture oozing out (I ruined two pillows while sleeping!) followed by about 2 solid weeks of total deafness in that ear. And hell yeah it hurt! It recovered fully. I have also suffered a few broken ribs from hard falls. And about every 2 months in-season I will suffer from fairly significant neck whiplash.

All in the name of fun of course!!!

Ironically, my worst injuries have occurred while running slalom course, NOT while wakeboarding. Crossing wakes at nearly 60 mph and then "tripping" at the high speed point has a tendency to create VERY spectacular wipeouts!! On that rare occasion, hopefully I skip like a rock, BUT if I hit the water at those speeds and suddenly stop...it is because SOME part on my body served as the brake! And so I float there and check all my systems while moaning and groaning...and hoping my brake didn't break!

Surprisingly I have not yet been notably injured on a wakeboard, but I'm not all that strong on it either as I'm an old guy and I'm late to learn that particular sport. Since I've never been very able to land the big high flying flips I don't really try them very often. And when i do attempt such a feat I fully expect to crash and often simply "assume the position" to minimize any chance of injuries...we all know how the "planned fall" rarely hurts. I also have never used rails or ramps. If I did I would ABSOLUTELY wear a helmet. But even on plain water it's the fanstastic surprises that'll bite ya. I assure you that I had NO TIME to react and plan for my falls when I unexpectedly tripped during a full-speed slalom run...much like your faceplant. It just sorta happens NOW.

Agree that the classic neck snap is probably my greatest fear. I have heard my neck popping like bubble-wrap a few times when head hit first and it bent FAR beyond "normal". That's scary. But so far it resulted in only whiplash from stretched ligaments. With age comes wisdom and I have been slowing down and probably will continue to do so. But I don't intend to fully stop for a few more decades if my body keeps soldiering on...

Wear a helmet if it suits you. You'll be far from the first to do so, and you will have the knowledge that anyone who criticizes you for wearing one is a full-blown royal moron.
garage flooring charlotte
In hindsight, of all my injuries, the only one a helmet would have helped me with would have been the eardrum. It would have been nice to have been wearing one WITH ear guards on that fateful day...that sucked.

Have people seen the stick Lewis Hamilton has been getting for posting photos of himself, skiing without a helmet? Ok – even taking into consideration the sensitivities that Schumacher has been injured it hardly seems appropriate to me – Hamilton was actually on trekking/walking skis and snowshoes! What then really upset me is that in a subsequent discussion about the newspaper article a rather senior RYA instructor suddenly stated that, in his opinion, all active water sports should require people to wear a helmet – including (especially!) anyone travelling in an open RIB!

This sort of thing tends to set me off! Why is it ‘elf and safety disciples pervade our society so unnecessarily at every level? In balance I can see anyone racing a Zapcat would probably be better off using a helmet – I can also see the sensibilities of helmets for children sailing and those racing on extreme multihulls. In parallel I can also see that someone charging around Brands Hatch in a saloon car should probably wear a helmet as well. However dictatorial legislation in individual areas, particularly in leisure activities, denudes much of the pleasure and emasculates the long forgotten tenets of individual responsibility. If we leave it to the experts it will not be long before I have to wear a helmet in the rusty BMW on a trip down to Waitrose!!

Who is for helmets in a RIB then?