Helmets may not be cool to look at but when things go wrong we get pulled/dragged head first with the kite using our heads as a bump stop!
This is just about the only extreme sport that helmets are not worn by the user (for F%$^# sake even push bike riders wear head protection). Mate of mine forgot his helmet the other day and got hit in the head by his board got a nasty bump to remind him.
Most seem to use impact vests but do nothing for their heads, I always use one and admit it may not save me but has to be better than nothing at all.
I don???t sell helmets and will wear the red thumbs for saying it, but protect your head it???s your most vulnerable asset! I'm not for mandatory wearing of helmets but when the weather is extreme then it should be the first thing you put on, just saying.
Be safe
I agree. Helmets have saved my life 5 times over the years.... Once while kiting.
I tick that box also Plummet and pete - and another reason here in the cold south is to keep my ears warm - or should I say my ear canals to slow the process of sufers ear developing (which my Doc says is happening to me) - Im not looking forward to having my ears drilled ;-(
Oh and another reason - a good place to mount the go pro!! ( yeah here come the red thumbs .......) safe kiting!!
Helmet wearing is up to the individual.Australia's leading neurosurgeon said on national TV a helmet reduces impact by less than 30%.You will still get knocked out.It will reduce superficial wounding.Helmets have been popular at Perisher ski resort for 15years,yet most injuries are non-head.Ski-ing deaths tend to be ruptured internal organs.Pushbike helmets are poorly designed and should be full faced but once again most injuries are non -head on a biketrack,hit by a car is different .I never wore a helmet on a pushy in the 60s as a kid ,why wear one now?Wearing a helmet skiing to me is not warranted,kiting at Mambo 95%don't wear a helmet.But as I said its up to the individual.
Select to expand quotetowradgi said...
Helmet wearing is up to the individual.Australia's leading neurosurgeon said on national TV a helmet reduces impact by less than 30%.You will still get knocked out.It will reduce superficial wounding.Helmets have been popular at Perisher ski resort for 15years,yet most injuries are non-head.Ski-ing deaths tend to be ruptured internal organs.Pushbike helmets are poorly designed and should be full faced but once again most injuries are non -head on a biketrack,hit by a car is different .I never wore a helmet on a pushy in the 60s as a kid ,why wear one now?Wearing a helmet skiing to me is not warranted,kiting at Mambo 95%don't wear a helmet.But as I said its up to the individual.
Hay Dave dident you knock your self out on your board and drown once?
Yes i did just a minor issue to me,still no helmet .What hurt was the $758.40 ambulance ride for 6 kilometres to Wollongong hospital .A cab is only $20.
Have worn gath helmets since they came out when I was windsurfing. Started because I had a young family and thought I should at least try to protect myself.
Great for cold and since moving to Darwin , for heat (wear a white helmet ).
Great for a knock on the head too. Won't cover everything but surely a start.
Select to expand quotetowradgi said..
Yes i did just a minor issue to me,still no helmet .What hurt was the $758.40 ambulance ride for 6 kilometres to Wollongong hospital .A cab is only $20.
But you can probably trust the ambulance to take you the most direct route.
Select to expand quotetowradgi said..
Helmet wearing is up to the individual.Australia's leading neurosurgeon said on national TV a helmet reduces impact by less than 30%.You will still get knocked out.It will reduce superficial wounding.Helmets have been popular at Perisher ski resort for 15years,yet most injuries are non-head.Ski-ing deaths tend to be ruptured internal organs.Pushbike helmets are poorly designed and should be full faced but once again most injuries are non -head on a biketrack,hit by a car is different .I never wore a helmet on a pushy in the 60s as a kid ,why wear one now?Wearing a helmet skiing to me is not warranted,kiting at Mambo 95%don't wear a helmet.But as I said its up to the individual.
Lets for argument sake say, helmets reduce impacts by 25% it then follows that for every 4 hits you take that would knock you out, one of those would not knock you out if you wore a helmet. that equals a life saving event. Worth wearing IMHO.
Fine
Just don't legislate it please,
Stay out of gusty conditions
Or stay away from the beach when gusting onshore
We are all going to die
Tragically for each of us
I think this is a great topic to be discussing and appreciate both points of views.
I agree it should not be legislated. That would be nanny state stuff which we are guilty of in Australia time and time again. However, I do believe at the extreme end of our sport which is entirely an individual thing (for a beginner everything is extreme for an advanced rider possibly 30knots plus then a helmet is probably warranted and also depending on the location a helmet might be warranted in any condition)
For me personally, it comes down to conditions and location and what I will be doing that determines if I wear my helmet. Just like when I bike ride (i don't wear a helmet on a flat bike path but if I go on the public road at any time even for a short distance I do.) The same for kite surfing.
I don't see this issue as black and white. I love cruising with no helmet on in the right conditions. However, I equally enjoy having my helmet on even to increase my safety factor by 30% if I deem the conditions warrant it. Same with an impact vest.
I guess at the end of the day it is up to the individual as it should be. IMO a 30% increase in safety is worth the $120 for the helmet and not looking like the coolest kid on the beach if the conditions warrant it.
I think most people take the approach of "i'm a good rider and i'm taking it easy today so don't need a helmet today". I ride a motorbike and push bikes and have also raced cars in the past - all activities where helmets are a requirement now days and in the case of the motorbike and pushbike I have had a helmet save my life on a number of occasions, in most cases through direct fault of my own but I have had times in all three activities where someone else's actions have caused me to be a passenger in someone else's crash.
Helmets don't just save you from your own actions, they also save you from the actions of others on the water - whilst you may be cruising and underpowered just taking it easy, there could be someone else out near you who has decided to push the limits or are a learner and it only takes a split second for them to do something wrong for you to wear their board in the back of the head, or be run into and lose control so you end up on the rocks - all through no fault of your own.
For me, wearing a helmet and being alive is heaps "cooler" than being dead or a vegetable and not messing up my hair with a helmet. It is also not just about reducing the impact by say 30% - yes, your brain will still get rattled with a helmet on, but you wont end up with your brains spilt on the ground with a helmet on - a much more difficult predicament for a neurosurgeon to fix than trying to sort out some swelling.
The one thing I would like to see change in the industry is this idea that helmets are uncool. Beginners and youngsters are very conscious of what other people think and I think it needs to change. Wakeboarders, snowboarders and other extreme sports have no issues with helmets so I'm not sure why people seem to think any different of kiteboarding.
I'm going to go out and say that I don't believe helmets should be legislated for anyone except kids under a certain age in any sport. I.e. those who are too young to make an informed decision on their own. As someone who wears a helmet, it may seem strange but I don't like the nanny state mentality that people aren't equipped to make their own decisions. I like seinfeld's argument on the helmet "And even that didn???t work because not enough people were wearing them so we had to come up with the helmet law. Which is even stupider, the idea behind the helmet law being to preserve a brain whose judgment is so poor, it does not even try to avoid the cracking of the head it???s in."
I wear a helmet because I have a family that I need to think about, even if it may only leave me in a persistent vegetative state instead of killing me, it still gives me the best possible chance of surviving. I've been out kiting when a close friend of mine was lofted (in the old days of pure c kites) and came down on her side, spent a month in a coma and 6 months in rehab. Doctors made it clear that the helmet saved her life and made the difference between her being able to recover or being brain dead.
Select to expand quotetowradgi said..
Yes i did just a minor issue to me,still no helmet .What hurt was the $758.40 ambulance ride for 6 kilometres to Wollongong hospital .A cab is only $20.
That's what insurance is for, and a cab doesn't have $1000's worth of life saving gear, or highly trained professions operating it, or access to support systems, or pretty lights and annoying sirens to get you to hospital quicker etc etc etc etc etc etcSelect to expand quotekitebt said..
.... i don't wear a helmet on a flat bike path .....
Problem with this is you set a bad example for kids. We parents then have to explain why the guy (it's always a guy) is an idiot for both disobeying the law and not being safe..........and no you can't take your helmet off too....if he jumped of a bridge would you do that too. I don't actually say that but you get my point.
How many types of helmets are suitable for kiting?
This could be a useful place to post pics, pros and cons for all available types that you all use.
I don't see the point in trying to regulate helmet use. How would you police it? People need to wear helmets because they want to. not because they have too.
The helmets are uncool thing can squarely be pointed at manufactures and magizines. If these companies insisted their pro riders wear a helmet or they don't get sponsered/ appear in magazines then we wouldn't have a problem.
As an example. Len10 not wearing a helmet doing a mega loop 20 meters in the air with the kite bellow him with a gopro pole mount strapped to his back is one massive example to the "cool" crowd and the kids that helmets are not required.
If all the sponsered guys led by example, set the standard for helmet use then we would have more people wearing helmets and less death and serious injury.
Ultimately it is about perceived risk verses actual risk. In most cased i believe kitesurfers don't think they need a helmet because they kite on the water. The percieved risk is low. The actual risk is higher. Because 99.9% of us launch and land on land. Most of the accidents occur on land. The need for a helmet at minimum for launch and land is underated.
Thats me after getting lofted into a fence. Some years ago now. The kite lines wrapped around the fence post powered up and snapped the post off like a carrot smashing it into my head. I was wearing a helmet at the time. The force of the impact squashed my helmet flat and split my head open... Imagine what would have happened if i was not wearing a helmet?
Another time I crashed in the waves and was thrown down wind of my board. the very next breaker pick my board up and smashed it end on in the back of my skull. After than i had a very deep dent in the back of my helmet. That would have also been very messy if I wasnt wearing a helmet....
....
For me its a no brainer. Do extreme activity = wear a helmet.
Select to expand quoteoceanfire said..
How many types of helmets are suitable for kiting?
This could be a useful place to post pics, pros and cons for all available types that you all use.
Protect Ace Wake is what I use. More protection than Gath helmets which are only really designed for deflecting surfboards. Also more comfortable, and ear pieces are removable. Around $80 online if you look hard enough.
I don't think it has anything to do with coolness. The vast majority of kiteboarders are older males. Most of us are beyond caring about cool.
Every other sport that uses helmets has purpose built helmets for that sport, with standards to ensure they are fit for purpose.
The vast majority of helmets used in kiteboarding are adapted from other sports and are not really fit for purpose. They're all too big, too heavy, have too much drag, and too much wind noise. They greatly contribute to the possibility of neck injuries and they're ridiculously uncomfortable.
Think back over the years and think of how many times you've crashed and whiplashed your head vs the number of impacts to your head you've had.
I have owned most of the popular brands and styles (Gath, various Protec) and they are not good for kiting.
The other issue is availability, which I guess really reflects on commitment from the industry. You can go to a board store and try out any number of snowboard helmets. If you're lucky they might have a few sizes of Gath helmets or the odd skateboarding or snowboarding helmet.
Comparing kiteboarding to cycling is not even remotely valid. According to Sandringham Hospital 85% of cycling injuries come from cyclists riding into stationary obstacles such as parked cars, posts and traffic signs. The ,majority of those injuries are to arms but the chances of your head impacting the obstacle are huge, especially if you riding head forward on a road bike. Last time I looked all the posts and signs in the sea and on the beach were easily avoided by just moving somewhere else.
Select to expand quoteGorgo said..
I don't think it has anything to do with coolness. The vast majority of kiteboarders are older males. Most of us are beyond caring about cool.
Every other sport that uses helmets has purpose built helmets for that sport, with standards to ensure they are fit for purpose.
The vast majority of helmets used in kiteboarding are adapted from other sports and are not really fit for purpose. They're all too big, too heavy, have too much drag, and too much wind noise. They greatly contribute to the possibility of neck injuries and they're ridiculously uncomfortable.
Think back over the years and think of how many times you've crashed and whiplashed your head vs the number of impacts to your head you've had.
I have owned most of the popular brands and styles (Gath, various Protec) and they are not good for kiting.
The other issue is availability, which I guess really reflects on commitment from the industry. You can go to a board store and try out any number of snowboard helmets. If you're lucky they might have a few sizes of Gath helmets or the odd skateboarding or snowboarding helmet.
Comparing kiteboarding to cycling is not even remotely valid. According to Sandringham Hospital 85% of cycling injuries come from cyclists riding into stationary obstacles such as parked cars, posts and traffic signs. The ,majority of those injuries are to arms but the chances of your head impacting the obstacle are huge, especially if you riding head forward on a road bike. Last time I looked all the posts and signs in the sea and on the beach were easily avoided by just moving somewhere else.
Why wouldn't wakeboarding helmets work? They have the same issues with landing in water at high speed?
Select to expand quoteSaffer said..
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Why wouldn't wakeboarding helmets work? They have the same issues with landing in water at high speed?
In my opinion they're too heavy and too bucket shaped. I don't know what the design criteria is for a wakeboard helmet. Perhaps they're designed for going over sliders where the most likely injury is impacting the slider. I would have thought a helmet would be not much use at all if you're just riding around on a wakeboard and doing hops off the wake. There's nothing hard to hit.
That's the thing about helmet design. They are designed for surviving the most likely type of incident. Motorcycle helmets are heavy and can contribute to neck injuries. That's why neck braces are becoming more common. The helmets are designed for the highly likely accident where you head butt a tree or the side of a car.
My worst ever crash was with a Protec Ace Wake when I was teaching myself back roll kite loops. I thought I would be a good little kiteboarder and wear a helmet so I could go for it. The whiplash and subsequent bucketing nearly tore my head off. The adjustment strap veritably exploded and the helmet was rammed down over my face.
I accept that a helmet would save me if my board hit me in the head, but that's never happened.
I believe that a helmet would make whiplash injuries much worse, and they happen all the time.
I suspect a helmet will do not much good at all if I head butt a sea wall or a sign, but I always ride with two lines lengths clearance from downwind obstacles to reduce the risk.
PS The watersports standard is based on kayaking. The tests simulate knocking your head in a glancing blow, similar to hitting your head on a rock as you go down a rapid. A closer approximation to kiteboarding would be going over a waterfall and skipping of hard stuff on the way down. They don't test for that.
Select to expand quoteGorgo said..Saffer said..
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Why wouldn't wakeboarding helmets work? They have the same issues with landing in water at high speed?
In my opinion they're too heavy and too bucket shaped. I don't know what the design criteria is for a wakeboard helmet. Perhaps they're designed for going over sliders where the most likely injury is impacting the slider. I would have thought a helmet would be not much use at all if you're just riding around on a wakeboard and doing hops off the wake. There's nothing hard to hit.
That's the thing about helmet design. They are designed for surviving the most likely type of incident. Motorcycle helmets are heavy and can contribute to neck injuries. That's why neck braces are becoming more common. The helmets are designed for the highly likely accident where you head butt a tree or the side of a car.
My worst ever crash was with a Protec Ace Wake when I was teaching myself back roll kite loops. I thought I would be a good little kiteboarder and wear a helmet so I could go for it. The whiplash and subsequent bucketing nearly tore my head off. The adjustment strap veritably exploded and the helmet was rammed down over my face.
I accept that a helmet would save me if my board hit me in the head, but that's never happened.
I believe that a helmet would make whiplash injuries much worse, and they happen all the time.
I suspect a helmet will do not much good at all if I head butt a sea wall or a sign, but I always ride with two lines lengths clearance from downwind obstacles to reduce the risk.
The challenge with kiting is that water is that it needs to cater for water wipeouts and hitting solid objects when you get lofted which makes it slightly challenging.
I remember making the mistake of using the old style peak cap helmets. If you hit the water with the top of your head forward, it pushed down the peak and almost broke your nose.
Maybe we need someone to come up with a unique design that solves the problem for kiting.
Hey Ive been watching the Americas Cup yacht racing on the TV - bloody amazing!! When did they change from mono hulls to the foiled cats???
Ok a bit off topic but those boats absolutely fly and EVERONE on board is wearing a helmet - thats got to be a first for international yachting!!
Just have a look at these things!! and yes Id be pulling on a lid if asked to jump on board!!http://www.americascup.com/en/news/3/news/18387/day-13-preview-challenger-and-defender-desperate-for-a-victory
Recently discussed on kiteforum and worth a read with some good info:
kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=12309
Personal view for what it's worth, have participated in motorcycling, football, ice hockey, sailing etc..... all wearing a sport specific helmet. Wonderful opportunity for the global/local manufacturers to do some research, make a sports specific product and save lives. Question is, which part of the sport? freestyle, wakestyle, surf, freeride, foil/course/slalom/distance racing?
The Gath Convertible looks ok as surf hat that will protect you from board impacts but reduce the drag and whiplash potential. My old Gath hat got a fair bit of use in the beginning.
I have not seen one in a shop for 8-10 years. It has no certification or weight specs on the web site. At $155 from the Gath web site it's a bit much to order one just to try it on.
Sorry to go against the trend but I don't want to wear a helmet.
Freak accidents will always happen and helmet would not make any difference in 95% of case.
How many kiters have died from head injuries???? probably on par with kiters who died by shark attack and no-one questioned my choice to get out on the water despite living in great white territory.
I respect your choice to wear one so allow me the same respect if I choose not to.
Select to expand quotesebol said..
How many kiters have died from head injuries???? probably on par with kiters who died by shark attack and no-one questioned my choice to get out on the water despite living in great white territory.
Actually most deaths follow a common trend. Riding over powered or in gusty conditions becomes overpowered, kiter gets lofted dragged on land and smacks into something hard with their head killing them. On many of the occasions a helmet would have potentially saved their life. I don't have the actual stats but from memory reading all the fatal accident reports around the world in the last 4-5 years i'd say 85% of these people could potentially still be alive.
I know I am still alive because of wearing a helmet.
This is what I was talking about before. Your percieved risk is out of wack. You think you do not need to wear a helmet because you are kiting in water.... The news flash is most accidents occur on land when that happens you sure as hell need a helmet.
Put the other way. Why not wear a helmet? what dissadvatage does it hold? Some have mentioned potential whiplash from wipeouts. I have wiped out many times and have not once been whiplashed because of wearing a helmet. personally i'll take the whiplash risk over the death risk anyday
Plummet - I agree with you there - people not wearing a helmet in kiting is not due to "coolness" but due to a perception that since they are over water, it won't make a big difference. Kids wear helmets all the time for everything these days and I don't think they think twice about it on a skateboard/bike/snowboard.
But, as you stated, it's the times when you launch and land that are the greatest risk. And then there are those times when you come in to shore because it's come up too windy and you need to extricate yourself from it.
Select to expand quotesebol said..
Sorry to go against the trend but I don't want to wear a helmet.
Freak accidents will always happen and helmet would not make any difference in 95% of case.
How many kiters have died from head injuries???? probably on par with kiters who died by shark attack and no-one questioned my choice to get out on the water despite living in great white territory.
I respect your choice to wear one so allow me the same respect if I choose not to.
Good luck to you mate, lets hope that you are right.
It only takes a split second to lose your life and anything you can do to that increases your chance of surviving an accident are worth taking. Unfortunately alot of serious accidents happen because people get complacent and that is when they get caught unprepared. The reality is with kiting you are far more likely to die from a head injury than a shark attack, like being lofted through a car park into the side of a car trying to launch an oversized kite in 35+ knots as I watched some guy do this winter. Car, Concrete, Head these are not things that particularly go well together. I wear a helmet and will continue to do so and regard it as a sensible safety precaution in a sport that is at times unpredictable.
