Which helmet provides the most protection?

[lyosha 50]

Anyone have any constructive opinions on the matter? Any that tend to be better? Any that should be avoided? Just to clarify, I'm talking about about "kicked midair" or "PLF-ed downwind landing and hit head on something" type scenarios where a better helmet is the difference between grades of concussion.

[RiggerLee 61]

Any thing but a sky diving helmet. This is going to sound odd but a good bicycle helmet. One that is reasonable clean. By that I mean not too snag able by risers. Some have large over hangs.

There are also some skiing helmets that might also have some actual value.

Lee

Lee
lee@velocitysportswear.com
www.velocitysportswear.com

[lyosha 50]

RiggerLee

Any thing but a sky diving helmet.

What about in the realm of skydiving helmets? There's gotta be someone out there that offers more than cotton balls attached to cardboard... or at least someone that offers thicker/harder cardboard than the rest...

[RiggerLee 61]

Yes, and that is precisely the problem. Many of the shells are too hard and there is not enough room between them and the skull. A protect is one of the "best" helmets out there. It sucks. It creates traumatic brain injuries as the brain gets slammed against the side of the skull. You have to absorb the energy. The shell has to fracture like an egg shell and the foam has to have enough room to crush absorbing the energy. It would be better if the helmet shell were on the inside and the foam on the out side of the helmet. You asked what actually works. Well it's not a sky diving helmet.

Lee

Lee
lee@velocitysportswear.com
www.velocitysportswear.com

[councilman24 37]

A protec with a para rescue liner is probably the best that has been normally sold for skydiving. None of the carbon fiber things do more.than hold your hair, audible, visor and go pro. When they get hit they brake, don't absorb much energy and slice you head open like a razor.
Back in the day hockey helmets were hot and still are useful minus the cage.

Of course skydiving isn't about safety it's about being cool.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[piisfish 140]

ProTec
various ski helmets

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[JeffCa 0]

councilman24

Back in the day hockey helmets were hot and still are useful minus the cage. Of course skydiving isn't about safety it's about being cool.

As a Canadian, I don't mind wearing a hockey helmet, eh, and I've never thought I look cool. So would a good hockey helmet with something like this visor be a good replacement for my G3? I want to stay full-face, I need the mouth and nose protection.

http://www.hockeymonkey.com/bauer-hockey-faceshield-concept-3.html

"So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

[Hellis 0]

Some ski-helmets actually have dytterpockets too.

My girlfriend has a skiing helmet with "pads" covering the ears. These pads was filled with foam and could be opened with a zipper.

[MikeBIBOM 0]

"Landed downwind and hit head on something" isn't something a helmet, even a good one, can necessarily protect you from, see Michael Schumacher. He was wearing one of those protective foam+shell ski helmets, and it didn't do much to protect his head from a rock at high speed.

In that case, a DOT/SNELL approved Motorcycle helmet might help, but a helmet isn't meant to protect you from potentially penetrating objects, it's meant to protect you from a more spread-out impact, i.e. the ground itself.

Now, as to the protection of the Carbon Fiber "look cools", far more likely than impacting a hard object on landing, is hitting your head on the aircraft or having somebody else knock into your head in mid-air, or direct contact with flat dirt during a mild PLF. My Tonfly carbon-fibre Look Cools have protected me from all of those. The impacts themselves were fairly minor, but had it been my head directly and not the shell around my head, it would have actually hurt, possibly knocked me out for a few seconds, and potentially cascaded into a lot worse situation.

If you have any given full-face while doing FS and somebody gives you a minor kick while doing a turn, for example, it will help, but it won't protect you very well from a high speed impact with somebody's foot.

There's a misunderstanding of what helmets are meant to do and it causes more problems trying to remedy that than it solves.

Those Bright yellow plastic shells you see on construction sites? Yeah, those are meant to protect from falling debris like screws and bolts and gravel (things which are far more likely to fall without warning), not from I-Beams.

Look at the old steel military helmets going back to WWI. They were never meant to stop bullets, they were just there to protect the head from falling debris like shrapnel, small rocks, hard clumps of earth and other small objects kicked up by artillery shells and bombs, which if they hit a bare head would cause gashes, concussions, and other minor head injuries which would take a soldier out of the fight, but not necessarily do lasting damage.

These days we have Kevlar weave helmets which do stop bullets. Consequently, we have more internal head injuries both from bullet impacts and from blast waves that grab the helmet and yank the head with it (Yeah, it wasn't just John Wayne back in the day, in WWII they rarely wore chinstraps because they knew that the blast wave from an artillery shell would blow the helmet off and take the head with it if it was strapped down) than they did back then.

People put too much trust in it and expect the helmet to do what it was never meant to do in the first place.

So to answer your question: None of them.

How you protect your head doing a PLF down-winder? First, try to land in an area with no hazards, secondly, tuck your chin and keep it tucked on impact and absorb the impact with your body, not your neck, and roll onto your shoulders if you have to.

Go take a couple of Judo classes on how to fall, it will help considerably.

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

I know of no skydiving helmet which will be of much use in a downwind collision with a fire hydrant. However, that is not to say that skydiving helmets have no protective value at all. The photo below is of a G3 after a tumbled landing on a paved runway. I can assure you that the chick wearing this helmet was VERY appreciative that the helmet took this grinding... and not her face.

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[lyosha 50]

I'm not asking which helmet will stop a bullet...

Let me try to rephrase my original question (and lets pretend cost is immaterial) - if you were to recommend a skydiving helmet to a friend based on its qualities as a HELMET and not as an attractive piece of shiny plastic, is there any you would recommend above the rest? Any that should be avoided?

[DBCOOPER 5]

http://www.oregonaero.com/other-helmets/additional-helmet-upgrades

Replying to: Re: Stall On Jump Run Emergency Procedure? by billvon

If the plane is unrecoverable then exiting is a very very good idea.

[Rickendiver 6]

***Yes, and that is precisely the problem. Many of the shells are too hard and there is not enough room between them and the skull. A protect is one of the "best" helmets out there. It sucks. It creates traumatic brain injuries as the brain gets slammed against the side of the skull. You have to absorb the energy. The shell has to fracture like an egg shell and the foam has to have enough room to crush absorbing the energy. It would be better if the helmet shell were on the inside and the foam on the out side of the helmet. You asked what actually works. Well it's not a sky diving helmet.

Yep, the foam padding used in helmets doesn't do much to decouple the compression and shear forces from an impact.
It'd be nice if someone could come up with a better helmet pad material-
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1002/adfm.201400451/

[MikeBIBOM 0]

Then you've missed my point. All these helmets people are recommending, Protecs and Ski helmets, they're no more likely to protect from impact with an object than any other plastic/carbon fibre shell helmet. Michael Schumacher was wearing one of those hard-shell foam lined ski helmets when he hit his head on a rock. And he wasn't bombing some back trail at 90mph when he did it, either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrppugqZQvQ

So, no, there aren't any I would recommend above the rest and none I would suggest avoiding. The goal of wearing a helmet while skydiving is to prevent minor bumps and scrapes, not serious impacts, and they all do a pretty good job of that.

[lyosha 50]

MikeBIBOM

Then you've missed my point. All these helmets people are recommending, Protecs and Ski helmets, they're no more likely to protect from impact with an object than any other plastic/carbon fibre shell helmet. Michael Schumacher was wearing one of those hard-shell foam lined ski helmets when he hit his head on a rock. And he wasn't bombing some back trail at 90mph when he did it, either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrppugqZQvQ

So, no, there aren't any I would recommend above the rest and none I would suggest avoiding. The goal of wearing a helmet while skydiving is to prevent minor bumps and scrapes, not serious impacts, and they all do a pretty good job of that.

Nothing is absolute. You can still get hurt. But it's a game of averages. The helmet that provides the best protection gives you the best chance.

[Doug_Davis 0]

This is what I use to protect my head from rocks in full on Class 4 or 5 river runs. Tom, company owner, also makes a full face version that I use as well.
I've taken some hard hits with them and haven't managed to break one yet.
Not sure what impact he has tested them to though. I do know his snow sport helmets have to meet some international guidelines.
http://shredready.quivers.com/p/1095/

I'd actually thought of suggesting to Tom that he get into the skydiving market as he seems able to produce a damn good helmet far cheaper than anything other than protecs in the skydiving market.

[mjosparky 4]

lyosha

***Then you've missed my point. All these helmets people are recommending, Protecs and Ski helmets, they're no more likely to protect from impact with an object than any other plastic/carbon fibre shell helmet. Michael Schumacher was wearing one of those hard-shell foam lined ski helmets when he hit his head on a rock. And he wasn't bombing some back trail at 90mph when he did it, either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrppugqZQvQ

So, no, there aren't any I would recommend above the rest and none I would suggest avoiding. The goal of wearing a helmet while skydiving is to prevent minor bumps and scrapes, not serious impacts, and they all do a pretty good job of that.

Nothing is absolute. You can still get hurt. But it's a game of averages. The helmet that provides the best protection gives you the best chance.


Cooper hockey helmets were the in thing in the late 70’s. along with the ProTec. Even though I wore one the Cooper wasn’t worth a shit. The ProTec is probably the best protection of any skydiving helmet I have seen. As was mentioned before get the upgraded liner here. .http://www.oregonaero.com/other-helmets/additional-helmet-upgrades

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[wildcard451 0]

http://www.pocsports.com/en/product/1229/receptor-backcountry-mips

What I am currently using on my noggin for swooping.

[1160 0]

I had an incident where I was on the ground after a skydive reeling in my canopy and standing still. A competition canopy pilot did a carving landing thru the skydivers on the ground. Without any warning he struck me with a knee to the head at what I estimate was 25+ mph. I consider myself very lucky that I was still wearing my Z1 helmet as I believe they would have been taking me to the hospital with a fractured skull had I taken my helmet off after landing. Although it rung my bell and I had to sit down for a couple of minutes to gather my wits I sustained no permanent damage and I credit my helmet for protecting me. Now I do not remove my helmet until I get clear of the landing area. Hope this helps.

[lyosha 50]

1160

I had an incident where I was on the ground after a skydive reeling in my canopy and standing still. A competition canopy pilot did a carving landing thru the skydivers on the ground. Without any warning he struck me with a knee to the head at what I estimate was 25+ mph. I consider myself very lucky that I was still wearing my Z1 helmet as I believe they would have been taking me to the hospital with a fractured skull had I taken my helmet off after landing. Although it rung my bell and I had to sit down for a couple of minutes to gather my wits I sustained no permanent damage and I credit my helmet for protecting me. Now I do not remove my helmet until I get clear of the landing area. Hope this helps.

Actually yeah, it does, this is perfect thanks! Puts my mind to ease a bit.

Do you think G3/PhantomX would have done as well? Better? Worse?

[1160 0]

I am jumping a G3 helmet now because I need the extra room for my prescription glasses. I think the G3 provides me the same protection that the Z1 gave me.

[riggerrob 643]

Count yourself lucky.
I watched a similar incident in Perris Valley, California. A swooper hit a guy standing in the landing area.

The victim's knee got twisted all to $#@!
The swooper was grounded until the knee healed. USPA grounded him for a year.

[Kirkk0herra 0]

Hello,

I came across with these. I think both are a rather good looking setups with integrated goggles so you don't risk losing them. I'm yet to buy any skydiving gear, do you think these would do the job?

Bolle Osmoz (~$150)

http://www.bolle.com/products/osmoz

OSBE United

http://craft-helme.maedl.de/osbe-skihelmet-united-blackred-p-8915.html?language=en&noHeaderNavCat=0

[Deimian 43]

In my opinion they look good but you might check for 2 things:

-In the near future you might want to add an audible. Most probably you won't be able to do it out of the box with those helmets. But cutting a hole and sewing a small pocket for the audible is probably possible.

-In the not so near future you might want to add a camera. In that case you probably will need a cutaway system. It looks like the first model won't accept it easily. For the second one it is not clear either.

[Kirkk0herra 0]

Audible? As of audible altimeter? I think I'll do just fine with a traditional one.

Cutaway system for GoPro? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with such thing. Care to elaborate?