Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

As you all know I am a Luddite. This blog post from Grant at Riv formerly Bridgestone has some good points to make, especially the part on golf and to a lesser extent the issues of helmets. All.of which totally applies to the skiing disciplines and industry.

https://www.rivbike.com/blogs/grant-pet ... lahg-of-23

Think of powerful boots vs floppy leathers reading the first paragraph.
Then the extended discussion of helmets. No need to comment, what's written is solid.

Regarding helmets. Last year my gf and I were helmet bullied at winsport in Calgary. A gaggle of teenaged Valley girls proceeded to chirp us for no helmets all through the lift line and throughout the whole lift ride and even as we prepared to ski down. It was maybe my second time bringing telemark gear to lift serviced hills, and I was already self conscious. I proceeded to rip two runs of parallel gs and super g turns just to burn off the discomfort. I honestly had no clue the helmet thing had become somewhat akin to the whole vaccine coercion during covid. Can't stand peer pressure especially from strangers. I use helmets thoroughly when I feel I need them in avalanche terrain, ski mountaineering, and big mountain charging. Groomers at winsport though? Wtf. When I looked around there we were literally the only ones without lids. It was strange. I do not recall this blanket usage at mountain resorts, and they were not mandatory at winsport. Anyways, I need to get that out. Phew

Lhartley wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 05, 2024 11:25 pm

Regarding helmets. Last year my gf and I were helmet bullied at winsport in Calgary. A gaggle of teenaged Valley girls proceeded to chirp us for no helmets all through the lift line and throughout the whole lift ride and even as we prepared to ski down. It was maybe my second time bringing telemark gear to lift serviced hills, and I was already self conscious. I proceeded to rip two runs of parallel gs and super g turns just to burn off the discomfort. I honestly had no clue the helmet thing had become somewhat akin to the whole vaccine coercion during covid. Can't stand peer pressure especially from strangers. I use helmets thoroughly when I feel I need them in avalanche terrain, ski mountaineering, and big mountain charging. Groomers at winsport though? Wtf. When I looked around there we were literally the only ones without lids. It was strange. I do not recall this blanket usage at mountain resorts, and they were not mandatory at winsport. Anyways, I need to get that out. Phew

Totally hear what you’re saying.

For me, it just came down to statistics.
It’s one of those low probability / high consequence situations.
Hear too many stories of skier hit tree, skier hit by another skier, etc.
Soon after starting to wear a helmet, took a fall and banged my head pretty good on hard snow.
Might have been fine without the helmet, but sort of drove home to potential benefit of wearing one.
And, I mean, why not?
Once you get past the image thing, and $100 on sale, what’s the downside?

No downside at all. It's just risk mitigation. Thing is, everyone's risk mitigation is different, and that's why I consider it a personal choice. I'm not sure there's much more risk skiing rolling nordic trails than groomer green runs. So, why does nobody wear a lid a at the nordic center? Social norms??

Not that it matters, but I don’t wear a helmet XC or BC or XCD.
Like you say, personal choice and I don’t see enough value in those cases to make it worth it, and prefer nothing on my head — don’t usually wear a hat.
And, tbh, resort skiing, there is some degree of social conformity for me — other people are doing it, general agreement it’s safer, blah, blah, blah…

But, those teenage girls were out of line.
You’re not endangering anyone but yourself by not wearing one, and that’s entirely up to you.

When I was 19 and dirt biking, I never wore a helmet. It wasn't until I started wearing them that I needed them. There may be a lesson there. And improvements in equipment increase access to sports for those who either may not have tried them or would have progressed very slowly along the way. That increased rate of progression without the time to learn lessons along the way makes helmets a good idea for many. Plus, they are nice and warm.
But it's a personal decision for sure.

I got helmet shamed while taking a girlfriend's kids for a bike ride in the neighborhood years ago. Went back in the house, got their helmets on and strapped a pillow to my head. My neighbors love me.

There some interesting facts about risk, that insurance companies know pretty well:

«Risk compensation is a theory which suggests that people typically adjust their behavior in response to perceived levels of risk, becoming more careful where they sense greater risk and less careful if they feel more protected.»
There is some more here in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation about Peltzman effect, Risk homeostasis, etc.

«In a Munich study, part of a fleet of taxicabs were equipped with anti-lock brakes (ABS), while the remainder had conventional brake systems. In other respects, the two types of cars were identical. The crash rates, studied over three years, were a little higher for the cabs with ABS,[10] Wilde concluded that drivers of ABS-equipped cabs took more risks, assuming that ABS would take care of them; non-ABS drivers were said to drive more carefully since they could not rely on ABS in a dangerous situation.»

All of this needs to be read with nuances... it doesn't state that wearing a helmet, for exemple, is a bad or a good thing... it doesn't state anything about something like wearing a helmet in a crash (which everybody know would be a good thing if your head encounter a tree in a fall).

For exemple, here in Quebec, Vélo-Québec is against provincial regulation regarding wearing a helmet... The one that's pushing for regulation (in a recent past) is Garneau... a helmet maker! It is not all black or white. It is rather a complex game/thing.

I choose to wear a helmet at the ski station... but skied many years without it. I do not wear any in the backcountry...

It sometimes feel like there are some people acting like ayatollahs, speaking from an endox point of view, without questioning or contextualizing...

I have considered a helmet for backcountry tree skiing thinking I may feel able to ski more assertively.

In surfing (especially if you're not that good at it!) there is a "thing" called "neoprene courage". A full wetsuit just makes you feel safer, so you tend to push things harder.