Always wear your helmets, I don’t want to think about what would have happened if I wasn’t wearing mine. Stay safe.
As a snowboard virgin I had no idea what to assume, I now assume that all snowboarders know about falling into/through rocks?
I remember when wearing helmets (at least in Europe) wasn’t really a thing about 15 years ago. We had one friend who used to wear one and we’d always tease him about it. On one trip he failed to land a backflip over a fairly large kicker and landed on his head and his helmet split pretty much in half. Dude was fine. But we all stood there in silence and looked at the helmet and then individually proceeded to buy a helmet with the tail between our legs within the next few days. Tough to imagine now to ride without one.
15 years ago I went snowboarding for the first time. We got to the mountain early morning and all my buddies rushed to get to the lift. We went up and went to the terrain park. It was my first time. I picked it up really fast and was doing jumps and small boxes but my edge work was horrible. So when I got too much speed at the end of the park, I accidentally hit a huge jump at speed while trying to turn to go around it. I ended up flying through the air with my back facing down the mountain. When I landed, my head snapped backwards and smashed on the cold icy early morning pack. I was KO’d. All I remember was not being able to breathe for a few seconds, then nothing. My buddy went down the rest of the run, and then came back up and down hoping that I would have been alright. I wasn’t. I was still passed out in the run. By the time ski patrol got to me, I was unconscious for over 30 minutes. I came to, and looked up to a bunch of faces I didn’t know. Six to Eight ski patrol were huddled around me. They asked me my name. I told them. They asked me my birthday. I told them. They asked what state I was in. I didn’t know. They asked me what year it was. No clue. All I knew was who I was and that I was snowboarding. Thats it. The worst part, I knew that I knew the answers to the questions they were asking me, but my brain simply could not pull the information forward. I pissed blood later that day and have always rode with a helmet since.
I actually was that guy for my friends: Back when helmets were not really popular we had planed to ride two days in a resort. We bought a 2-day pass and started our first run. I hit a kicker, turned 90 degrees, landed on my heel edge and fell backwards. On to my head. I knew on the spot it was a concussion and told my friends before passing out. Needed to be transported to the hospital via a helicopter.
My friends bought a helmet on the spot.
A friend off mine was free riding in France with his best friend. His friend was in front line, don’t estimate well the drop after a bump, fell 10 meters and brake his head on rocks. My friend was holding him when he died. Even after that it take me 13 years to wear a helmet… I was dumb.
One time I slammed so hard snowboarding (caught my heel side when I was still newish) and hit my head so hard on a patch of ice. I’m confident that if I weren’t wearing a helmet, I would have been going to the ER that night. Instead I laid there for a couple minutes and had a headache. Helmets are awesome
My sister had a snowboarding accident where her helmet cracked. She is a very experienced snowboarder (about 13 or 14 seasons), but someone else ran into her and there was nothing she could have done to prevent it. She had a terrible concussion that put her out of work for almost 2 months. If she hadn’t had a helmet on, she would likely be dead or severely handicapped.
I share her story because it absolutely does not matter how “good” you are. Anything can happen. Spend the money and ignore anyone who judges because a helmet can save your life!
In my experience it’s usually the “good” and experienced riders that sustain the worst injuries because they are confident in their skills which can sometimes fail them. However, I’ve encountered so many newbies that say stupid shit like “I can’t go fast enough that I would hurt myself anyway” and then they break their wrist and smack their face on the ground.
Agreed, I smacked my head on a sheet of ice and even with a helmet I still got a concussion. I can only think what would happen if I wasn’t wearing one.
My understanding is that helmets don’t do a ton to reduce the risk of concussion. Concussions are caused from your brain rattling around in your skull and despite wearing a helmet, if your head stops/ changes direction fast enough, you’ll get a concussion (I’ve even gotten concussions without hitting my head at all, just landing on my hip hard enough to jar my head). What the helmet DOES do is make sure your head doesn’t crack open. You’ll still get a concussion but the overall extent of injury/ chance of dying goes way down.
Same. It created a huge gash in the helmet and it took me a while to regain my confidence on my board after that.
I smacked my head on a shoot of ice when i was going for a front board and my board just stuck to the rail. I wasn’t trying to do anything to complicated cause i just ordered a helmet. Never again
I once pulled shards of a sharp rock out of my helmet that I apparently broke off with my head. Yeah, I always wear a helmet. I did get a POC MIPS multiple impact with a hard shell after that though…
I killed the same helmet this year catching a back edge in some tight trees at about 40D pitch at Stevens this year. Love flying backwards through the air for long enough you have the complete thought “goddam I’m glad that I’m wearing a helmet”.
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