28
What's your view on ski helmets?
Wednesday July 28, 2010 - Email this article to a friend
Under promoted or over hyped? Useful? Uncomfortable? Another marketing con? Essential for safety? You could help a new study being conducted into people's attitudes and beliefs into wearing one.
It's being compiled by The University of Surrey.
It's findings will not give a definite view of whether wearing a helmet makes you safer, and if so by how much, but we reckon at PlanetSKI that it will make for some interesting reading.
It is about attitudes and beliefs.
Each question has a rating scale of 1-5 depending on how much you agree or disagree with the statement or question.
First it asks your level and how many weeks you have been skiing or snowboarding for.
Then it asks whether you think wearing a helmet is necessary, about social pressure to wear one and whether you believe it makes you ski or snowboard in a different way.
The vexed question of compulsion is also tackled in amongst many other questions and areas.
Take a look here for the survey itself.
Compulsory for kidsThe researchers say it takes 20 minutes to complete.
Here at PlanetSKi we did it in under 10 minutes and would strongly recommend you contribute your thoughts to the debate.
The research is being done by Mary Ondrusz who is a regular competitor on the FIS Masters circuit and her husband, Tom, has coached many of the UK's leading young skiers at UK ski centres.
There is precious little accurate research into wearing a helmet and it should make a valuable contribution to the deabte.
The survey is about attitudes and beliefs, rather than hard facts.
A recent Candian survey, conducted over 10 years, concluded that people are 33% safer with a helmet on, than without one.
It appeard in The Canadian Medical Association Journal.
At one end of the spectrum of views people are quite evangelical about wearing a helmet and, at the other end, some say they actually increase the risk of injury.
The most recent research in North America concluded that wearing a helmet does not increase the risk of neck injuries.
A handful of ski areas in North America are extending the level of compulsion and in California legislation is currently going through The Senate to make it compulsory for everyone under 18 year of age.
Some welcome this sort of law as it promotes safety, others fear the onward march of the nanny state.
In Europe children are made to wear a helmet in certain circumstances, but any form of widespread compulsion in Europe seems unlikely according to this story we wrote last season here on PlanetSKI.
A couple of winter's ago we did an interview with the British holiday skier, Mervyn Fletcher, who had just bought a helmet for the first time.
You may have seen the video before, as we have put it up several times, but if not take a look below.
He has some interesting observations.
So, if you have a view and want it to be heard then click on the link to the research project, here.
We look forward to reading the results here on PlanetSKI and will let you know them when they are published.
If you have completed the survey do tell us what you thought of it. Will it contribute useful information to the debate or just be another piece of opinionated and unscientific research?PlanetSKI reserves the right to edit any comments. In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name and location unless you state otherwise in the box below.
Useful to have a survey. Repetitive and similar questions makes me think it is a bit geeky to the interviewing trade and might be slanted to producing a particular result. Not all of my answers might have been consistent.
In general I favour helmets.We need a way of carrying them easily on buses or whilst skinning .Cheers, James.
Charles Pritchard, England Chester
Bookmark this page
Related Articles
Transceiver park in Scottish resort (Monday January 30, 2012)Using a touch screen with ski gloves (Thursday January 26, 2012)
Should everyone wear a helmet? (Thursday January 26, 2012)
Helmets should be compulsory for all (Wednesday January 18, 2012)
Snow+Rock opens first shop in Scotland (Wednesday December 28, 2011)
EpicMix in Vail Resorts (Thursday December 22, 2011)
