Yes, it's obvious that a helmet protects your head/skull/brain but does little for your neck/spinal cord. It could even be hypothesized that helmets can produce more spinal cord damage as they produce a larger fulcrum and leverage on the neck (but save your brain). This is why in motor sports they develop neck cushions, supports into the shoulders and neck below the helmet(Hans device).

Now I did ask the researchers if their testing methods were not applicable to windsurfing and windfoiling that maybe they could test them differently for our sport.

Chris 249 said..
I can imagine them saying that they don't have the funds to worry about such a small sport.

The impact speed of the tests they did appear to be vastly slower than the ones we normally deal with.

I'm currently crashed out due to the effects of a windsurfing head injury about 32 years ago, which made my sinuses into a disaster area, and given the higher rotational forces Sparky mentions and the fact that damage to the face can also be very serious, I'd be concerned about whether wearing a helmet gave a false sense of security. It's a very complex problem.

Thanks, and sorry to hear about your accident. No, I do not think of a helmet as security, not after Jose, but just as an added layer, first layer is being aware that it can be a dangerous sport. When I forget that, then I get into trouble. Play it safe and live another day with a healthy body and mind. Just because the helmet absorbs some of the impact does not mean there is not enough energy left over to damage my spine.

Peter Hands said..
So my ancient Gath with small fixed visor turns out to be hopeless as impact protection ... but has been great for warmth, sun protection, surfer's ear protection, and saved me from a few mast bops when waterstarting on wild days

Yup, helmets with a fixed visor scored poorly in their tests, guessing front impact from weight causes rotation of helmet.

musorianin said..
I still don't get the premise of the initial post. A helmet does absolutely nothing to protect your spinal cord.

Sure it does, by absorbing "part" of an impact it reduces the force your head applies to your spinal column, instead of 100% of the impact force being transmitted through you head to your spinal column. Jose was reported to have only damaged his C4 vertebra, rest of vertebra were fine, so just needed a helmet to make a reduction in impact energy and C4 may have been able to withstand the impact.

Kinda like how a board nose protector prevents a mast impact from cracking the board.

The biggest worry for me is getting knocked out and drowning . Not the maximum a helmet can handle before breaking my neck . I'm not worried about my visor digging in and grabbing the water . I'm not worried about an anvil either . I just don't want to head butt my mast or board . Any helmet will do and is 100x better than no helmet ? My helmet wearing moment was when I slowly , simply fell in the water after a fluffed jybe and thought the sail was dropping next to me . Instead , it kind of swung sideways and hit me on the side of my head . It was a realitively light tap that kinda , sorta , knocked me out for a couple seconds . Its not fun waking up under water .It made me realise how easy it is to get knocked out .I now wear a helmet and i dont care how gay i look .

kato, yes built-in visor on Trident is a liability, on my Chaos I use a flexible add-on visor, but prefer built in. Will just have be careful about not hitting the water face forward, which I have done in the past.

Subsonic, the Trident outer shell is designed to crush on impact, that is why I got it. I was doing a foiling gybe and just when I flipped the sail a gust hit me, threw mast right at me hitting my elbow bone with a cracking sound. Think that is what happened to Jose except mast hit him on the forehead.

Sandman1221 said..

musorianin said..
I still don't get the premise of the initial post. A helmet does absolutely nothing to protect your spinal cord.

Sure it does, by absorbing "part" of an impact it reduces the force your head applies to your spinal column, instead of 100% of the impact force being transmitted through you head to your spinal column. Jose was reported to have only damaged his C4 vertebra, rest of vertebra were fine, so just needed a helmet to make a reduction in impact energy and C4 may have been able to withstand the impact.

Kinda like how a board nose protector prevents a mast impact from cracking the board.

By that logic your best helmet would be out of, say, 2 inch polystyrene with no hard shell

Sandman1221 said..
presumably a sail mast impact during a foiling gybe,

There is a lot of speculation in this thread about the cause of his injuries and I dont feel comfortable adding to them but.....
To fix a problem you have to know exactly what the problem is.
What if the mast impact wasnt on his head but he fell awkwardly with his neck on the mast/boom/board and it was body weight which did the damage? Would a chunky helmet increase that likelihood?
What is the speed in a foiling gybe? Race foil or slow freeride foil?
I remember from my motorbike basic training the discussion on types of helmet construction, polycarbonate v composite fibreglass/carbon/kevlar and resulting injuries. Polycarbonate shelled helmets resulted in more fractured skulls as the shell cracked. Composite had fewer fractured skulls but more neck injuries. That was in 1991 so things might have changed.
What type of sailing do you do? I sail a lot faster on my freerace kit than foil/wave, so dislike any peak or sticky out bit on the helmet (even thick padding where the shell isnt snug to my head) as that could catch in the water and twist my neck.
My main concern foiling is landing on the sharp edge or it running over my head if I fall off and dont hold onto the boom. A thin skinned cycle helmet would be useless, I've seen pictures of foils embedded in boards.
I had wipeout after hitting rope at speed and water was forced onto my ear, causing problems. I want a helmet to completely cover my ears.
Some helmets dont go down far enough at the back of the head, comparing my cycle helmet to windsurf helmet there is a noticeable difference.
As Kato said, there is skin cancer and the protection helmets give.
How long is the helmet likely to last in salt water, does off water accidental damage render it ineffective? Drop a motorcycle helmet on concrete and have you damaged the shell which you cant see? They recommend you replace them, but thats a different kettle of fish. Same for watersports helmets?

Imax1 said..
The other day I saw a cyclist with an add on large sun brim that somehow attached to her helmet . It was a lightweight meshy kind of thing that looked waterproof . Stiff enough to hold shape , but would easily crumple in a crash . Could be a good thing . It was kinda like the one below but mesh and not as bulky attaching to the helmet .

It would work ONLY UNDER 6kt....otherwise it will fly away hahahaha

According to the researchers at Virginia Tech, the visor on the Trident was not the reason it received a lower score than the Chaos, in the front impact test they do not hit the visor. They also said that the protruding visor was an issue when hitting the ground, since it can grab, but "was not an issue with water", do not know if they taking into account the speeds that we go on water. At high speeds water can certainly grab visor, but still not like hard ground would.

And for mast impacts on the top of the helmet, they said to look for a helmet with padding inside the top of the helmet.

www.theaustralian.com.au/podcasts/head-noise-helmet-no-defence-against-concussion/news-story/87d0712a7502889d654edf7cc8ae1fb4

Sandman1221 said..

musorianin said..
I still don't get the premise of the initial post. A helmet does absolutely nothing to protect your spinal cord.

Sure it does, by absorbing "part" of an impact it reduces the force your head applies to your spinal column, instead of 100% of the impact force being transmitted through you head to your spinal column. Jose was reported to have only damaged his C4 vertebra, rest of vertebra were fine, so just needed a helmet to make a reduction in impact energy and C4 may have been able to withstand the impact.

Kinda like how a board nose protector prevents a mast impact from cracking the board.

What utter rubbish you dribble.

Peter Hands said..
www.theaustralian.com.au/podcasts/head-noise-helmet-no-defence-against-concussion/news-story/87d0712a7502889d654edf7cc8ae1fb4

A properly made helmet can help protect against concussions. Obviously, if you are going fast enough and hit a hard object with your head and helmet you can get a concussion, spinal cord damage, or even die.

To prevent concussion you need to "decelerate" the impact so the brain doesn't slam into the skull as noted by Sparky. You would need something like those bubble soccer balls for your head...