Here is a similar version intended for snow mobiles with the eye shield in place. Wow, that is some helmet. With the eye shield in place it should have a slightly lower drag coefficient assuming it doesn't get blasted out of the way by water force. Then again, you could drown with it in place. Tricky. Without the shield it would have quite a high drag with a significant moment arm to torque your cervical region. If the helmet base is integrated with some form of collar that locks it in place the torquing may be less of an issue. Of course then mobility will suffer. If the visor breaks away under load that may help to reduce the impact as well.


Some of the potential, added loading areas, forces and moments are diagrammed above.


The smaller, less drag prone Ace Wake for comparison.

Do you know what the weight of the Sea-Doo helmet is? Helmet weight is fairly critical particularly once you start getting slammed around routinely on water. Something around 400 to 500 grams or less is a fair target range. If it uses EPS foam it might be superior to some helmets in use for kiteboarding for impacts against hard objects. For much more common impacts against water, if you don't have some form of neck collar, I suspect it would irritate your neck.

This helmet may have been designed for wave runner racers and perhaps even guys on snowmobiles. I suspect it may not have been designed with frequent higher speed impacts inclined against water in mind.

FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

An example of a lower drag setup

vs.


a higher drag setup


It comes down to surface area and shape.

The less projected area and cleaner the shape the LOWER the drag. Lower drag in helmets means lower unnecessary impact and loading on your spinal column.

gayest post ever!!

I had to look this one up, gayest = the most stupid thing ever

People don't seem to be getting their hands around this "drag" issue all that well. There is an inclination to wear helmets that provide an unnecessary umbrella-like effect. Why?

A man fataly broke his neck recently in fairly light winds, with a small kite with NO helmet to add to the load on his spine. I would say understanding the realities of helmet drag is pretty important. You want as LITTLE drag, added mass/weight as possible to minimize a potential pain in the neck! So, no unncessary surface area, extra surfaces to cause drag or unncessary weight.

FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

This stuff is interesting- coming from motorcycles and auto racing, my helmets are obviously MUCH different to accomplish the same task: keep my noggin in one piece with as few dents as possible.

The water is such a nice cushion compared to asphalt/rollbars/steering wheels, but it sure does spread the force over a MUCH wider range unlike a lot of other sports where there tends to be a blunt (or sharp) focused impact. (I suppose a board or a rock could provide that service...)

Either way, thanks to the thread starter.

the canoeing helmets are about the best built and certainly the best researched on the market, they aren't intended for the impact velocities that we are likely to achieve, but they fit well and have minimal leverage potential.

Some ideas are being kicked around to perform an evaluation of helmets used for kiteboarding. It would be good to evaluate and compare some of the more popular helmets in use for our sport. A short list of some potential candidates appears below. How many riders use these helmets? Are there other helmets that you prefer?

3D Xtrm
Gath Gedi Convertable
Grateful Heads Hard Hit
Prijon Protector
Prijon Surf
Protec Ace Wake
Shredready Shaggy
Shredready Super Scrappy
Sweet Strutter
Sweet Rooster

There may be a prescreening of helmets for basic attributes, e.g. full head cover, corrosion resistent fastenings, projected area, etc. prior to selection of the final evaluation helmets. It will be necessary to manage costs as we will likely have to buy a few of each model eventually evaluated if this comes together.

What helmets are folks using out there?

FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

Have any of the magazines done a detail or comparison of available helmets?

If not, it might be good to see.

I always wear a helmet, and I don't even notice it's there. I like the little bit of extra sun protection it offers too. Kiteboarding exposes me to more than enough sun.

I've written a few of them in past years for various magazines but they were fairly limited. I recall a more in depth comparison being done in a German publication a couple of years back. You are right it would be good to build upon existing informartion. It is premature to say for certain but this evaluation may actually include proper lab helmet testing. Fingers crossed.

What helmet do you use at present? What do other riders use?

FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

It's a ProTec or something like that, I think, but I'd like to get one that will protect my ears from hard impacts with the water - Gath(?) maybe?