Something that has been going on in my head lately is that I find it funny how I won't put up a kite PERIOD without a helmet. It is a personal choice but I find it is better than trying to decide on to put it on or not. Now I feel completely out of place if I haven't put it on.

All sorts of people on here seem to only use a helmet when they see fit yet think that kite killers are essential safety gear.

I can't get my head around how that works for you all ?

Is a Helmet not a FAR MORE essential piece of gear ????

I'm not wanting to cause a fight about this . I believe it is all personal choice. Just seems my priorities are different. This is NOT an abnormal situation for me so I can take it if you have a different opinion .

I ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET!!! I only Kite Lanboard and find it very very boring to fly static, I get winded very quickly from running around doing Pendulem Jumps. . I prefer depower and a board . so my personal preference might be different than say someone with a FB kite. I have gone through maybe 6 helmets, in past 3 years mostly from falling on my back or my side and banging my helmet into the grass. :Ange09: Mainly from learning to ride goofy at a little speed with the kite too low. And most recently trying to do a 360.


Here's another one that some might find funny. But I think i might be the only one that uses a mouth guard!!!!!:yawn: When I feel like being brave in high winds. might be useless but still gives me piece of mind


Pffftttt I just spent like $4000 on teeth nobody can see in the past year. A root canal, and a bridge. AND AWFUL INSURANCE.

Overkill? :ticking:

The same situations that would allow me to ditch the kite killers are the same ones that cause me to justify no helmet. If I"m underpowered and have been for awhile, I feel ok without the helmet particularly if I could run as fast as I can get the buggy going. I would never ride a landboard without a helmet though. I don't need extenuating circumstances or need to be powered up to fall and hurt myself on a board.

You not taking a dig at me are you? :D

I've never fallen on my head. Even 10 years playing inline hockey, both competitively and socially, I've never fallen and hit my head. In competitions, helmets have saved me from a puck in the head and elbows, sticks etc. Have fallen on my tail bone, have busted up my shoulder and elbow - which in fact worries me more than hitting my head cos it seems so much more likely.

In fact, I've never fallen off my landboard - I've jumped off to bail and run away but have never lost my feet. Probably cos I'm not taking any risks :D I only recently got elbow and knee guards too. I do have a helmet and the next time I find it, it's going in the boot of the car, for sure.
The option to dump the kite to the KKs surely decreases risk of going superman, reducing the need to hang on for grim death and needing a helmet to cope with the consequences ...

What's that theory called, that states with an increased feeling of safety risk-taking also increases?

well when your 10 foot up commin down sideways cause of a gap in the wind = helmet

kite killers = gusty unpredictable winds,

i always try and wear the helmet . its the pot holes in the ground and the hidden obsticles that will get you pitched to the ground every time

Ah, see I don't jump yet and my riding area is a dead flat dirt soccer pitch ... nicely groomed by the SS grounds keeper. Yes you read right - they brush the dirt clean here :ticking:

I see it a lot like DJ' . Static isn't my bag. Potholes / sandpits are common and I have been slammed to the ground even at low speeds.

I was pleased to see that everybody in Carl's last video had helmets on.

helmet every time... here's my story(KEEP IN MIND< I"VE NEVER FALLEN ON MY HEAD KITING!):::: i wear a helmt every time i fly, never flew without one. UNTIL one day i show up to the field which is 40 mins away and i FORGOT IT! So, i go and call my buddy who's on his way, he grabs a spare helmet and is on the way. I decide to just kite landboard and take it easy until he gets there. I was actually going back and forth pretty dang fast and even jumping... (*shakes head*) and he shows up, i put on the funny looking hlemt(a bike helmet) and off i went. I ended up going reall fast, and my back foot came out of the board somehow, i landed down on my back and THWAP nailed the back of my head on the ground so hard it gave me an instant headache. Thank GOD i was wearing that helmet!


PS (just cuz u've never fallen on ur head doesn't mean you won't. I skateboarded for 2 years and never wore a helmet.... i fell on my head once and that once is what you're protecting against)

I had a friend who fell off his bike once and when the police investigated the accident, they said that if he was wearing a helmet then it would have pushed his head backwards and broken his neck.

:D

I've heard people seriously suggesting that as an argument against wearing motorbike helmet :ticking:

Seriously - I'll wear one from now on, hows that? Actually, after doing the superman several times at the lake yesterday and stubbing my toes on rocks in the shallows, I'm thinking about getting a helmet for the water too ...

Funny story that made me a believer in helmets.

I was taking my wife on her first chairlift ride up the slopes to teach her to snowboard. We were on the lift with 2 extremely large Samoans who were on their first lift ride just like my wife. So I am explaining how to get off the lift properly, and I have everyone on the edge of their seats ready to get off. We were about 6 feet above the drop off, when someone screws up royally below which prompted the lift workers to slam the lift to a complete stop. We all get launched off the edge of our seats into the landing zone. I stick the landing and start laughing at the pile of boards and bodies tangled together that is my wife and the other Samoans.

But what I didn't realize as I stood there laughing was that the lift chair is swinging like a swing, and the same force that launched me off has now come back around to crack me right in the back of the head, almost breaking through my helmet completely. The lift workers got a laugh because I landed on the pile of people too.

No doubt it saved my life with the damage that was done to my helmet. The thing that gets me is that I hadn't tried any tricks yet that day, and that was the only reason i had the helmet on.

A helmet is a must. I can speak from experience. I had a mild concussion even with a helmet on. I would hate to think if I did not have one on. I have family and work responsibilities that require me to keep my brains in my head. The helmet goes on before a kite goes in the sky.

i have had a couple of knocks that i am sure would have rendered me unconscious had i not been wearing a helmet... thats okay if im riding a bike ( ive been smashed by an auto w/out a helmet, given a severe head injury, and walked away from it after a night in the hospital- wearing a helmet here may have caused me to stay conscious, and maybe i would have been injured)... but if i go unconscious while flying a kite... things can get really, REALLY bad... i took one knock landing sideways when a 13m speed lofted me... rung my bell good, but i had enough in me to still control a kite... if i had been knocked out, who knows

i mountainbike with a helmet because its in the rules where i ride... i rarely wore a helmet on my old scooter... a never wore a helmet as a kid... but i ALWAYS wear a helmet under a kite

Quote:

Originally posted by Houston AirHead well when your 10 foot up commin down sideways cause of a gap in the wind = helmet kite killers = gusty unpredictable winds, i always try and wear the helmet . its the pot holes in the ground and the hidden obsticles that will get you pitched to the ground every time

agree... those soft spots really suck

+1 for helmet
+1 for killers
my 2 cents

I try and lead by example. It is about all one can really do.
I feel bad about the fact I don't see kite killers as something you lean on your whole kiting career. While I don't use them I never question someone elses choice to do so.

I just wish that wearing a helmet was as black and white as wearing kite killers seems to be to the North American masses.

Thank goodness this has been a discussion instead of a fight. This probably does a lot more to sway opinions the right direction than a nasty fight that tends to polarize.

After one melon-busting fall... everyone wears a helmet... I thankfully missed that part, and got my bucket early... glad i did!

I will admit, when i was newer on kites and felt like a fresh 16 yr old on the highway, I fell to the invincibility hazardous attitude (for you prop heads out there, I couldnt resist saying that) and rode in very low winds without a helmet. These types of winds were so low i could barely get moving on a board.

Now I have a bigger kite, and more brains, so I require a bucket to put it in naturally. In fact, I cover all my points if I'm on a ride. Helmet, sunglasses or (sometimes) safety glasses (mostly if its muddy out), elbow and knee pads, sometimes gloves as well (in the summer this is). In the winter I always ride with a helmet and will keep the crash pads on due to the concrete style ice chunks that lace the field.

the choice is yours, but I've seen and i know many have seen some pretty nasty crashes and drags even with experienced riders. Do your head a favor and dont tumble your gyros! (sorry couldnt resist that one either :wink2:"

I always fly with a helmet. Been lofted a couple times and I've come down hard both times. Glad I was wearing a helmet when it happened.

Always with the helmet (and usually always with elbow/knee gaurds too).
Paul

The thing is that a helmet is for the flyers protection and kite killers are for other peoples protection as kS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s stop the kite from getting loose as well as stop the kite getting blown away and damaged. Therefore both are important, but for different uses.

Quote:

Originally posted by Erics The thing is that a helmet is for the flyers protection and kite killers are for other peoples protection as kS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s stop the kite from getting loose as well as stop the kite getting blown away and damaged. Therefore both are important, but for different uses.

Cheers.

I'm in the same "always helmeted" camp. Funny, I was flying static one day and a guy walked by with his two boys and, in a tone somewhat suggesting a snicker, he actually asked me if I've ever needed the helmet! My response was "Thankfully not yet".

I got supermanned by my "trainer" kite.....that was enough for me to put the kites away until I got a helmet. I always fly in the summer with a helmet and my pressure suit - in the winter I skip the pressure suit sometimes but never the helmet. My secret? I have an iPod wired into the helmet so no helmet - no tunes. Even have speakers in the water helmet. The pressure suit is more about just being used to having it so I feel naked without it.

I'd even kite naked with a helmet (maybe two.....)

The main reason there is sometimes a little trollish cyberfightclubwhatever stuff going down sometimes on these lovely threads is that people keep forgetting different people fly different stuff with different skill levels in (just guess, ok?) locations with vastly different expectations.

This particular thread has been clear of that cr4p, a wonderful thing that says good about the community we share here, not to mention the intent and attention of its author.

anyways, on with my $0.02:

I've never worn a helmet: I jump static on soft sand, have done for a year now, my risks of head injury are small, I choose to take the risk. Besides, it's 33 degrees C and 90% humidity and light winds where I fly these days. Wear a helmet in that and you WILL suffer.

I'm not taking a big risk, I'm sure of that. Today I was getting over ten feet of air beneath my (non-kicking) feet and over fifty feet sideways for the first time in over a month and never lost my balance between the handles. (no KS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s.)

So for me yes I could add a small degree of safety in that situation by wearing a helmet.

Now let's imagine I finally get my s41t together and get a landboard. I'd get a helmet, too. two reasons: one, riding a landboard carries a lot of extra risks and two, bye bye soft sand hello hard-pack. I don't wanna crash on wet hard pack. It's really solid stuff and I'd get going WAY faster on it before I crashed on it.

Now if I got a bigfoot landboard going on soft loose sand, would I wear a helmet?
(A: big foot landboard? huh? whaddya mean? B: relax, just scroll down to the end of this post, you'll find your answer)

Not for the first ride (but only if the wind was kind), that's for sure. Why? because I know the winds, kite, and location, and I'm just trying to go down and a bit across wind and maybe gybe my kite once or twice.

So my expectations are right for the occasion. Now if I was going to head off a ramp or go for jumps or expect to go upwind on my first ride, well at best I'm looking at acute embarrassment and at worst I'll be checking into the hospital while unconscious. In any case, I'd be wise in that situation to load up on gear: helmet, impact shorts, elbow and knee pads, and impact vest, in that order.

I would let that first day's experience be my guide, tho, that's for sure, and I'd kinda look at what I was doing from time to time to see if I needed to add a helmet to the mix.

OK, now let's say I've had a couple sessions on the bigfoot landboard in 12-15 knots on my blade (this is after a few hours in lower winds, mind you) and I'm happy about my control just as long as i don't have to go upwind or change tacks or anything extreme like that. (bear in mind I don't ATB yet..) and I'm OK doing that on dry loose sand.

Then I get a chance to kite the same wind with the same equipment on hard-park sand for the first time. Am I going to wear a helmet?

Yeppers!

Because the hard-pack sand adds hugely to the risk factor. Consider: it's not just the impact force on the sand I've got to worry about, it's also the extra speed I'm going to get, not to mention that I'm doing this hard-pack sand thing for the first time. the risks ramp up a LOT quicker in this scenario.

Also i have to be honest and say my skills are nothing on landboard and so they won't help me be safer on landboard in any way.

But if i was static jumping, well, by now I can redirect 95% without looking at the kite, and yes, that's a huge safety skill when jumping. Could i do that on the move? Possibly, but i sure wouldn't count on it, being a newbie on that front.

My expectations don't matter in this case, because they will be low, otherwise I'm either super lucky or in the hospital by the time I've gotten this far.

Consider another case: a newbie going out for their first flight on a Beamer iv 3m in 10-12 mph onshore winds on a nice soft sandy beach with a line of 80 foot high trees just above the high tide line. The newbie is responsible and RTFF and all that, so he knows the winds are just a little (and I mean that, just the barest smidgen of a tad) above optimum for a first flight.

Is he going to wear a helmet? Well, he can if he wants, but even a expert would have a hard time commiting suicide by brain injury with a 3m kite flown static on soft sand in those winds, imho.

Is he going to be concerned about his kite going into the trees? I sure hope so, and I hope he'd be wearing kite killers.

let's say he has been flying for a couple of months and he's flying my brand new skycountry reflex 10m (yeah, I wish! But no, don't have...) in the same conditions and he doesn't want to use the kite killers because they're in the bottom of the repair bag in the truck of the car in the parking lot which is a 5 min hike from the beach and it's 5:30 pm and the wind is dying.... Well then I have to make a judgement call. If it were Jack1988's unfortunate brother with that alcohol thingy going on, well, probably not. But if my buddy has 20 hrs on my 6.5 lade in winds a bit harder than now, I'd probably say yeah have a go.

I could go through a for more scenarios in detail: the newbie buggier with an 8m kite in 15-20 mph winds, the 8 yr old flying a 1.5 m 4-line in 8-10 mph winds (if you live in the US say it's your brother's kid and you know he hates lawyers), and a 31-year old with 20 years experience flying a 14m yak GT on a buggy in 8-10 on sunset beach, but if you haven't gotten my point by now, well... eh, never mind, hope you have fun flying, wherever, however, and whatever you fly!

risk factors:

location and ground: obstacles and hazards (esp downwind), slope, softness, slickness, number of bystanders, ease of access to phone / medical services.

pilot: actual skill level vs perceived skill level, hours spent flying, personal fitness, personal awareness and level of consciousness, rest? food? hydration?

kite: appropriately sized for wind,solid rigging (won't break), responsive to all control inputs, lift vs traction?, AoA?,

Harness: are you connected to the kite? how quickly can you release yourself from the kite? how many ways can you release yourself? will you releases activate accidentally? where are the weak and strong points in your rig / harness? do you know what will break first? how do you handle that?

wind (and enviromental): is the wind too much for your rig? too little? can you do anything to increase / reduce power?

I guess the main thing I don't want to see happen is anybody saying "kS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s are good for everybody" or "if you use a kite and you are not wearing a helmet you are running a huge avoidable risk of death".

All these safety/risk decisions are specific to the kiter (fitness and skills) / equipment / winds on site.

I'd say if it was down to helmet vs kitekillers for the rest of my flying career, it's a no-brainer: helmet of course.

but not every time!

:wee:

All fairly well said furbowski.

I've said it here before, but I have seen too many people loaded into ambulances with cracked heads following an accident with no helmet.
Other people in the same accident but with a helmet would be walking around saying "Did you see that?"

If I were rollerblading on concrete I'd want a helmet!

Hard-pack sand at low tide is just about as hard as concrete. Hard enough for me to have cracked a helmet.
There may be times when I am lolly gagging around underpowered in light winds where I might think not to wear a helmet, but with my luck I would be photographed and then have to take shirt for it.

Kite killers imo are a completly different safetey gear to a crash helmet or knee pads etc.

The Kite killers for me are essentially only there to stop the kite flying away if one accidentally lets it go and also to land the kite safely when its a bit too much to land.

How would a crash helmet help you land the kite more safely or stop the kite flying away? Yousee the two cannot be compared.

Im tryng to dig my helmet out of the garage but cant seem to find it, i will eventually.

I reckon that in low winds flying static isnt so bad for injuries and mishaps etc so i havent felt the urge to yet, for static flying i would much rather just some ankle braces and knee pads. Static flying is a WHOLE different ball game though!

Its when you get on a board that you want to wear safety gear as a complete necessity as its much more dangerous.

When i have skate boarded in the past at a skatepark, only the idiots wouldnt wear safety gear. But just for rolling down the street or whatever then maybe its not compulsory although i would always where knee pads etc.

It all boils down to enviroment and conditions and actually what you are doing. eg if i wanted to do some kite loops on my 6m in apparent winds then you wouldnt need the helmet but if i was on a board or a skateboard then i would always wear some form of saftey gear.

:dunno: i think it all depends on what your doing, if i was whizzing alng on a board at 20 mph i wold wear every bit of safety gear i could find.

If im just bouncing around flying static then i might put a helmet on just for safety precautions (when i can find it) im not too proud to be safe but i dont think that people that dont use some form of saftey gear when recreational flying should be portrayed as idiots or unsafe.

There is a line in my mind when i know taht its worth wearing saftey gear, i was jumping around yesterday and the one most likey thing that i could have broken is my ankles but its hard to get saftey gear for that.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jack1988 There is a line in my mind when i know taht its worth wearing saftey gear, i was jumping around yesterday and the one most likey thing that i could have broken is my ankles but its hard to get saftey gear for that.

gotta be careful about that line... it moves around depending on your comfort level and it is very subjective. There's enough videos of top freestyle landboarders doing their thing helmetless floating about to let us know they feel comfy doing their tricks without safety gear, as we both are to some degree while jumping static.

I've jumped on rocky beaches before (shingle for the uk lot) and worn high-top old skool leather alpine mountaineering boots for the extra safety they gave me, and they worked great!

Yeah the Shingle beaches in the UK are dreadful, thats why we are constantly waiting on tides to go out.

I have a pair of high top Air force ones :D