Use your helmet and save your melon

nordvind wrote:
Norwegian national ski team. Some unfortunate mis-meetings involving
automobiles.

Joggers should also wear helmets. They could meet timbertrucks in the
forest, and some already have.

--
Terje Henriksen
Kirkenes

A backwards fall while moving where one falls on their back and bangs
their head? If any of that is common in rollerskiing, this is the first
I've heard of it. It would be helpful if the OP (nordvind) has now
reconstructed how this happened.

Gene

Alex wrote:

nordvind wrote:
With all the rollerski chat happening lately, thought I'd post a
reminder resulting from a fall I took today. Don't know how I managed
to do it, but I took a mistep at speed and fell flat on my back hard
enough to dent the back of my helmet. Some serious thinking about what
would have happened to my head if I didn't have the helmet on.

Nordvind,

What type of helmet were you using? Nearly everyone here uses bike
helmets for roller-skiing and these are usually of the "aero" type with
a projection at the back. They don't look to me to be designed for a
fall on the back of the head, and I have seen skaters in other more
head-shaped designs. It seems to me that a backwards fall is quite
common when roller-skiing and much more likely than on a bike.

If you were using a bike helmet I would be interested to know how you
feel it stood up to the crash. Clearly it was good enough that you are
still writing to this board :-)

Alex

Hej:
I've been there - done that!
I don't know how he did it but with a little effort.....
it was early on with rollerskiies and somehow my feet went out from
under me forward and i went back. i had pads on elbows and helmet and i
hit hard enough to scrape my elbows inside the pads. the helmet took a
lick too!

and if i hadn't had the helmet, it would have been bad news.

in fact a passerby, intrigued i'm sure by the getup and the sticks and
rs, was moving slowly and saw me go down. he stopped and came back to
make sure I could get up!

Gene Goldenfeld wrote:

A backwards fall while moving where one falls on their back and bangs
their head? If any of that is common in rollerskiing, this is the first
I've heard of it. It would be helpful if the OP (nordvind) has now
reconstructed how this happened.

Gene

Alex wrote:


nordvind wrote:


With all the rollerski chat happening lately, thought I'd post a
reminder resulting from a fall I took today. Don't know how I managed
to do it, but I took a mistep at speed and fell flat on my back hard
enough to dent the back of my helmet. Some serious thinking about what
would have happened to my head if I didn't have the helmet on.


Nordvind,

What type of helmet were you using? Nearly everyone here uses bike
helmets for roller-skiing and these are usually of the "aero" type with
a projection at the back. They don't look to me to be designed for a
fall on the back of the head, and I have seen skaters in other more
head-shaped designs. It seems to me that a backwards fall is quite
common when roller-skiing and much more likely than on a bike.

If you were using a bike helmet I would be interested to know how you
feel it stood up to the crash. Clearly it was good enough that you are
still writing to this board :-)

Alex

Alex wrote:
What type of helmet were you using? Nearly everyone here uses bike
helmets for roller-skiing and these are usually of the "aero" type with
a projection at the back. They don't look to me to be designed for a
fall on the back of the head, and I have seen skaters in other more
head-shaped designs. It seems to me that a backwards fall is quite
common when roller-skiing and much more likely than on a bike.

If you were using a bike helmet I would be interested to know how you
feel it stood up to the crash. Clearly it was good enough that you are
still writing to this board :-)

I was wearing an older style bike helmet not as aerodynamic in profile.
Even so, the momentum of the impact on the back of the helmet with the
pavement forced the helmet down over my face hard enough to push my
sunglasses down, splaying the nosepads. I was momentarily seeing
purple and pink swirling circles while I stared at the sky wondering
just how badly I injured myself. I think your observation is correct.
A skateboarding style helmet that is more rounded would probably be
more effective. Still, that inexpensive helmet saved me from God knows
what injury. There is no doubt it took the full force of the impact and
dissipated most of it.

An add-on story. Alexey and I (my rollerskiing buddy) were taking a
break from rollerskiing today because of my fresh bruises and decided
to cycle the 45 mile Washington and Old Dominion bike path in Virginia.
We were passing an intersecting trail that is clearly marked to show
all cyclists, etc. must stop before entering the main trail we were on.
An out of control, overweight mountain biker ran the stopsign and
almost took out Alexey. He had to stand on his breaks and swerve to
the side. Did Alexey and I have our helmets on? NO! BECAUSE WE
THOUGHT WE WERE SAFE ON OUR BICYCLES, WE WEREN'T ROLLERSKIING,
RIGHT?.... Famous last words.

On 2 Jul 2005 15:03:33 -0700, "nordvind"
wrote:

Some serious thinking about what
would have happened to my head if I didn't have the helmet on.

YOU"D OBVIOUSLY BE DEAD NEVER EVER NOT WEAR A HELMET

THANK HEAVENS YOU WERE SO SMART

jft


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Sounds like the "Unni Odegard/always wear a helmet" thread from last August
has struck again ;-)

BarryT

No sense in stopping safety when you finish roller skiing. Heck I wear
a helmet ALL the time. I'm even wearing it now while sitting in front
of a computer. You never know when you could fall asleep and crash
your forehead onto your keyboard !!!!

This came across the caltri list this morning...

To:

Subject: tri-summer Yet another wear your helmet story...and perhaps
a mouthguard


Summer Cal Triathletes and especially those racing at Donner,





I was up at my family's Tahoe condo this past weekend doing some
altitude
training for Donner and things were going well. Saturday morning I did
a
15-mile run on the bike path along the Truckee river. Sunday morning
my
plan was to ride from the condo in Tahoe City to Donner Lake and back,
then
do a 12-mile run along the Truckee river. Things were going well until
I
got to Truckee, when my tire picked up a staple from some construction
on
Donner Pass Road. I super-glued my tire, popped in my spare tube and
was
back on my way. I figured that would be the only incident of the ride.
On
the return trip on Higway 89 (for those of you who don't know the area,

Highway 89 from Truckee to Tahoe City is a 13 mile stretch of straight
and
flat road with a nice big shoulder--a road made for aerobars), however,

disaster ensued. About 3 miles away from Squaw Valley, I was on my

aerobars, spinning comfortabley at just under 30 mph when I hit a crack
in
the shoulder filled with black dust from road re-paving and skidded
out. I
think I landed on my left side first, but I must have rolled since I
have
huge abbrasions on both knees, both sides of my hip, my left shoulder,
nose,
chin, and upper lip. I also cracked through the left side of my
helmet,
scraped up the front the helmet and knocked out my front and lateral
left
incisors (the front left tooth and the one just to the left of it). My
bike
seemed ok, just a little scratched, and I was about to get back on my
bike
and ride the remaining 10 miles home when some guys in a truck that saw
me
crash pulled over, amazed I was still walking, and offered me a ride.
I'm
so lucky and grateful since I remember almost nothing about the ride
home.
I know that during the ride home I couldn't remember what I did the day

before or even that I was up at Tahoe, but I must have been able to
tell
them where to drop me off because I ended up at my Tahoe condo in Tahoe

City. Shortly after I was dropped off my memory came back and my
family
took me to a dentist in Tahoe City for an emergency root canal, but
even
now, I still don't remember anything that happened during the ride
home. I
do know that my helmet saved my life and cannot emphasize enough that a

helmet is necessary whenever you're on those two wheels. Even if
you're not
going 30 mph, the pavement is still hard.

Yeah, that was a classic!

;-)

bt

Aw, shucks!!!