Unni Odegard/always wear a helmet

Just read in the Skipost-spam that the Fischer guys send out that
former factory team member Unni Odegard got hit while rollerskiing and
survived, in part, because she was wearing a helmet.

I didn't wear a helmet rollerskiing until I cracked my head open while
riding, suffering a L3 concussion and spending the next three weeks
walking into walls (when I was able to stand). Now I wear one.

So, if you don't wear a helmet when you are rollerskiing, then you are
an idiot. And yes, I AM your mother.....

;-)

bt
.....off to the snow!

On 19 Aug 2004 16:29:19 -0700, (sknyski) wrote:

Just read in the Skipost-spam that the Fischer guys send out that
former factory team member Unni Odegard got hit while rollerskiing and
survived, in part, because she was wearing a helmet.

I didn't wear a helmet rollerskiing until I cracked my head open while
riding, suffering a L3 concussion and spending the next three weeks
walking into walls (when I was able to stand). Now I wear one.

So, if you don't wear a helmet when you are rollerskiing, then you are
an idiot. And yes, I AM your mother.....

There are many activities in which wearing a helmet could provide as
much increased benefit as rollerskiing. Traveling in a bus or taxi
w/o seat belts for example. Probably even with seatbelts in a car.
Do you wear a helmet when doing those things? If not, do you consider
yourself an idiot?

JT

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John Forrest Tomlinson wrote:
On 19 Aug 2004 16:29:19 -0700, (sknyski) wrote:


Just read in the Skipost-spam that the Fischer guys send out that
former factory team member Unni Odegard got hit while rollerskiing and
survived, in part, because she was wearing a helmet.

I didn't wear a helmet rollerskiing until I cracked my head open while
riding, suffering a L3 concussion and spending the next three weeks
walking into walls (when I was able to stand). Now I wear one.

So, if you don't wear a helmet when you are rollerskiing, then you are
an idiot. And yes, I AM your mother.....


There are many activities in which wearing a helmet could provide as
much increased benefit as rollerskiing. Traveling in a bus or taxi
w/o seat belts for example. Probably even with seatbelts in a car.
Do you wear a helmet when doing those things? If not, do you consider
yourself an idiot?

JT

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Hmmmm...... riding in a taxi compared to rollerskiing.... not sure the
risk factor is in the same ball park.
gr

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 01:17:51 GMT, gr
wrote:


Hmmmm...... riding in a taxi compared to rollerskiing.... not sure the
risk factor is in the same ball park.

Hmm, taxis go 30+mph all the time, on roller skis I never go more than
20. Hmmm.

And you don't think a helmet would help if you in a car that was hit
from the side by another car?

JT

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The problem with talk about "idiot" is that it can lead to well-intending
nice people making up _laws_ that restrict the behavior of other people
(like me). Laws that will get _enforced_ by still other people who will have
different intentions and understanding from me and perhaps different from
those well-intending nice people.

It might start with laws requiring the wearing of helmets. The next step is
to simply ban the activity altogether as "unsafe", since then they will say,
"Obviously it must be unsafe, otherwise why would you have to wear a helmet
when you do it?"

And in fact rollerskiing is currently banned on some roads near where I
live. I found out when police stopped me and told be to leave. Oddly, this
happens mostly in and near public parks.

I do wear a helmet 99.999% of the time when rollerskiing or skating. One
time I took a backwards fall while skating at low speed which made me glad I
was wearing it.

But twice within the last month I did _not_ wear a helmet while skating in
two special situations, and I did not think that I was being an idiot for
that.

Ken

A few years back a guy rollerblading at one of the metroparks here
took a backward spill and died from bashing his head into the
pavement. Since then I've worn a helmet when rollerblading. On those
times when you don't wear a helmet, you may literally become an
"idiot," at best (or perhaps at worst, depending upon your view of
things).

June


One
time I took a backwards fall while skating at low speed which made
me glad I
was wearing it.

But twice within the last month I did _not_ wear a helmet while
skating in
two special situations, and I did not think that I was being an
idiot for
that.

Ken

gr wrote in message ...
John Forrest Tomlinson wrote:
[ ]
There are many activities in which wearing a helmet could provide as
much increased benefit as rollerskiing. Traveling in a bus or taxi
w/o seat belts for example. Probably even with seatbelts in a car.
Do you wear a helmet when doing those things? If not, do you consider
yourself an idiot?
[ ]
Hmmmm...... riding in a taxi compared to rollerskiing.... not sure the
risk factor is in the same ball park.
gr

I think what we have here is the difference between statistical and
mechanical models. Big-scale vs. individual situation. And an
interesting twist here is that personal choice can significantly
determine which one applies to one in a given situation. (I don't know
where I first read this, but I've seen it in a few philosophical
works.)

That is, if car-drivers, say, wore helmets probably THOUSANDS of lives
would be spared and maybe even BILLIONS$ saved. On a per outing basis,
car-driving is safe but so many people do it and so many are hurt from
minor head-whacks from driving that it's a huge cause of injury that
would be preventable with a helmet.

The flipside is that not many rollerski but those who do far more
commonly whack themselves in the haid and a helmet would likewise help
them.

But the flipside there is that what happens to these few or especially
the ONE is largely affected by forces under their control: it's a
mechanical model. And there are so few rollerskiers that their injury
rate is largely skill/attitude related instead of statistical: it's
too small a pool to get meaningful stats. Sure, probably half the
rollerskiers will bleed each year but it would be hard to get finer
detail.

What happens to large numbers of people is statistical. What happens
to one person depends largely on their action-choice/skill/attitude.

Like, when I was bike racing I was learning with a bunch of riders
with equal experience. We would crash often in our early races. It was
always someone else's fault, stuck back there in the huge crazy Cat 4
packs. Well, I adopted the mottos "I refuse to crash" and "No excuses"
and stopped crashing to a huge extent. Many of my pals didn't change
and kept crashing. Some got seriously injured and quit racing fairly
early. Due to their non-statistical actions they were basically
accident magnets. They were fodder.

I can see it in other people as regards other aspects of life: they
are passive so that accident forces find them like weather finds us:
they are part of the statistical herd. However, people can live
intentionally and move their lives PARTLY into a different format,
that of mechanics, where the rightness or wrongness of their decisions
(initiative is often erroneous) affects what happens to them instead
of statistics. It's more of an active good/bad situation than a
passive.

Like, if we choose to go to a stadium sports event or onto an
airliner, what happens to everyone there (a fire, say) will likely
happen to us as well: we've intentionally put ourselves into MORE a
statistical situation.

I've probably mutilated the philosophy part of it in there somewhere
but that's my impression.

--JP

Here is the Cross Country Canada policy on roller skiing.

http://canada.x-c.com/main.asp?cmd=doc&ID=1804&lan=0

Item 7.d. indicates a hard-shell, regulation helmet (ANSI, CSA or Snell) is
mandatory.

Recommeded for inexperienced roller skiers are leather-palmed gloves, wrist
guards, knee pads and elbow pads.

Flourescent vests are not mentioned, but our local recommendation is that
they be worn if skiing on roads with very much vehicular trafic.

Scott Elliot

ILLEGAL ROLLERSKIING?
remember, a court precedent HAS been set making rollerskiing LEGAL on
roads - Wisconsin case in the early 90's
I have the silent sports article handy for the police !!

JK

"Ken Roberts" wrote in message
...
The problem with talk about "idiot" is that it can lead to well-intending
nice people making up _laws_ that restrict the behavior of other people
(like me). Laws that will get _enforced_ by still other people who will
have
different intentions and understanding from me and perhaps different from
those well-intending nice people.

It might start with laws requiring the wearing of helmets. The next step
is
to simply ban the activity altogether as "unsafe", since then they will
say,
"Obviously it must be unsafe, otherwise why would you have to wear a
helmet
when you do it?"

And in fact rollerskiing is currently banned on some roads near where I
live. I found out when police stopped me and told be to leave. Oddly, this
happens mostly in and near public parks.

I do wear a helmet 99.999% of the time when rollerskiing or skating. One
time I took a backwards fall while skating at low speed which made me glad
I
was wearing it.

But twice within the last month I did _not_ wear a helmet while skating in
two special situations, and I did not think that I was being an idiot for
that.

Ken

Whoops! Extra posts. Sorry.

Anyway, just the response that I expected from the cycling set (sample
of 1). My wife posted a question to her triathlon newsgroup a while
back, simply asking why people don't wear helmets - no accusations,
just curiosity. About half of the responders immediately assumed that
she was being patronizing and accusing them of being stupid (like I
am) and launched into various aggressive defenses (good for a laugh).

Not surprising coming from recreational and racer wannabe cyclists,
who in my opinion are the biggest group of assholes that I have
encountered in my 30 years of participating in individual sports.
Whether it's blowing through a stop sign, flipping off a car who honks
because the rider refuses to ride in the shoulder, or latching onto
some unsuspecting recreational rider's wheel in a lame attempt to
draft like a weekend Lance Armstrong, these clowns have done more to
alienate the rest of the population and make the riding experience
miserable for those of us who don't strut around with their same
shaven-leg arrogance.

At any rate, my bike will be leaning against the wall in the garage
for the next two weeks because I'm going to Australia to ski. Be
safe, and share the road! (with cars)

bt