While the ski industry debates the use of helmets and authorities haggle over standards and recommendations, helmet sales are on the rise. The word on the slopes may be ahead of the official word as the mysterious “cool factor” kicks in, making it desirable to wear a helmet regardless of the degree of protection offered.
“There continues to be rapid growth in the adult category, with ongoing consistency in the kids’ market,” says Mark Hauser, president of Boeri helmets (MPH Associates), the industry leader. Hauser predicts that more than 50 percent of skiers and snowboarders will wear helmets sometime in the next three years. In fact, it’s one of the few equipment categories that’s profitable these days. SIA reported sales for last season at 242,000, up from 112,000 in 1996-97 and 66,143 in 1995-96.
And, as more snowsports enthusiasts see other people wearing helmets on the slopes, they will be looking for them at ski resorts, either to buy or rent. While some resorts offer helmets as an add-on to ski classes, most resorts have shied away from helmet rental programs. “We’ve seen a lot of interest in it, but not a lot of commitment,” Hauser says, adding that he thinks areas are still trying to figure out how to do it well.
At Sugarloaf/USA, Maine, Leedom helmets were part of the guided-demo program last season. “On the weekend, we’d have 15 to 20 helmets out every day,” says Russell Morey, manager of the program. He added that the deaths of William Kennedy and Sonny Bono “triggered interest—it just multiplied after that. The demo of the helmets resulted in a tremendous amount of sales.” Morey says there’s a possibility they will rent helmets this year because the demo program was so successful last winter.
In the nine months since the deaths of Kennedy and Bono, industry players and policymakers have been struggling with issues surrounding helmet use. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is studying the possibility of recommending helmet use on the ski slopes and the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) continues to struggle with establishing a helmet standard.
The American Medical Association (AMA) dropped the idea of endorsing helmets for younger skiers and snowboarders only because of a lack of available information. Both the AMA and the CPSC are concerned that ASTM has not been able to come up with a standard in almost five years, though attendees at a spring ASTM meeting said they were getting closer to finalizing a standard and one could be voted on in December. If passed in December, a helmet standard could be in ASTM manuals by February 1999.
There are several reasons for the delay in introducing a standard, one of which stems from the uncertainty of whether the standard would apply to both snowboarders and skiers. Recently, under pressure from the snowboard helmet manufacturers, a separate snowboarding standard was decided on. In time, this could be merged back into the recreational skiing standard, but for now, the paths are separate.
The other issue slowing down the process concerns whether a helmet should protect against multiple impact falls in addition to large impact falls, such as hitting trees at high speeds.
Regardless of which standard is passed, studies have shown that wearing a helmet is probably not the answer to preventing serious head injuries or fatalities. Dr. Jasper Shealy, a professor with the Rochester Institute of Technology, has conducted studies on ski and snowboard injuries for 26 years, analyzing 15,000 injuries out of six million skier visits. “In the overwhelming majority of these fatalities,” says Shealy, “it’s very unlikely that a helmet would have helped them.”
Shealy says that one out of every 40 significant injuries is a potentially dangerous head injury. While he says that a helmet could help in milder injuries, it would have less effect on more serious injuries. One reason is that most of the fatalities happen when the person is traveling at speeds between 25 to 40 mph, while the impact criteria for a helmet standard is only 12.2 miles per hour against a fixed object. In order for a helmet to effectively protect against impacts of 30 mph, it would have to weigh 12 pounds and be seven inches thick, says Shealy.
“Death on the ski slopes is not a random occurrence,” says Shealy, who points out that 85 percent of the deaths have been males in their late teens to late 30s, going down the edge of a trail at a high rate of speed. “The bottom line is, this is a behavioral issue.”
Meanwhile, the CPSC is researching data to determine if there would be a significant reduction in injuries and deaths if people wore helmets on the slopes. “We’re looking at [helmets] in the context of the broader issues of helmets in various kinds of sports, including skiing,” says Russ Rader, deputy public affairs director of the CPSC.
If the CPSC does recommend helmet use, NSAA’s director of public policy Geraldine Hughes says it could be detrimental to the industry. A recommendation could lead to state legislative proposals for mandatory helmets, she says, adding that blanket endorsement of helmets would support the misperception that skiing and boarding are dangerous sports. Michael Berry, president of NSAA, says that he expects the use of helmets to continue to grow, but that NSAA feels their use should be based on an individual decision and not mandated by statute. NSAA is working with the CPSC helmet project team to stay on top of the developments.
Whether or not resorts want to invest in helmets as a profit center is optional. But as attention turns to safety on the slopes, ski resort operators should be prepared for ongoing public questions and scrutiny.
