Nova Scotia makes ski helmets mandatory

[WithTheLightsOn]

"I found that 1/2000th of the brain trauma in Nova Scotia is caused from Skiing."

I hope you also found that on its own, that's a very pointless statistic.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

Helmets have saved my life skiing and biking 6-7 times.

[broken_legs]

Originally posted by WithTheLightsOn
"I found that 1/2000th of the brain trauma in Nova Scotia is caused from Skiing."

I hope you also found that on its own, that's a very pointless statistic.

Please explain. I'd like to understand what you mean.

[WithTheLightsOn]

Originally posted by broken_legs



Please explain. I'd like to understand what you mean.

It doesn't help assess the danger of skiing without a helmet or the benefits of the helmet.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Oh shit, I agree with broken_legs. Pretty much completely.

[J-hop]

Originally posted by lilmira
I have witnessed a helmet cracked like eggshell and the guy walked away fine. I could only imagine what might have happened without the helmet.

I won't force anyone to wear one but they sure do protect your head to some extend.

no doubt, i've always worn a helmet. But seeing my brother who used to compete get a concussion after hitting his head at Nakiska (with a helmet on) I will never ever consider not wearing one. He had about a 10 second memory, we took turns keeping him awake and he would sit there and ask the same three questions over and over again for hours, it was pretty scary. If he wasn't wearing a helmet, he would probably be dead.

I don't care what people tell themselves, not wearing a helmet is stupid. It isn't even stylish if thats what they are going for, you have puffy snowpants a big puffy jacket and a tiny little head protruding from it??? hahahaha, so if you go for "style" points, you fail on that end too. Helmets are also way warmer than toques I find.

So really at the end of the day there is no reason not to wear a helmet. So this law should not affect anyone. COP already has made helmets mandatory in the park and they enforce it, I personally think Alberta/BC should follow suit.

[johnboy27]

Originally posted by ZenOps
You can ski in Nova Scotia?

2 ski hills, Mount Martock and Mount Wentworth.

[95EagleAWD]

If you don't wear a helmet skiing, you're stupid. IMHO.

[broken_legs]

Originally posted by WithTheLightsOn

It doesn't help assess the danger of skiing without a helmet or the benefits of the helmet.

You're right. I agree completely.


A more useful statistic would be that there are 84,000 lift tickets sold every year in Nova Scotia combined between the 4 resorts there.

Now that's not even really a good statistic. Because while only one ticket is sold for each rider, people ride down the mountain multiple times. Lets say 4 runs per ticket as an average.

That means that you have a 1/336,000 likely hood of Injuring your brain while skiing down a run Nova Scotia - or in other words - 0.0000265% percent of ski runs end in brain injury.

Does this sound like a massive problem that requires the government to enforce away the freedom and enjoyment from thousands of safe, responsible skiers?

EDIT:

I should also mention that I wear a helmet when I snowboard. It's my choice. I do really stupid shit and hurt myself on the regular. That's my choice, my freedom, my body - I do what I want with it. I also where a full face racing helmet when I mountain bike. But again, I do stupid shit on a bike and hurt myself on the regular.

It's absolutely safe to ride around without a helmet, or ski/snowboard without a helmet if you ride within your abilities.

[CMW403]

Psshhhh helmets are for people who don't know how to wipeout.

Turtle up and roll ---> dig the snow out of your pants and you're good to go.

[WithTheLightsOn]

Originally posted by broken_legs


You're right. I agree completely.


A more useful statistic would be that there are 84,000 lift tickets sold every year in Nova Scotia combined between the 4 resorts there.

Now that's not even really a good statistic. Because while only one ticket is sold for each rider, people ride down the mountain multiple times. Lets say 4 runs per ticket as an average.

That means that you have a 1/336,000 likely hood of Injuring your brain while skiing down a run Nova Scotia - or in other words - 0.0000265% percent of ski runs end in brain injury.

Does this sound like a massive problem that requires the government to enforce away the freedom and enjoyment from thousands of safe, responsible skiers?

EDIT:

I should also mention that I wear a helmet when I snowboard. It's my choice. I do really stupid shit and hurt myself on the regular. That's my choice, my freedom, my body - I do what I want with it. I also where a full face racing helmet when I mountain bike. But again, I do stupid shit on a bike and hurt myself on the regular.

It's absolutely safe to ride around without a helmet, or ski/snowboard without a helmet if you ride within your abilities.

That's much better. Still, only 1 head injury out of 336,000, are you sure? That seems incredibly low for any type of activity, let alone skiing.
TBH I don't really ski that much, so all the skiing I've done has been on the flatter slopes. I still wear a helmet because I know I can easily fuck up, but that's my choice and it probably should remain that way. On the other hand, looking at those super steep slopes that the pros compete in Super-G, I think it would be crazy to let anyone go down those without a helmet.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Originally posted by 95EagleAWD
If you don't wear a helmet skiing, you're stupid. IMHO.

I wear a helmet, whether it be snowboarding or biking, when I need to and when the terriain or my intentions warrant it. I do that because I'm smart enough to know when I need it and when I don't.

[broken_legs]

Originally posted by WithTheLightsOn


That's much better. Still, only 1 head injury out of 336,000, are you sure? That seems incredibly low for any type of activity, let alone skiing.
TBH I don't really ski that much, so all the skiing I've done has been on the flatter slopes. I still wear a helmet because I knew I could easily fuck up, but that was my choice and it probably should be. On the other hand, looking at those super steep slopes that the pros compete in Super-G, I think it would be crazy to let anyone go down those without a helmet.

Well I didnt make up the numbers, BIANS = Brain Injusry Association of Nova Scotia reported only 12 people got brain damage in 12 years from skiing in NS.

Then they go even further and say that in 85% of cases there is no serious or life altering damages caused.

So really really this massive drain on the Nova Scotia health system is 15% of 1 person per year incidence rate.

How is this such a dire situation that they need to regulate people into wearing helmets?! 50/50 most people wear helmets already.

What I'd really like to know is how many of the brain injuries happened to people that were already wearing helmets. ie Super G skiers, or people hucking back flips in the park, or people that backed over in the list line by a snowcat.

The same for people that die on bicycles. They only give statistics on head injury from bike riding, but no statistics on how many people died while wearing a helmet.

The point is, no one should be telling you what to do.

[ExtraSlow]

Originally posted by WithTheLightsOn


That's much better. Still, only 1 head injury out of 336,000, are you sure? That seems incredibly low for any type of activity, let alone skiing.

Actually, that's a very high number. It's hard to put a number on what a "socially acceptable risk" would be, but that's in the realm on unacceptable I'd say.

To look at another thing, what's the acceptable fatality rate for automobile trips? one in a million? That would have a a handful of people a week getting killed in Calgary alone.

[ercchry]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow

Actually, that's a very high number. It's hard to put a number on what a "socially acceptable risk" would be, but that's in the realm on unacceptable I'd say.

To look at another thing, what's the acceptable fatality rate for automobile trips? one in a million? That would have a a handful of people a week getting killed in Calgary alone.

i would say that number is low as the 4 runs/day average is LOW, i would say the hills out there are MAYBE the size of COP... and at COP i would say 25+ runs would be do-able in a day

[WithTheLightsOn]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow

Actually, that's a very high number. It's hard to put a number on what a "socially acceptable risk" would be, but that's in the realm on unacceptable I'd say.

To look at another thing, what's the acceptable fatality rate for automobile trips? one in a million? That would have a a handful of people a week getting killed in Calgary alone.

Uhm, didn't think about it that way, definitely makes sense tho. Still, that's probably too little of a sample to determine anything with a good amount of confidence. I could go down there tomorrow and double the rate. I'd guess they could have gotten more data from similar skii slopes around the country to make broader conclusions, I'm not really sure..

broken_legs:

I'd be willing to bet there are quite a few studies out there on the benefits of wearing bike helmets in different environments.

[zipdoa]

I probably wouldn't be typing this post if it weren't for my helmet.

[ExtraSlow]

I mean, that statistic isn't probably that accurate, but really, when it comes to a serious injury, and brain injury is about as serious as it gets, or death, it's very hard to come up with an acceptable number.

For me, I've done my own risk assessment, and I choose to wear a helmet. But why shuold society bear the financial and social burden of people giving themselves preventable injuries?

We're not asking for much either, not asking people to stop skiing, just to wear a small, inexpensive and fairly comfortable little helmet.

Myself, I think this is very fair.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Originally posted by zipdoa
I probably wouldn't be typing this post if it weren't for my helmet.

The point is there are times when they are actually needed and waaaaay more times that they are not.

I've caved in a couple helmets in my day but i'm sorry, I DON'T need one to take lazy powder turns on a nice day or to take a relaxing cruise down an obstacle free intermediate run. Is there a 1/100,000 chance I'll catch an edge AND land in a way to smack my head? Likely. Probable though? Hell No. Just like you/I don't need a full face helmet to cruise along the paved trails on the bow on a sunday morning on a cross country bike - the actual risk is miniscule.

[Agent_Oorange]

Originally posted by broken_legs

my body - I do what I want with it.

Sorry, just reminded me of that reading it