BayAreaKiteboarding.com

For those of you that are debating whether a helmet is a good idea, I was cracked pretty hard on the head on Tuesday this week by my directional when out in the channel at 3rd.
The wind was strong and gusty and there was a lot of chop. I fell in trying to gybe and as I started to looked round to see where my board was, there was a thud as a wave smacked my board hard on my head.
Not sure what would have happened if I didn't have a helmet on but I'm glad I didn't have to find out.
It may never happen again, but why take the chance and not wear one?

I stopped wearing my helmet as soon as I was "good enough." I recently started wearing it again when I decided to try some new stuff where I might be crashing a lot. I really liked the sense of freedom when I stopped wearing it, but now that it's on again, it doesn't seem like that much of an infringement. I feel more relaxed having that sense of security. An added bonus is my SeaSpecs won't rip off my head and get lost on a jump (happened twice).

I'm also a helmet guy for the most part. Yes it looks dorky but it saved me from a few head cuts about 3 times

Maybe need to design a cool looking helmet

tomerp wrote:I'm also a helmet guy for the most part. Yes it looks dorky but it saved me from a few head cuts about 3 times

Maybe need to design a cool looking helmet

Ha ha! I don't think it's that they look so bad (does a football helmet really look "cool"?), it's more the message they send--i.e., "I'm a NOOB."

Depends,
sometimes I wear a helmet.
Every now and then someone asks me, "why are you wearing a helmet?"
and I'm like, "what kind of a dumb-ass question is that?!"

I jumped off my board at the end of my session this weekend and I thought I could stand at the shore. It was pretty deep so I dragged for a second to the beach and a tiny wave came and dropped my board right on my head! It was painful and was bleeding minorly, but the wave was seriously nothing but I could have been knocked out and faced own in the water.

I think I'll start wearing the helmet again, it doesnt take much head contact to put your life at risk.

+1 for using a helmet.
The straps also help hold my waterproof earbuds on my ears when I'm kiting with the MP3 player.

Likes everything about wearing a helmet, safety, comfort, image is optional, but finds it a little disorienting esp. during rotations. Peripferal vision is fine so not sure why. Must have something to do with inner ear disturbance or perhaps signal interference from the mother ship. Also glasses fog faster with reduced air flow so can't wear them at the same time.

I wear one so people think i am a kook and they stay away from me on the water and the beach &&&

I always wear one. I've had the board run into the back of my head a number of times. Also, one time I was going quite fast over chop w/o a helmet and ended up being ejected from the board and hit the water with the side of my head. It felt like crashing onto concrete and gave me a nice rining sensation...

Since we are talking safety, how come almost nobody at 3rd uses the depower strap when launching or landing a kite? The frequenet launch method I see at 3rd always amuses me: depower strap at full power and very rapid ascent to 1 or 12 o'clock.