Here is the article from Transworld Business:

2010/11 Snowboard Helmet Preview

by: mike lewis
January 25 2010

Helmets have rapidly become one of the hottest selling items for specialty retailers as high profile injuries and resort mandates push them to the forefront. But designers are doing more to take them beyond the brain buckets of yore and boosting sales by ramping up the rad factor. Here’s a look at the top hard hats for next year.

bernunlimited.com Watts: $100 Macon (Carbon/Jeremy Jones Pro Model): $199

giro.com Shiv: $90 Revolver: $70

pro-tec.net 888.691.8889 B2 Snow: $70 The Riot: $90

redprotection.com 800.367.2951 Aletta: $125 Hi-Fi: $100

sandboxland.com 604.935.1254 Classic Certified: $100 Skate Shape: $100

scottusa.com 800.292.5874 Rumble Helmet (Green Team Issue Matte): $75 Roam Solid Helmet (Black Matte): $100

smithoptics.com 208.726.4477 Allure (Aqua Muse): $100 Vantage (Gunmetal RFC): $180

triple8.com 212.475.8884 SWAT Snow Helmet: $75 Brainsaver Old School Audio Snow Helmet: $70

ridetsg.com 866.528.4130 Gravity Graphic Design Pollock: $99 Gravity Graphic Design Ribbon: $99

SOURCE: http://business.transworld.net/28871/features/201011-snowboard-helmet-preview/?pid=5552#ngtop

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As the ski season hits its stride across Canada, the issue of mandatory helmets on the slopes is once again gaining traction.

“The market demand is out there,” says Anthony Toderian, spokesman for the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). “It’s really up to the manufacturers now.”

The CSA, which recommends alpine skiers and snowboarders wear helmets, says they can reduce the risk of head injury by 60 per cent.

Last March, it approved standards for ski and snowboarding helmets for the first time, but manufacturers have yet to make a helmet to those standards.

“We haven’t had any submissions from manufacturers for certification,” says Toderian.

The lack of helmets made to Canadian standards is in part explained by the fact there is no law obligating skiers and snowboarders to wear helmets, and while the ski industry encourages their use, it is loath to make them mandatory.

Hockey club officials, on the other hand, insist players wear helmets conforming to CSA standards, and many municipalities have laws that state cyclists under a certain age must wear certified helmets, Toderian points out.

“The issue is policing it on the hill,” says Colin Chedore, president of the Canadian Ski Council, an industry umbrella group. “When you have over 20,000 million skier visits over a season on all ski hills in Canada, it’s a little different than on a rink where you have a limited number of players.

“Ski operators are concerned about having something forced on them that is difficult to manage and [adds] another cost that will drive people away from the sport.”

Nonetheless, the Canadian Ski Council encourages the use of helmets. Many alpine ski and snowboard helmets currently on the Canadian market are made to American and European standards. The CSA says its standards would offer better protection.

Richardson death renewed debate on mandatory helmets

Chedore lost 80 per cent of his hearing in one ear when he banged his head after falling backward off a ski lift several years ago. A helmet would likely have saved his hearing, he says.

“But there is no helmet made that would save someone at over 10 to 12 km/h when they hit a tree. The tree is not going to budge,” said Chedore.

The average speed on an intermediate hill is 45 km/h, Chedore said.

The helmet issue gained new urgency last ski season after British actress Natasha Richardson died of a head injury following a fall during a lesson at Quebec’s Mont Tremblant ski resort. She was not wearing a helmet.

Head injuries account for up to 15 per cent of all injuries suffered by skiers and snowboarders but 87 per cent of deaths.— Safe Kids Canada

According to Safe Kids Canada, international data shows that head injuries account for up to 15 per cent of all injuries suffered by skiers and snowboarders but 87 per cent of deaths. The group launched a campaign last fall encouraging people to wear helmets when they ski and snowboard.

U.S. statistics show that nearly 50 per cent of skiers and snowboarders voluntarily donned helmets last season, up from 25 per cent six years earlier.

A Canadian Ski Council survey of 8,000 nine and 10-year-old skiers and snowboarders across the country last season showed 95 per cent wore helmets. Its survey of 35,000 adult skiers and snowboarders last season revealed just over half wore helmets.

It helps that many ski resorts insist staff wear helmets in order to set an example, said Chedore.

In October 2009, Vancouver-based Intrawest announced that it will recommend all skiers and snowboarders wear helmets at its North American resorts. The facilities affected include Quebec’s Mont Tremblant, where Richardson was injured, and B.C.’s Whistler-Blackcomb, which will host alpine events during the Olympics.

The headgear is mandatory for children and teens enrolled in ski and snowboard programs and for any student, regardless of age, taking part in freestyle terrain park programs. By the 2010-2011 season, helmets will also be mandatory in the company’s freestyle terrain parks for skiers, snowboarders and Intrawest employees working in those parks.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2010/01/05/f-helmets-ski-snowboard.html

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The actress died from a brain injury she sustained after a fall while skiing at Quebec’s Mont-Tremblant ski resort.

“There’s no way of knowing whether it [a helmet] would have protected her,” association spokesman Anthony Toderian said Thursday.

“We hope Canadians recognize that these type of injuries can occur on a ski hill and hope that they protect themselves accordingly.”

Toderian made the comment during a tour of the association’s suburban Montreal facilities where officials demonstrated equipment used to test helmets for alpine skiing and snowboarding.

He also said if manufacturers act promptly, association-approved helmets could be on the slopes in time for next winter.

The association has developed a new standard for helmets and is now ready to provide testing for certification of the protective headgear.

“It’ll be up to manufacturers to determine if they meet all the requirements, how soon they can manufacture them and get them to retail outlets,” Toderian said.

“If manufacturers submit helmets to us now, we can begin testing and they can have the products on the market for the next ski season.”

‘If manufacturers submit helmets to us now, we can begin testing and they can have the products on the market for the next ski season.’ —Anthony Toderian, CSA

Helmet-makers have no obligation to meet the requirements or submit their products for certification.

The “uniquely Canadian” ski-helmet standards were established by a technical committee made up of experts that included members of the medical community.

The standards had been in the development for two years.

There are also American and European standards for ski helmets.

But Toderian points out that in some cases, the standards are self-certified, which means the manufacturers test the helmets themselves.

“And there’s no third party going in to confirm that the helmets actually meet the standards,” he added.

“In some cases, there are absolutely no standards and someone is just making a helmet and putting it on the market and they’re saying it offers protection.”

Toderian says the new CSA-standard is designed to offer “some of the best protection and some of the most rigorous standards that have been developed for recreational alpine skiing and snowboarding.”
Could reduce risk of head injury by 60%

Helmets bearing the CSA-certification mark can also be used for other winter sports like tobogganing.

Toderian stresses that no helmets can offer 100 per cent protection from death or injury.

But CSA-approved helmets can offer basic protection from concussions and serious brain injuries.

The association says wearing a helmet while skiing or snowboarding can reduce the risk of a head injury by 60 per cent.

Toderian says ski-hill operators and associations can decide whether helmets should be required at their facilities.

In the case of hockey helmets, it’s up to associations to make sure hockey players have a certified helmet before they get on the ice.

The CSA wants Health Canada and the provinces to adopt its standard and make testing of all helmets mandatory.

Liberal MP Hedy Fry has tabled a private member’s bill that would require snow-sports helmets not approved by the CSA to be banned under the Hazardous Products Act.

She is urging the Conservative government to fast-track the bill through a Governor-in-Council order.

Some ski operators have opposed mandated helmet use, saying they would have to police their guests (including those from abroad who may not be aware of the requirements) and increase costs from providing helmet rentals.

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Authors Elycia Rubin and Rita Mauceri admit that pulling together a wardrobe that works sometimes feels like a chore and more often than not becomes a bore.

“It’s a struggle to keep yourself looking halfway pulled together, much less foxy,” they say. “And sometimes it’s just easier to succumb to the frumps – those inevitable frizzy hair days, blotchy skin days, big and bloated days or schlumpy sweats and slippers days. Everyone gets them!”

Especially when it comes to getting dressed to hit the powder. The snowman syndrome kicks in and sleek and chic become distant memories lost in the closet back home. One of the major mistakes many make when they suit up for snow sports is bulking up and wearing too many layers, says Rubin and Mauceri: “They may keep us toasty warm, but can also leave us looking like we packed on a few pounds overnight.”

Nobody needs extra pounds, that’s for sure. Instead pull on sleek, tight ski pants cut with rocker chicks in mind and top off with a silk tank or long-sleeve T-shirt to wick away moisture. Add a zip-front cotton Lycra top if you need extra warmth. Then add a zebra print jacket with faux leather cuffs and belt. Think belted or cinched. The most flattering length of ski jacket hits right at the hip.

Another frump-trap in ski wardrobes, say the two, is “a love affair with plaid flannel.” It’s definitely not in a hot ski babe’s suitcase. “Plaid can be charming and cute in a schoolgirl kind of way,” admit the style experts, “but it’s not the right look for a foxified frosty getaway. Somehow it always looks like you’re wearing pj’s and it’s tough to make a plaid flannel shirt look foxy.”

Thermal cotton underwear also fits in the frumpy category for ski buffs. “They served their purpose again and again, but it’s time to say so long to long johns. With the saggy rear and rustic waffle pattern, they could make you look a little too much like the local park ranger.” Instead layer thin silk socks under sturdy ski socks inside fleece-lined lace-up boots to keep warm.

Another word of caution from the authors: “Don’t go with one color from head to toe in an effort to be the most stylish snow bunny on the slopes. An overdose of pink and you really will look like a bunny; too much green and you could look like a super-size Shrek flying down the mountain.”

The latest trends in snow gear feature colorful bright hues straight out of the 1980s in acid green, lemon and orange. Graphic Pucci prints are also stand out on the slopes. Metal, earthen tones in grays, blues and greens provide a stylish option for the more subtle snow fashionista. And if you really feel like a good fashion snow soldier, think camo prints.

And forget the huge furry hunter’s hats that can give you a bad case of bad hat hair. “You’re not suiting up for a Siberian winter,” says Rubin and Mauceri, “so there’s no need for an oversized hunter’s hat that keeps flapping over your eyes. As you’re whizzing down the slopes, you don’t want to bowl down other skiers and boarders on the way.”

According to Snowsports Industries America, a national not-for-profit trade association representing the winter sports industry, there are plenty of stylish ski clothing options this year.

Trendy headwear this season comes in hats that are inspired by military looks and truckers. There’s a hat to match every personality. Check into hats by Pistil, Chaos and ASD. And don’t forget the all-important goggles and sunglasses. Goggles are highly streamlined this winter. Uvex’s Magic goggles incorporates technology used for the U.S. Air Force. Many eyewear companies, like Rooly Optics Glide and Utopia’s Underworld make “hybrid” sunglasses, combining the tight seal of goggles with sunglass features.

And if you just can’t live without your iPod and your cell phone, snowboard and ski companies have designed plenty of gear featuring “wearable electronics” with audio, cell phone and digital cameras built right into their high-tech jackets, beanies and helmets.

Burton’s Ronin Espionage jacket features a low-profile digital camera with a flat-panel malleable screen that monitors bodily vitals, environmental functions, links music and cell phones, all within a three-layer shell that stashes into a removable insulated vest. Bonfire’s SkullCrusher beanie features “sub-woofed” volume through studio-sized headphones, and R.E.D.’s Tantrum helmet lets you listen to portable audio devices and answer cell phone calls.

Yes, you too can be “wired” and “foxy” on the ski slopes this winter.

Sharon Mosley is a former fashion editor of the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock and executive director of the Fashion Editors and Reporters Association.

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Protective helmets now sport cozy ear pads with speakers connected to your digital music player. Durable wristwatches can count your calories and measure your rate of descent. And easy-to-use helmet-fixed camcorders can capture every twist and turn of your best run — or tumble.

For ski and snowboard buffs, this is the year to upgrade your gear.

Skiing and snowboarding are already pricey affairs just for lift tickets at many slopes. Add the price of occasional new equipment, travel costs and lodging, and mountain enthusiasts are left with a tough decision on whether to buy extra gadgets for the trip.

I took an assortment of gear on a recent snowboarding trip to the Lake Tahoe area and the famed ski resort, Squaw Valley USA, site of the 1960 winter Olympics.

The $230 AXN300 from Polar Electro Inc. is a rugged wristwatch that measured my altitude, average rate of descent and basic fitness level, with the help of a heart rate monitor that fit comfortably around my chest and communicated wirelessly with the watch.

After spending about a half-hour one evening before the trip entering my height, weight, age and other data and measuring my at-rest heart rate, I took it out for an hour of vigorous snowboarding on some intermediate and advanced runs.

I learned afterward that I had descended 810 feet per minute at the maximum pace, burned 414 calories and stayed in a primary fitness target zone for nearly the entire hour. The information was displayed in text format by toggling through several screens on the watch. All the data were stored in digital files for later review, but unfortunately, you can’t download the information to a computer for further analysis.

I was able to toggle through the menus wearing thick snowboarding gloves, thanks to the well-spaced buttons on the right side of the watch.

The Polar watch performed great and gave me information I could really use to determine my health on the hills.

Next up was the Samsung SC-X105 ($600), also known as the Sports Camcorder X. It has a nice rubberized exterior and easy-to-read menus on the flip-out LCD screen.

Best of all, you can mount its cigar-sized camera to most helmets. The strap held the external camera tight to my helmet all day, with little added weight.

The small, black-and-blue unit records MPEG-4 video to 512 megabytes of built-in memory or to an external Memory Stick. Picture quality at the highest setting is fine, but unfortunately, at that setting, I could only get 12 minutes of footage on the built-in memory. A 256-megabyte Memory Stick cost me $40, but added only six minutes.

My runs down the hill usually took less than two minutes, and the camcorder’s memory filled up long before lunchtime. I could have extended the recording time by using a lower-resolution setting, but that footage looked spotty in testing and wouldn’t have been worth the trouble.

And the battery life weighed in at a gutless one hour on a full charge.

I’d spend my money instead on $85 Giro Encore Audio Series snowboarding helmet and pocket the change.

That was indeed the standout product of the trip. The comfy ear pads contain small speakers and a standard audio input jack so you can pipe your tunes into your head for the ride. It comes with a coiled audio jack extender cord.

I used the smallest, lightest music player I could find, MobiBLU’s Cube MP3 player, which is about the size of a Vegas dice. It makes the iPod Shuffle look downright large.

Volume and sound quality were outstanding; the music didn’t get washed out by the rustling of my clothes and the swooshing of wind. Everything from bass-heavy techno music to light strains of Sufjan Stevens’ banjo plucking came in crystal clear.

Moreover, it was the most comfortable brain bucket of any breed I’ve ever put on my head. Giro is ahead of the pack by bounds here.

How can I shuttle all this gear safely around on the slopes? My pockets weren’t big enough for everything, so I turned to a couple of outdoorsy backpacks.

Oakley Inc.’s $150 hard-shell backpack is a gem. Its structured, rugged exterior looks like something designed for an outer space movie starring Vin Diesel. The interior has padded compartments and safely held a laptop, assorted electronics accessories, notepads and lunch, with room to spare.

It did yeoman’s work on the slopes and rode my back comfortably.

Brenthaven lent me its $120 Mt. Herman backpack, made of ballistic grade nylon. But I’m worried about bumps and boulders on the slopes — not bullets.

The Brenthaven model was a bit flat for me, and I felt my gear was always vulnerable to impact. This backpack would be fine around town or on a low-key hike, but not for the slopes.

One final note: I got some flak last time I wrote about riding down a mountain with headphones on. Sure, it’s safer to ride without such distractions, but it’s also foolish to think people won’t be listening to music in their helmets this winter.

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The positive side is that you can call the ski patrol after you run up the back of another skier, smack a tree, or try to take out a lift tower while playing with the gizmos and talking on the way down the hill. For more information – if you must – click on www.giro.com.

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(KSL News) — They’re growing in popularity, but some think not fast enough. The Utah Health Department will spend part of the day tomorrow handing out helmets to skiers and boarders at Brighton Ski resort.

Some skiers say wearing a helmet is not something they think about. “To be perfectly honest, I haven’t, I used to ski all the time, and nobody wore helmet’s back then. To be perfectly honest, I never thought I needed it.”

The Salt Lake Health Department says skiing accounts for a number of traumatic brain injuries every year. They says the highest rates are among people ages 15-24.

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Suddenly, they’re acceptable. Maybe even cool. And expensive – from $40 to more than $150.

No longer popular only with professional skiers and children, helmets have caught on with the rest of the snow-riding population as well.

And companies are jumping on the bandwagon.

At a snow-sports trade show here this week, helmets are one of the most-prevalent ski and snowboard accessories in the building.

“You’ll go through this place and see more helmets than in any other year,” said Dan Moore, an executive of W Helmets, one of several thousand companies displaying products at the SnowSports Industries America trade show. “Everyone that makes skis now also sells helmets.”

Last season, helmet sales rocketed 31.8 percent, leading the way in ski accessory sales, according to the SIA.

In addition to the dozens of companies at the show that focus solely on making helmets, many snowboard and ski makers also are offering helmets. These companies can produce helmets cheaply in places like Asia, where they already make ski and snowboard gear.

Part of the growth has been fueled by an innovation that has made helmets lighter and less bulky.

Traditionally, helmets have been made using a process called injection molding, in which a standard piece of foam cushioning is made separately from the shell, or hard part, of the helmet. The foam piece is then glued or fastened to the shell.

Now, many companies make the foam piece using an in-molding process, which fits the foam exactly to the shell, in effect eliminating excess padding, glue, fasteners or other materials that can add to a helmet’s weight.

Helmets also have become more stylish and colorful, increasingly durable and now have better ventilation, which makes them much more comfortable to wear.

The adult segment is among the fastest-growing markets for Boeri USA Inc., one of the world’s top helmet makers with a 35 percent share of the market.

“They’ve become more and more acceptable,” said Jeff Raverby, president of Boeri’s U.S. division. “Skiing is a very vain sport, and initially people felt that it made them look a little geeky. Now, helmets are commonplace.”

In the late 1990s, several high-profile accidents, including the deaths of Sonny Bono and Michael Kennedy, led to increased awareness among skiers and boarders.

Although the effectiveness of helmets in preventing deaths like those is debatable, they do significantly reduce the risks of concussions, cuts and other accidents.

“We’re seeing a lot of people buy their second and third helmets,” said Jeff Turner, divisional merchandise manager for Denver-based Specialty Sports Venture LLC, which owns 120 ski, snowboard and sports shops. “It’s not going away.”

One small Colorado company is benefiting from the trend in an unusual way.

Helmet Headz, based in Boulder, sells helmet covers, featuring such designs as mohawks and camouflage.

“It’s such an important part of skiing,” said Marybeth Emerson, the company’s president. “If kids wear helmets when they’re young, it becomes a habit and they’ll wear them when they’re older.”

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Most resorts quietly support helmets. No one wants to create an impression that skiing isn’t safe. But that discreet approach changed last month when Consumer Reports announced that one of the top ski-helmet producers, Boeri, didn’t make the safety grade on one of its models.

Now, skiing’s helmet-safety issue is in the open. In its test, Consumer Reports chilled 13 helmet models to between 0 and 9 degrees and dropped them onto steel anvils. The Giro Nine.9 and Giro Fuse were rated the highest, while a version of the popular Boeri Rage was deemed “not acceptable” after the shell shattered in impact tests.

Let the fireworks begin.

“All our helmets meet or exceed the standards set by other agencies,” said Jeff Ravreby, Boeri Sport USA vice president. “Chilling a helmet to 0 or 9 degrees and dropping it on an anvil never happens. Your body heat alone will warm the helmet significantly. This test is bogus.”

Consumer Reports stands by its results. “All the other helmets were tested to the same standard, and they didn’t have a similar reaction,” said John Galeotafiore, a director of testing at Consumer Reports.

Boeri produces about 40 percent of the helmets sold in the United States every year, Ravreby said. Now, the company faces a quandary: How do you defuse a negative report without scaring customers away?

In many ways, it’s a problem the skiing and snowboarding industry has always had to face, the perception that the sports are dangerous. And although Timothy White of the National Ski Areas Association, an industry trade group, concedes that snow sports’ rates of injury are higher than, say, those of hiking, he argues that “skiing and snowboarding have been unfairly depicted as deadly by the media.”

As companies attempt to sell more highly profitable safety equipment – $67.3 million were spent on ski helmets last year, at an average of $83 apiece – they walk a thin line.

“We don’t want to send a message that this is such a dangerous sport that you have to wear a helmet,” Ravreby said. “We don’t want resorts to begin requiring protection.”

Mandates are beginning to pop up, anyway. A 6-year-old died in 2002 on a Colorado mountain after she crashed into a tree during a ski lesson. She was not wearing a helmet, and the parents sued. The resort, Aspen Highlands, now requires helmets on ski- school students. Other resorts are posting pro-helmet signs.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 40 percent of the 23,000 skiers and snowboarders who suffered head injuries last year could have lessened the severity of their injuries by wearing a helmet.

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The fire destroyed the warehouse space of the facility and claimed Leedom’s supply of components and packaging materials, but was brought under control before reaching the molding facility.

Although severe damage occurred in several areas, the molder is well insured and committed to rebuilding with improved facilities in the same location. For the short term an action plan utilizing off-site warehousing and assembly facilities is being fast tracked, with the expectation that molding and assembly will resume within the next thirty days. Prior to the incident, Leedom’s 2001:2002 production had been in process for over two months and production of goods through the ship dates of 10/1/01 had been all but completed. Components necessary to meet the subsequent ship dates have been re-ordered. This includes product necessary to meet and deliver the balance of our 2001:2002 program, as well as additional inventory for reorder.

Senior Product Manager, Joe Kourafas comments, “This unfortunate development will undoubtedly cause some minor delays for dealers receiving their orders with ship dates between 10/1 and 11/15, but our situation could be much worse. Our vendors are providing the service we need during this challenging time to expedite production of replacement parts needed to finish the program. Fortunately, we were ahead of schedule and right now it looks good that we will not lose any significant time in being able to get up and running again to complete production.”

Dennis Leedom stated that “This is a time when the positive attributes of human nature come into play,” adding, ” We are doing everything in our power to limit the effects of this unforeseeable development. We are asking for some additional tolerance relative to ship dates on the part of our dealers to assist us in getting through this tragedy. At the same time we want to be very clear that we have every intention of delivering the goods and the support program that is expected. The fact that we are well into production and have substantial stores of finished product in our own warehouse is very comforting. Fortunately, many of the more popular models have already been produced. Included in this is our newest model the Cut, which we believe will provide growing success to our dealer base and the market as soon as it hits the shelves. With all that we have put into place since the fire we are happy to be able to inform you that it should have a limited effect on the strong market position of the brand.”

Leedom International is the manufacturer and distributor of Leedom ski and snowboard helmets.

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