Looking for full-face helmet recommendations

Daughter (you met her at a store in Truckee)  face has hit, twice, safety fences and endured minor cuts and burns but more recently she fell on her pole and fractured her cheeks. I'm therefore looking at full face helmets. I see some very light-on comments abiut ruroc helmets but I was hoping to get your views. I pay the doctors, plastic surgeon and othodontic bills so I'm after something that better protects the face. Cheers.

The Smith X (Troy Lee Design) is a great full face helmet.  The carbon version is really lightweight, I might also suggest the Giro Snow Remedy

Fractured her cheek?  Man that's gotta hurt.  I applaud you for trying to take care of your offspring, but is she willing to wear the full-face?  I wear one, but most here would not (you can always show pictures of Picabo Street with one if you need some graphic encouragement, that is if the pain she has endured isnt persuading enough).  

 

If you cant find something made for skiing that is suitable look into the BMX helmets, in many cases they are approved for skiing and I have seen some newer designs that bring the chin protection closer to the face for a more compact profile.

 

 

I'm in a close to the same predicament as the OP.  My 11 y/o is going to do a race camp next season and is currently hooked on NASTAR.  Fortunately I developed the same addiction so I'm also her enabler.  Anyway, she's going to be in braces next season and did get a pole jab (in the terrain park landed funny and jaw hit pole) this past season.  Fortunately it was nothing more than if she took an uppercut.

 

I don't think she'll wear a full face mainly because she's a hot head - literally.  Even on the coldest days she has her vents open on her Giro.

 

Toying with the idea of getting I think what is an SL race helmet.  Has the sort of football helmet look to it with a bar coming out in front of the chin.

 

Any recommendations?

Thanks for changing the thread's title.

 

If that pole handle went thru the cheek/eye socket, she would've been a vegetable. So far she's seen the pimped up ruroc one and says she'll wear it.

 

If she had these moto-cross style ones, I bet there's too much to catch on a safety fence as she literaly went rhru a cut hole in it.

 

I saw the giro and troy lee but I'm wary of anything jutting out that, on hitting something harder than a flexing slalom pole, will deflect and twist a neck.

 

Accordingly  I'm going to try the british ruroc helmet www.ruroc.com and when it arrives I can see how removable 'jaw/face works'. I think it iis fully removable as well as extendable to get air on one's face on the lift.  They 'pimp them up' so hopefully that turns them into something 'cool'. for these fashion fickle teens.

As long as it's removable.  Some events they don't allow that SL chin guard, although at this age, it probably isn't an issue.  Should she start doing SGs in a year or so it will be.

 

the common removable chin piece that's aka a football helmet isn't much good, imo, for tree trucks, branches, rocks and other dense objects like snowboarders.

 

I'm getting Ruroc from the UK.

veteran,

 

Wow!  She might actually wear one of those because they're so cool looking!  Somewhere between Transformers and Darth Vader.  Looks well ventilated.  Be great if it gave her a creapy sounding voice too.  She's only 11 but she likes screwing with people.

 

Ken

They do look neat.  I hope anyone who buys them reports back on the anti-fog success in below zero temps....  If they work, I'm interested.

I think the price is preventing enough purchases to get some reviews.  I haven't found any yet.  Just peoples opinions and that's mainly on the appearance.

 

I did search on Youtube also and there is a demo of it there from Ruroc.  It seems simpler to get the mask on and off than I thought it would be.

 

I showed it to my daugher this morning and her eyes lit up. 

The price includes the goggles, though, which helps.  And I also sense you might not need a neoprene mask when it's cold out.  

 

The  sthrn hemiisphere season starts on 7 June  so I'll get a review up after that on the British  Ruroc ski helmets. I'll show it to our ski hire guys, ski patrollers, who exchange with Squaw's patrol, snowboard instructors (who know more about face plants onto their board), amongst others.

 

Re misting (if any), our typical temps are -5C to +3C on the sumit at 5,500ft , and we get lots of mist and fog as well as rain and sleet. So the misting will get tested in pretty extreme conditions. just like an English summer.

 

 I'll also review the reaction of the teens on the 'pimped up' version.

 

.   

 

 I was talking Fahrenheit, so more like -20C is what I want to know about.  -5C is WARM!!!

 

So no one cares about neck injuries caused by jamming the chin gaurd?

 

Up here, Ontario, the ONLY time the chin guard is used is in an SL course when you are cross-blocking.  Otherwise, it's a liability.

 

Can't say about big mountain skiing on sketchy lines -- I'd like to keep my face out of the rocks -- but that does not apply to me or mine.

 

"So no one cares about neck injuries caused by jamming the chin gaurd?"

 

That's why I'm asking here.  Not even sure what to ask or do other than I should do something.  Wouldn't appear to be an issue with the ruroc.

 

While this may seem like the case there are no readily available documented cases to support this belief......basically I think its an old wives tale, bunk, which I think stems from back in the day when parents were fitting heavy adult full face helmets on little children while riding motocross than having the that weight coupled with the additional material of a full face causing injuries.   I have searched hi and low and have never read of one single incident where a full face helmet in ANY sport was responsible for a serious neck injury....on the other hand I have read many stories of how a full face helmet saved someone from being permanently disfigured....or going through tens of thousands of dollars in oral surgery.

 

Nowadays there are children sized helmets made of very light weight materials not an issue IMHO; the benefits outweight the risk.  Neck injuries from fall related accidents are usually from a side-ways hyper movement rather than from a twisting one.  Still to each his/her own, one must make their choices and know the risks one way or the other.
 

 

 

Richie,

 

We'd better tell the CSCF that every one of their coaches is misinformed and operating under an old wives tale.

 

Thanks a bunch.

 

Sheesh.

 

Wouldn't be the first nor the last time that an organizational body rules from here-say rather than scientific fact. 

 

If they were never wrong they would never have to modify the rules.
 

 

If its  -20C,  I'll see if it mists up when I'm in the jaccuzzi.

I found a demo by a ruroc employee on you tube by googling 'ruroc'.

 

The guy simply clicks the jaw/nose piece into the helmet and this face piece follows the googles and protects even the nose. Then he unclicks it (but doesn't show iif it fits in a fanny pack or a parka's goggles pocket) 

 

There's nothing jutting out to catch on anything.

 

It looks less Darth Vader'ish 'in the flesh' on youtube too.

 

Anyway, the demo on youtube is worth a look if you're interested.

I always thought the Ruroc system looks awesome...but I am just afraid that having not been designed to protect against impact, in a crash that face mask is just going to snap off and offer little to no protection.....oh and a nice bill since the mounting tabs will probably just crack off.....but having not seen it in person I can just speculate.

From my point of view, something is probably better than nothing. After all, even Darth Vader's helmet didn't save him.

It arrived today and imo its an awesome helmet with its own goggles and nose/cheek/chin./jaw clip in protector. Its going to be awarded as a prize in the Berdt Greber Cup.

Our ski club, Ski Club of Victoria at Mt Buller, received an adult helmet from Ruroc.

Its been well worn by staff - most recently in a japanese snowball fight by our staff against the evil cheating Mt Buller lifties filmed by "Totally Wild" (a kids tv show),  Channel 10 news, and our budding 'Warren Miller' film maker Tim Byrne. Those lifties pummelled our petite barmaids, but that's another story....

It doesn't fog up. Since June, we've been in pea soup fog, rain, tropical downpours, 110mph hot northerlies and freezing antartic winds  all season.  It doesn't fog up. Its warm, and windproof.

The interchangeable lenses were as good as my Bolles, Scott and IS Design lenses. In pea soup fog and flat light, I prefered the darker tint to show up shadows on moguls and race ruts, but lens colour is a personal preference. 

My only gripe is the glue used to hold the lining in place - but you guys don't get horizonal pelting rain that we endured.

Anyway our season has finally died a cruel death so the helmet has been retreived from the staff before they head to Winter Park, Breck and Japan.

Find a stockist and try one on. geoff@ruroc.com might know a stockist near anyone intersted.

Cheers

Can you link the ebay listing here?

What is the size in centimetres, colour and where is it?Can you post a pic?  I asume you could mail it or drop it off  some mates in the Squaw Valley Ski School, Olymopic Village Inn, the Snowbomb.com office in Tahoe City Lake Tahoe and Danville which is somewhere near Oaklands Airport.

hey, I realize I am really late to the game here, but I wanted to stick my nose in with my two cents.

We can wrap our kids in bubble wrap each time we send them out to play, or we can teach them the dangers in each sport they pursue and help them to participate as safely as possible.

I mean ... it's called safety equipment, not no-injury, or no-death equipment.  Common sense and good skills go a helluva lot further than a big piece of plastic.

that said, we all care about the same thing:  keep everyone safe out there.  :)

 i'm confused as i've never met your daughter at a store in Truckee and doubt that many others on this thread have, either.

that said, have you bothered checking with other racers, parents, coaches on what they would recommend?

since you have been to Truckee, you might consider contacting The Start Haus, since that's the main racing shop in the area and Sierra Jim here on Epic happens to work there. they might be able to offer up some full-face recommendations. 

also, just about every helmet company offers a full-face version, all you have to do is search their sites.

For example:

Sweet
http://www.sweetprotection.com/#/snow/hardware/helmets/trooper-fullface/

POC
http://www.pocsports.com/products/showproduct.asp?category=10-Ski&id=W91031

Giro
http://www.giro.com/en-us/products/snow-helmets/remedy-s/

Boeri
http://www.boeri.com/bx/bx.html

there are others, i'm sure. i'd ask other racers and coaches personally and see what they recommend.

best of luck.

I notice it says the original thread title was changed.  Maybe it was addressed to someone in particular back then? 

The USSA also feels that full face protection is more of a liability than an asset in anything faster than SL. I don't know where they get there opinions, but they do know something about their sport.

I bet Bode wishes he had one on this weekend.  That looked awfully painful.