A valid reason for wearing a helmet

It took me a long time before shedding my woolen ski hat and making a move to wearing a ski helmet. The reason for not wearing one earlier is a complicated personal story, woven in tradition, nostalgia and frankly, in not seeing a need for it. That's right, in spite of skiing some 2,300 days so far in my existence, I never hit anything hard with my head, except for a tiny branch or the slope during an occasional, spontaneous and involuntary flip that had me landing on my head; all my other contact with hard stuff always took place elsewhere on the body... While I thought that wearing a ski-helmet might be a wise move, I was concerned about my peripheral vision, my ears being covered, not being able to hear my fellow chairlift passengers and also about some sense of claustrophobia or imprisonment, having my head in a “bucket.”

That was until wearable video-cams came along. Last season, I begun shooting ski videos in earnest and had no other mean at my disposal, but holding the camcorder in one hand while trying to ski. On easy “groomers” that was easy. On steeper slopes, it became more of a challenge and in bumps, well, I might as well have not done it. So, torn between my desire to shoot video while skiing and finding a steadier platform for attaching the camera, I had no other choice but contemplating the use of a helmet.

Sure, I had considered by-passing that protective headgear in using the straps that came packaged with my new video cam, but the attachment quality seemed somewhat flimsy, so I had no choice but settle on the steadier platform offered by a hard-shell. I purchased my helmet this early January, tried it on while skiing several times before installing my video-cam mounts and discovered several positive aspects about wearing it that I didn't even thought even existed.

First and foremost, my new headgear is warm, especially if you are bold like me. If it's too hot during spring skiing, it also offers an “air-conditioning” option that can be actuated by opening some vents on the top. Another nice advantage is that I'll never have to look for my goggles again. They reside on the helmet, no matter what, even if on a sunny spring day I decide to wear my sunglasses instead. Then, there is the end of day bonus, when I'm done skiing, I grab the helmet, throw head-liner and gloves inside and there's only one single item to be worry about, and oh yes, I almost forgot; my head is now much safer!