September 12, 2014
“I love helmets!” “I luuuuvvv helmets!”
This 30-second video is a fantastic testimonial for how a helmet can make you happy.
Happy to have worn one, that is.
Preston Majette is a 22-year-old longboarder from Tallahassee, Florida, who has been practicing his craft for a decade.
Recently, at a skating event Majette took a quick spill and fell, first on his butt, and then, with a resounding crack, onto his helmet-covered head. Fragments of his busted sunglasses fly off his head as he hits the ground.
Watch the video:
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Yet jumping up, seemingly uninjured, from the packed-dirt track, Majette exclaims, “I love helmets!” and then again, with even more emphasis, “I luuuuvvv helmets!”
Majette’s fantastic fall and recovery is a good example not just of how a helmet can help escape injuries in a sudden upset – whether on a bike, a board, or doing water and snow sports – it also points out a feature that some people fail to realize about their beloved helmets.
And that is that helmets are, unfortunately, one-crash items.
What we mean is, Majette’s lovable helmet is now lovably kaput –that cracking noise that you hear when his head connects to the dirt is the sound of the expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam in the helmet’s liner doing its job absorbing the energy of the fall.
Generally, once a helmet takes a hard, fast knock like that and the EPS absorbs the blow (sometimes but now always even visually cracking) it’s time to buy a new one. Dents, marks, or crush spots in the foam are sure signs that the integrity of the EPS has been breached.
(More good tips on when to replace a helmet here.)
So while we’re really happy Majette loved his brain enough to love wearing his helmet, it’s time to look for a replacement.
Might we suggest a Gen3 Urban Caution helmet? Looks great, lets people know you are coming and has special crumple zones in the EPS to disperse energy in the event of an impact.