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At least kids seem to be getting better about helmets. It’s really really rare that I ever see a kid not wearing one when mountain biking, at least where I am.

• ndnxhs 8y ago
  I have never seen someone at the mountain bike park without a helmet. That would be just insane. Also most of the people taking on the tough trails have full face helemets.
• ghaff 8y ago
  Helmets have become more common for a lot of activities. They used to be unheard of in skiing unless you were a racer and now are probably worn by most--especially kids. Of course, e-scooters and bike shares provide a counter-trend as they don't make it convenient to have a helmet.
  • Filligree 8y ago
    > They used to be unheard of in skiing unless you were a racer and now are probably worn by most--especially kids. What, seriously? What kind of skiing are you talking about? I've never once seen anyone wear a helmet for cross-country skiing, and I wouldn't think it's necessary anyway. For one thing it's usually walking pace, but also snow is soft.
    • ghaff 8y ago
      I thought it was obvious I was talking about downhill skiing. Of course people don't wear helmets for cross-country even for racing.
    • amalcon 8y ago
      Presumably grandparent means downhill. Twenty years ago, you basically couldn't buy an adult-sized helmet for alpine skiing even if you wanted to. These days, it's weird not to have one. I think the change was due to some high profile deaths from tree collisions in the late 90s.
      • ghaff 8y ago
        As I recall, racers have worn helmets for decades but it was pretty rare for recreational skiers until 15-20 years ago. I think another factor is that helmets for a lot of kids' activities have become more or less expected, especially among demographics who do downhill skiing as a family. And, if you're telling your kid they have to wear a helmet, a lot of parents probably feel they sort of have to as well. ADDED: I also wonder if the rise of snowboarding played a role because backward falls where it's easy to hit your head on ice is probably more common than with skis. I don't downhill ski much these days but I did ski at Squaw Valley a couple times recently because of an event there. And I was definitely an outlier in not wearing a helmet. (In my partial defense, I do wear a hat with impact resistant material sewn in (D3O) and I'm not exactly banging down moguls through the trees these days.)
  • ryandrake 8y ago
    > They used to be unheard of in skiing unless you were a racer and now are probably worn by most--especially kids. Yea this one surprised me recently. I learned to downhill ski as a kid in the 80s, and never once saw anyone with a helmet. I obviously gave it up when I moved to Florida, but now, decades later I’m living somewhere I can go skiing again and was shocked to see so many people (even adults!) wearing them. The group from work I was with was equally shocked that I wasn’t wearing one. They were also shocked that I was wearing jeans and not one of those hundreds-of-dollars skiing outfits, but whatever. I mean I guess helmets make sense but it just feels unnatural, as unnatural as bicycle helmets (which we also did not wear back in the 80s) feel to me. I’ll never get used to wearing one of them either.
• komali2 8y ago
  In the longboarding community, it's considered extremely bad taste to film without a helmet un, precisely because kids are impressionable. I've seen people shouted out of meets.