The NCAA News - News and Features

January 13, 1997

HEADS UP

Helmet requirements are vague, but nearly all NCAA Alpine ski racers use head protection

BY MARTY BENSON
STAFF WRITER

It is legal for a skier competing in giant slalom to zoom down a slope at 70 miles an hour -- sans helmet -- in some races involving NCAA member institutions.

Thanks mostly to common sense, this situation has become as rare as skiers without goggles, although nothing in the NCAA Men's and Women's Skiing Rules requires that student-athletes wear either protective device.

University of New Mexico Alpine coach George Brooks, a member of the NCAA Men's and Women's Skiing Committee, said that five years ago, 40 to 50 percent of collegiate "GS" skiers wore helmets. He estimates the percentage increased to 90 to 95 percent by last year.

Safety awareness isn't the only reason for the increase. The emergence of lighter, more comfortable and cheaper options also is a factor.

John Jacobs, vice-president of Reliable Racing Supply, one of the country's largest distributors of ski-racing equipment, said that the old helmet was similar to that used for motorcycle riding -- expensive and perhaps even unsafe for skiing because of its weight.

"The helmets used to be fiberglass but now are made of high-tech plastics," he said. "The use of a layer of foam underneath the hard outer shell provides for deceleration by crushing in case of impact.

"The (new) helmet provides greater warmth and allows for greater peripheral vision. There also are holes in the sides for better hearing."

This year, virtually all GS skiers wear helmets since the sport's national governing body, the United States Skiing Association (USSA), requires them. It's only in the rare collegiate events that are not sanctioned by the USSA that the choice of whether to wear a helmet is left to the individual.

Almost everyone agrees that use of helmets by skiers traveling at highway speed is wise. The trouble comes when seeking specifics. The USSA rule is vague, saying only that a helmet must be "designed specifically for skiing."

The Snell saga

This is the USSA's second go-round in requiring helmets for its high-speed events, which include super giant slalom, giant slalom and downhill. (The NCAA sponsors only giant slalom competition.)

Until 1983, helmets had to be approved by the Snell Memorial Foundation. That year, Snell's founder died, leaving the foundation with a cloudy future. According to Gib Brown, Snell's lab manager in North Highlands, California, the foundation's inactive status at that time may have given the incorrect impression that Snell had left the skiing-helmet business.

Some skiing people interpreted Snell's inaction as fear of a lawsuit if a head injury occurred. Regardless of the reason, the void left the USSA with the impression that it was requiring equipment for which it had no standard.

Snell officially rescinded its standard in 1989, because it had become outdated.

"The standard had become too weak for modern skiing activities," Brown said. "We looked at what we had and said that 'we have bicycle helmets on the market now that would do a better job.' "

Re-emergence of the helmet rule

The USSA did not wait for Snell's official word and eliminated its helmet rule in 1983.

"The USSA was very frustrated and took all the language about (helmets) out of the (rules) book," Brooks said. "But they grew uncomfortable with that (legally), so they decided to put in the current rule, which is written from an attorney's point of view."

The rule is strict enough to prevent a skier from wearing a motorcycle helmet but does not offer much more guidance. As a result, there is the potential for confusion, because above-the-neck protection is manufactured for both slalom (a much slower race with somewhat different safety concerns) and giant slalom.

Devices that some skiers loosely call "slalom helmets" do not satisfy the USSA rule, because they do not provide full cranial protection. These "basher bands" cover only the face, protecting it from the gates.

American helmet standard

Although the Snell certification is history, there are current international standards, such as those of the Central European Norm (CEN) -- a group that sets general industry regulations in a manner similar to that of the American Standard for Testing Materials (ASTM). In addition, Brown said that Snell has drafted a new standard that should be finalized within a year.

John Jacobs' older brother, Jeff, himself a former vice-president of the family's Reliable Racing Supply, serves on the ASTM's F8 committee on sports equipment, which has many responsibilities, including the skiing helmet. He said that ASTM is attempting to emulate the CEN standard, but progress is slow because of the group's many other interests.

But he said that is no reason to wait to adopt a helmet rule.

"The CEN is the standard by which all others are judged," Jacobs said. "Ninety percent of the helmets on the market are made in Europe, so most that are available already meet it.

"Excuse the pun, but the CEN standard is 'something to hang your hat on' if you're making a helmet rule. There is no reason to wait for an American standard."

A self-described helmet zealot, he said mandatory full cranial protection should not be limited to giant slalom but also should be required for its slower, shorter sister -- the slalom.

"There may be just as much of a risk of a head injury (in slalom), especially under icy conditions," he said. "Anything that says that the slalom is less prone to head injury because of the slower speed is pure supposition, since there is no injury data.

"A giant-slalom helmet is just as suitable for slalom as it is for giant slalom."

Input from other entities

In most NCAA debates on safety, the Association's Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports is at the fore, but that is not the case with skiing.

That committee bases its recommendations on information gathered from the NCAA Injury Surveillance System (ISS), an ongoing program that tracks injury rates for 16 NCAA sports. Skiing is not monitored due to its relatively low sponsorship (41 of 994 NCAA schools, including provisional members) and limitations to data-input capabilities.

The committee hopes that new computer software developed exclusively for the ISS will enhance the NCAA's ability to monitor injury data from all sports in the coming years, said Randall W. Dick, NCAA assistant director of sports sciences and NCAA staff liaison to the committee.

The NCAA did partially fund some research on catastrophic injuries in skiing from 1989 to 1995, although those data are not as in-depth as those typically generated by the ISS. Gathered by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury, these data showed one skiing fatality occurring in the 1989-90 season.

The NCAA Executive Committee, in its oversight of sports rules, is concerned about both excessive cost and safety -- issues that can conflict with each other. In this case, cost appears to be irrelevant.

Although a helmet costs from $70 to $200 and a giant-slalom squad ranges in size from six men and six women to 10 of each gender, most competitors already have their own helmet. So, cost to a school would be minimal.

Skiing committee plan

Cory L. Schwartz, coach at the University of New Hampshire and chair of the skiing committee, said that management personnel at slopes on which NCAA teams race have been requiring helmets. He said that in the few places where management does not require helmets, individual schools do.

Because sufficient protection is required by other entities, the skiing committee is approaching making its own rule with caution.

"We are waiting for direction from groups such as the NCAA and the ASTM so that we can put proper wording in our rules book that clearly defines what the safest helmet is and what events it should be required for," Schwartz said.