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I've recently been thinking of buying a new skydiving helmet; always liked the design of full-face Z1's (Parasport) with the flip-up visor.
Here's my question: are these type of helmets suitable for BASE? Maybe without the visor, and with sunglasses?

It seems to me that open face helmets offer less protection against impact on the chin...

btw: why do most freeflyers never use full-face types?Is it all about the feeling of air?

Thanks.

hopefuly your aint going to impact on your chin or at all

I jump an open helmet to feel more free and still protect just abit.

did you ever try to ff whith a fullface helmet? you get alot of drag on it,not really fun..

if you can find a fullface Pro-teck you probaly get the safest helmet,but then again,its all about looking good,and 100%up to you

I don't make a BASE jump without wearing a full face helmet. I actually jump the Z1 as well, sometimes with the plexiglass visor pulled down and sometimes up (for slider off stuff).

Many jumpers have received jaw/face injuries as the result of an open face helmet or no helmet at all. I can think of two in the last 6 months.

A full face that is going to give you the most "face" protection is going to be something like the BMX style Pro-Tec. See attached link.

http://www.sportchalet.com/...amp;cp=713103.788549

I know a lot of BASE guys wearing openface style helmets.
Alot is personal preference or the way you want to mount your video camera ie top or side.
Fullface lids have there merit on short delay underhung stuff.
"Douggs in Action"
http://www.cookiecomposites.com/team.php

I just picked up a protec full face helmet yesterday. It seems to be a pretty good helmet so far. And you cant beat the price $60.

Sorry to stray off topic but Cookie has some good videos on his site also. For those of you that haven't checked them out they are pretty good. The newest one racking up our remains has a lot of new school jumps (rollovers and tards). Some cave jumps. A great sound track to boot. Also includes quite a few jumpers from this forum.

If you want to buy something for BASE get something rated for any of these sports:
- ski
- skateboard
- BMX

I got the Predator DH6X for some years now and I love it.
You also have the TSG Pass.

The Tonfly TFX and the G4 are also rated but I'm not sure that the requirements for air sports is as strong as for the others.

Fullface helmets are heavier, there is also a risk of having an injury when landing in a tree with a branch catching the chin.
But if you hit the ground or the cliff the protection is much better than open faces.

Nothing is perfect.

I love your reply, but Kristof havent been online since 2010.
I personally use G4 for skydiving, and will be using it for terminal jumps going forward. So far I have been using a skihelmet with googles for terminal jumps, but it just aint working for me, I get too much wind in my eyes which results in me tearing up. I am using the skihelmet for low jumps though.

Haha, well the last message made me think it was a new post and I did not check.
I'm using a climbing helmet for high altitude mountain jumps with googles, if it's not working for you you probably have googles that are not fitting. I'm usually going to the closest DIY shop around and buy some protection googles there, it cost nothing (like 10€) so I can buy multiple ones if they are not fitting when jumping.