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would you recommend a full-visor-helmet for base and if so would you recommend to "always" wear it when skydiving (in the years before starting to base-jump) - to get used to it (as early as possible)? is there a special model you would recommend?

The helmet it's always recommended when you jump in skydiving, motorbike, roller blade, bmx ecc.
The full face helmet is a Must in base !
I use a Factory Diver it's great solution for good visual and protection ; It's very light and comfortable testing ! the Factory carbon fiber it's more expensive, but is very very light
#726

I wouldn't bother wearing it for the skydives.

In my opinion, the best protection is offered by the downhill mountain biking helmets. Some of these also offer good hearing (always a plus when listening for an exit count). In my opinion, they are superior to skydiving helmets for BASE use. As a bonus, they're also cheaper.

In terms of wearing an actual face shield for BASE, you'll have to consider the pros and cons and decide for yourself. On the plus side, it can protect your eyes when landing in trees, bushes, etc. On the minus side, the visor can fog up, inhibit vision, and make hearing more difficult (and it could already be pretty bad).

On balance, I'd skip the skydiving helmets and go for a mountain biking helmet instead. And I don't think I'd want to wear that helmet on a bunch of skydives.

In addition to what Tom said about wearing mountain biking helmets, they are also good because they cover the back of your head as well as your face. I know that my oxygen left the back of my head pretty vulnerable. They are also built to take a solid impact.

I have a full face downhill mountain biking helmet for jumps that have more potential for bad landings or strikes. Otherwise I use a Giro ski racing helmet. I use it for skydiving, BASE and funny enough, skiing! My personal thoughts on factory divers and the such is that they are more or less useless. They cost a bunch of money and supply little protection to the melon. I have seen people jump with a Gath helmet. Those things do little more than keep the soupy bit contained....maybe. NOne of the skydiving helmets that I have seen are rated to any kind of crash worthiness standard. Please correct me if I'm wrong!?! The point of a lid is to offer good and solid protection in the event of an impact.
Get a good helmet with a crash rating! My opinion....

saberdave:
..."My personal thoughts on factory divers and the such is that they are more or less useless."
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Hey Dave I like you and all but I beg to differ on this one.
I got to say ONE Thing. All I ever hear is how fucked up Factory Diver full-face helmets are as being Sub-Standard.
The one time I did have an object strike I was wearing a Factory Diver full-face. and an OLD an Original Style on top of that.
The blow was enough to snap 3 Ribs and knock me dizzy but I walked a way with help from my friends.
It did take impact to the -right front quarter side- and it prevented direct damage to Facial & Temporal Lobe on impact.
The Factory Diver did it's JOB. while also staying in One Piece. With Exception to a few small fracture lines.
I say there are choices where there has been better tests done for devastating crushing blows/impacts.
but the main thing is. Just wear a full face Helmet on every BASE jump. because you never know.
.

I've watched a jumper inexplicably plant face first against the ground. she remained loopy for a long time. but the cheap skydiving helmet saved her teeth!

so...
if you have one available, you can use it. it will be better than none, and can help.

but the motorbike helmets remain superior options.

Ya know, one night I did a solo from a really huge, really sexy, green bridge in California.

My landing was, let's say, less than graceful and I planted my face directly in the ground. I sniffed and sniffed to keep the blood from dripping out of my nose and onto my gear while I crammed it into my stashbag.

I could feel little bits of hard grit in my mouth and I moved them around with my tongue. They felt like tooth fragments. I spit them into my hand but I didn't have a light to look at them to see what they were. I didn't want to lose them because they felt like they might be important.

I held the bits in my hand until I got to my car where I could turn on the dome light and see that they were pieces of gravel that I must have eaten when I drove my skull into the road.

I like fullface helmets. I don't know why.

SOLD!!!!

Even though my dad is a dentist I wear a full face on every jump as well as full body armor, I've broken my back already once and I do not want to go down that road again but I take a wheelchair over brain damage any day.

Said that I wear a Fullface Protech Ace. It's light and offers better protection than other fullface SD helmets.

thourght you wear it so we couldnt see you scream..

Thought he wears it so we can't see him and feel the need to scream.

rl

Edited to add: You're starting to rub off, Faber. I really hope no one saw that sentence until after I fixed it.

by the age he has you would scream if you saw his face whith out plastic

Just remember, Faber, that old age and treachery trump youth and skill every time.

rl

Ski, snowboard and all of those others are really hot. I started wearing(when I jumped) my Hang gliding/paragliding helmut. They have earholes and are really lightweight. They are a little pricey http://www.flyaboveall.com/icaro/icaroplus.htm

I have the carbon optic and love it..

Fair enough but they are not rated though correct?! I have inspected those helmets and they seemed to be short on material to absorb shock with!? Can we agree there are some skydiving helmets that suck? I am glad it saved your ass and of course any lid is better than nothing for sure. I am biased I'm sure after watching a friend hit the ground (soft dirt field) and his expensive "skydiving helmet" didn't do alot for him all things considered (he died). I guess that was the point I started really looking at helmets and their construction and comparing it to that of rated, mass produced helmets. What I found was "SOME" products that seemed totally crap in their construction.

Phewww, that's it for now One more thing......I like you too Ray LOL

PEace

Any helmet is better than no helmet. Just try to get the habit of heaving helmet on your head on every jump. Scars on the body are ugly ( even though some people like them) but to fix damage on face is very hard and expensive.
Try more types of full face helmet and go for one.

The worst is to jump without helmet, like most of Russians or French sisters and brothers

However, that is personal choice

Down-hill mountain bike helmets offer a reasonable balance of size, weight and protection. They only fall short on impact ratings when compared to unacceptably big and bulky motorcycle helmets.

The Full Bravo Carbon from Six Six One looks like a good, low cost bet although it felt a bit flimsy to me. Jaap will no doubt disagree. Here in Kenya we have settled on the D2 Bomber from Troy Lee Designs which appears to be the reference helmet in downhill mountain biking. They are exceptionally well made, reasonably light but somewhat expensive. Then again a good proportion of serious injuries and death are as a result of head injuries so how expensive is that?

From my limited stand point (40 base jumps) I suggest that a quality full face helmet is essential as is quality armour and boots

John

I see you visited our Gorge de V.
Ps.: Taking into account they not use any protection Frenchies have quite good security record.

Not at all. I just went with the best option that my local mountainbiking store had available. They had four models from different brands. I've jumped with two of them. One I lost in mid-air on a skydive (don't ask). Then I switched to the SixSixOne Full Bravo model. I really like it (as far as weight, peripheral vision and fit go).

I can't comment on its protection relative to other mountainbike helmets. There are probably better ones out there. I'm sure mine offers way better protection than most skydiving and non full face helmets though.

Tomorrow!

thank you all for your interesting and helpful comments!

mostwanted

Also see BASE WIKI on helmets.

Why do skydiving helmets not have more padding?

Having one large impact could mean you have to considering replacing the helmet. With the people who use mountain bike helmets, have you had any hard knocks on the head and still jump the same helmet?

It would be nice to know how much different (say) a motorbike helmet is in terms of safety and why skydiving does not use this technology. Or is the skydiving helmet suitable for a majority of the knocks we expect to obtain?

Its 2am im blabbering so im going to bed now.

this is true no matter which helmet you use.
like cars crumpling, helmets absorb energy. hard impacts leave small, invisible stress fractures. these will reduce the protection level of the helmet.

do NOT trust any helmet that has received a hard shot.
while it IS better than nothing, the protection will be much lower.