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I am looking to buy a new camera helmet setup. I lost my GoPro due to a risere swipe on a side float head high three second delay at the Perrine. I figure this is a good excuse for me to get something better.

I am looking at gettig the Rok, by Cookie, with the liquid top mount and an internal memory/ sd card camera with a low profile, probably Canon. I am looking for something with good head protection and a low snag potential camera mount. I would like to hear any feedback from someone who has a Rok or any reccomendations for something that might be better.

My rok is up for sale mainly due to the fact that i think it offers horrible impact protection. It is very thin and has a thin piece of foam inside it for comfort. I just purchased a bell ballistic that has about 1 inch of high density foam to protect your head. I am going skydiving with it on the weekend and will let you know what i think of it. I hear cookies new helmet has some sort of high tech lining called d30, dont know much about it but maybe you should look at that model if u like the cookie ones.

Best cookie helmet now for base in my opinion is the gas.

Full face, good visibility with a d3o liner. You can get it with a flat lock to top mount a camera. I took the face shield off and jump it slider off. Works well.

I also own a rok, which I have jumped slider off and terminal. At best, it has very minimal impact protection, and is not my favorite helmet for cliff jumps that are not terminal....

However, again, neither of these helmets offer the protection of a good downhill mtn biking full face helmet. And plenty of people have taken these and turned them into a top mount machine.... they just weigh a little more.

_justin

I had an object strike with a rok. I now have a screw and metal plate in my head. nuff said.

side note - most comfortable helmet i've ever worn.

Hopefully the screw and plate aren't from the camera mount!!

  If you're looking for a decent helmet, Abbie is selling a model that can take a hit, has a removable front bar shield type thingy, and fits pretty decent.

I bounced mine off the pavement hard enough that in my limited opinion, had it been a thin carbon fibre helmet I would have either been knocked out cold or had a concussion at the least. My head didn't hurt at all and very surprisingly the helmet got one very small mark in it. I was amazed it wasn't cracked or anything.

well, how might your head have faired without the Rok helmet?

you hit your head hard on steel right? No Coma, No Dain Bramage. Maybe the Rok saved you.

I have a Rok. It is made of Carbon Fiber and dense padding and softer padding where it contacts your head. It provides as much protection as any helmet in its genre, Sure, an impractically thick bulky race car driver helmet may provide more protection, but that is not realistic.
I give my Rok an A.

JT

I wasn't wearing a rok. If i had been wearing my Rok I think I would have been in way worse shape. Just my opinion.

Joe,
Thats a great idea! Liquid flatlock affixed right to your dome. Nice...

~Jake

I just come up with ideas.... hopefully I don't have to implement them as well...

No doubt it saved me, but I believe a different helmet would've prevented the skull fracture. that's why I didn't buy a new rok.

JT: You're setting up a straw man here. There are plenty of helmets that sit somewhere between the Rok and a motorcycle helmet, many of which offer a lot more head protection than the Rok, with an acceptable amount of weight and bulk.

Michael

straw man, nice! Do you have a degree Michael?

I saw a few of the cookie helmets in my local dz shop yesterday and they all have a red label on them that says something like
"THIS IS NOT A SAFETY/CRASH HELMET"

I do, but more importantly, I value sound reasoning. I've met loads of people with degrees who wouldn't know the difference between a sound argument and an unsound one, so I doubt it comes with the territory. There's plenty of unsound reasoning on the forums, and if I responded to all of it, I'd be a very busy man. In this case, though, I hate to see an accomplished BASE jumper give his head protection an "A" because he can imagine worse things to wear.

There's no point wearing head protection at all unless you think it's actually going to protect your head. If impact tests have been done with the Rok, I'd love to see them. Without those tests, given its construction and target market, I think there's reason to doubt its effectiveness.

Years ago, we had a similar discussion regarding Bonehead helmets, and eventually someone from Bonehead chimed in:

http://www.basejumper.com/...post=1645203#1645203

There are, potentially, good reasons to wear lighter head protection for BASE jumping: If comfort is a major factor for you, and you estimate the risk of major head trauma to be very low, you might reasonably wear a lighter helmet. However, my experience has been that many people who are wearing skydiving helmets are making the choice based on an inflated notion of the protection the helmet offers. That's simply tragic.

Michael

Lets be honest, helmets used for BASE are mainly shit. Protec, thats about as good as it gets....

When will skydiving and BASE helmet manufacturers step up and make something that may save a hefty impact?

When established snowboard, skateboard, and mountain bike helmet manufacturers stop doing it?

There are lots of good helmets out there -- tested helmets which are also light, with good peripheral vision, full-face or not. With a few dollars in materials, common hand tools, and an afternoon's work when it's windy, you can mount a camera on many of them. What difference does it make if the sticker says "Cookie" or "Giro"?

Precisely. If you think Protec is the height of BASE head protection, I don't think you're looking very hard.

It's costly to design effective head protection, so I think skydiving helmet manufacturers are wise to stay out of that market. Manufacturers like Giro have a much broader user base, and it's therefore more likely that they will recover the high cost of R&D. Our needs aren't so specific that a well-designed mountain biking, ski/snowboarding, or skateboarding helmet won't do the trick.

Michael