There is a very serious chance this blog post is an entirely pointless rant about subjects that never existed.

But, in the small chance the issue does exist, I wouldn’t mind raising it.

Lee Cation’s facebook status states that the IDF board is currently debating restricting helmet use in the 2014 season to “certified” helmets. This in itself is slightly troubling. simply due to the wide ranging levels and jurisdictions of safety certification, the Triple 8 downhill racing helmet, a popular model, is rated in two downhill mountain biking categories. Several paragliding helmets that are popular are rated in that particular sports safety regime, and of course, the far less stylish DOT rated motorcycle helmets are actually rated for road use and high speed impacts. Given the limited amount of downhill skateboard specific helmets available that are certified in either a DOT or SNELL rating I feel that restricting downhill skateboarder’s to only a specific market of helmet manufactures would be a poor choice at this juncture. Considering our head injury rates are far lower than football or hockey players, (I don’t have numbers to back them up, so someone could please cite me either correct or incorrect on this and I will release a retraction) I think tackling this issue now is neither pressing or a concern to the majority of downhill skateboarders.

The second, much less responsible question I have is if this discussion is any way related to the two major players in the downhill skateboarding helmet market, one of which has apparently decided they brought racing stripes to skateboarding. Is anyone on the current IDF board sponsored by or in any way receiving funds or any considerations from either Predator or Triple 8? This would be a clear conflict of interest and should be immediately made a matter of public record.

So once again, this may just be needless speculation, we will see what comes down the pipe from the IDF.

Brendan