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Helmet saved his life, says B.C. skier

New CSA committee may advocate for helmet usage on slopes
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Dusan Markovic underwent surgery after a bad fall on Mt. Washington this year. Photo by Jill Kelly

Victoria skier Dusan Markovic said it was a sunny powder day in January when he almost killed himself in Mount Washington’s terrain park this year. Although soft everywhere else on the mountain, the terrain park’s kicker and transition were rock hard, and when Markovic, who was wearing a helmet, landed after a failed 360 attempt "it was like landing on pavement" as he whacked his head and dislocated his shoulder.

"I definitely think it’s quite possible it saved my life," Markovic, 35, said of his Salomon "Screamer" race helmet.

As a result of the accident Markovic ended up in surgery four weeks later, so that doctors could drain just under half a litre of blood accumulated in his brain.

"I can only imagine that if my injury was this severe with a helmet that it would have been much worse without," he said in a telephone interview.

Markovic, an environmental consultant, is also a mountain biker, and said he decided a few years ago to start wearing a helmet while skiing.

"I would never ride my bike without a helmet and yet I go way faster on skis than on a bike, so it just didn’t make sense to not wear a helmet skiing."

Markovic is one example of why a Canadian Standards Association technical committee is looking to develop Canadian alpine and snowboard helmet standards.

The technical committee, comprised of 20 representatives including Health Canada, National Ski Association, Bell Sports, Louis Garneau and the Canadian Brain Injury Association, met for the first time last week in Vancouver to begin drafting helmet standards. Currently there are no Canadian construction standards and helmet manufacturers like Salomon Canada Sports follow international and U.S. standards.

"There are a couple of our helmets that don’t fit in because of style, but the majority of our helmets do follow both standards," said Scott Lumsden, Salomon’s product manager.

The CSA committee, funded by a $50,000 grant from B.C.’s Ministry of Small Business and Economic Development, will also consider advocating for both skiers and snowboarders to wear helmets. Adherence to CSA helmet standards, which could take up to 18 months to formulate, will be voluntary.

Recently, as reported in Pique Newsmagazine , a Lions Gate Hospital emergency physician advised all skiers and snowboarders to wear helmets while on the slopes. Dr. Ross Geddes found in a two-year study of patients visiting Lions Gate that snowboarders and skiers equally incurred head injuries.

Salomon’s Lumsden said helmet usage should be recommended for surfing the slopes, but isn’t too sure about making it mandatory.

"My one concern is all of a sudden you’re putting more regulations in place which may turn people off of going to the hill because they’re being told to do something," he said.

A Vancouver sport equipment wholesaler has the same doubts.

"I think it will eventually be mandatory, but whether it should be I really don’t know," said the president of Austria Import West Ltd.

Todd Coleman said his company is actually getting out of selling snow sport helmets, citing a glut of manufacturers and a narrow consumer market.

"There are tons of lines you can pick up, but only about three brands that everyone wants to buy," he said. "It doesn’t matter if you’re the 20 th or the fourth brand, it’s just as hard for the retailer to sell."

Salomon’s Lumsden said there are a variety of construction techniques for helmets, usually designed in France and manufactured in Asia.

Three-piece construction race helmets include an internal cap for comfort and polyurethane foam inner and external cap that helps "disperse energy across the entire level of the helmet from any sharp blow." But he stresses that polyurethane does not rebound and that most helmets have a one-accident-only life, meaning they should be replaced after a blow.

"If you smack your head hard against the snow or a tree, you should be thankful the helmet has done its job and shouldn’t be complaining that you have to buy a new helmet," Lumsden said.

U.S.-based Bern Unlimited Helmets said the key is to market a helmet attractive enough to convince the bulk of snowboarders who don’t wear properly fitting helmets to buy ones that will fit.

"Manufacturers are moving towards making cooler, lower volume, better fitting helmets that the end-user wants to wear," said Josh Walker, Bern’s marketing manager.

"The end-user doesn’t want to be wearing gigantic space ships on their heads, they want to be using the lowest volume, closest fitting helmet they can," Walker said.

Bern is the only helmet manufacturer utilizing a zip-mold construction, with a higher strength-to-weight ratio than traditional in-mold technology that provides a thin, lightweight, resilient helmet. Olympic snowboarder Seth Westcott wore a Bern helmet when he won a gold medal in snowboardcross at Torino last month.

"It’s an example of us trying to offer to the marketplace a type of helmet construction that’s going to get that 16, 17, 18-year-old, who’s never going to wear a helmet, to get him to put it on."

Victoria’s Markovic said his injury, not cool design, has convinced many to start wearing helmets.

"If anything good has come out of this," he added, "it’s that I knew quite a few people who skied without helmets before, but not anymore, not after they’ve seen what happened to me."