From: uwe@cc.gatech.edu (Uwe Brockmann)
Subject: Re: ASTM Roller Skating Helmet Standard
Reply-To: uwe@cc.gatech.edu (Uwe Brockmann)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 22:04:59 GMT

In article <melanie.727642608@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu> msh@uiuc.edu writes:

>well, as a fellow experienced skater, i just can't agree with your
>assesment.
>
>the above statement seems to me to say 'if you survive the first six
>months, you won't need back-of-the head protection because you'll either
>quit, or outgrow the urge to be creative.

I skate with a local club, the Atlanta Peachtree Roadrollers. We have
regular skates with many participants on Monday and Wednesday nights
and less popular and less regular skates on some other days. The Monday
night skate is designed specifically for beginners. Faster skaters
stop and wait for the slowest skaters at several points.

Some people "play around" creatively during such stops and at the
meeting place before and after the skate, but for the most part people
only skate the regular route forwards. Local skaters, myself included,
prefer skating with others over skating alone. "Being creative" doesn't
seem to work as well in a group as skating forwards. Maybe that is bad
in some sense, but skating with others seems to be a good thing to me.

Due to a lack of other skaters I skated by myself for several years in
my home country, Germany, before moving to Atlanta. After I joined the
local group my skating improved rapidly beyond anything that I could
have achieved by myself. At first I just benefited from the experience
of others. By now I have progressed so much that I can make a
contribution to the local collective level of experience.
 
I see a distinct difference in the level of experience between people
who have only skated by themselves and those who have joined a group
of experienced skaters and shared experiences. Level of experience seems
to be more closely related to whom you skate with than to how long you
have been skating.

Few people can stick with any sport unless they participate in it
together with others. As people start to skate with others, experimental
skating seems to take a back seat to forward skating at least from what
I have seen. 

> the use you describe characterizes a certain class of bladers --
> that portion of blading enthusiasts that use their blades as speed
> skates. this is fine.  more power to anyone who's found a sport they
> want to stick with! people that skate forwards exclusively probably don't
> need side and rear protection. however, basing an helmet standard for
> the entire industry on a single specific application may not be 
> prudent.

There seems to be a greater variety of equipment use among skaters than 
among cyclists. I believe that the best approach is to approve bicycle
helmets for forward recreational skating and speed skating and to
include a warning that these helmets are not intended for use in other
types of skating.

> there is at least one other class of bladers out there, people like
> myself who think that going fast in a straight line is about as
> exciting as watching paint dry.  we're the ones havent outgrown going
> up and down stairs, jumping over things, doing stunts, practicing our
> stem christies (does that date me?) and playing hockey.

I wish there were more skaters like you around here. That would allow me
to tap into a different source of experience. There is, however, a good-
sized roller hockey community in the Atlanta area with some crossover
to the general skating community.

> a bicycle type helmet is poor protection at best for this type of
> blading. there's scant lower-back-of-head protection, no side of head
> protection, you can't add a shield or cage, and worst of all (from a
> financial standpoint) you can only hit your helmet once -- then you
> have to throw the damn thing out -- nearly all bike helmets are
> single-impact (read that little sticker on the inside of your bike
> helmet sometime). ka-CHING!

The ASTM Roller Skating Helmet Standard is not intended to
address the needs of hockey players. In my original posting (the article
for Speedskating Times), I suggested that roller skating helmets be
required to bear a label warning against their use in fast backwards
skating, skating down stairs forwards, and other types of radical
skating. Your comments have caused me to believe that the label should
also mention roller hockey specifically.

The ASTM standard will consist of specific standards for several helmet
applications based on a generic standard applicable to all types of helmets.

Among others, there will be specific standards for bicycle, roller
skating, skateboarding, and multiple activity. As currently drafted,
the standards specify essentially the same performance tests for bicycle
and multiple-activity helmets, i.e. same drop height onto similar
anvils. Both are single-impact. The skateboarding helmet is multi-impact
but the performance test is more relaxed (drop height of 1 meter vs.
drop height of 2 m for bicycle and multiple-activity helmets).

Acceleration measured inside the helmet at time of impact must be less
than 300 g (peak) for all three standards and must not exceed 200 g for
more than 3 ms or 150 g for more than 6 ms.

The multiple-activity standard requires more rear head protection than
the bicycle helmet standard. The current issue is whether the roller
skating standard should be identical to the bicycle helmet standard
or the multiple-activity standard. Other possibilities include making
all three standards the same or developing a separate standard for
roller skating helmets only.

Bicycle helmets are single-impact because multiple-impact materials
cannot reduce peak acceleration as much as single-impact materials.

> not to mention that bike helmets make almost everyone look like some
> sort of lycra-encased egg-headed alien from deep space 9. 

I think that bicycle helmets make skaters look responsible and safety-
conscious.

> but, as a survior of a non-trivial head injury (yes, i was wearing an
> 'approved' helmet at the time), i know exactly how important wearing
> head protection is. so i got a jofa hockey helmet.  lightweight,
> excellent protection,  more secure fit than the 'lid' type bike
> helmets, multi-impact, and i can add a shield when i play 
> hockey. plus it doesn't involve any lycra. 

Please, please tell me more about your head injury. What brand and model
of helmet did you wear? What caused you to fall? How did you hit the
ground? What injury did you sustain? Why didn't the helmet provide
sufficient protection?

So far, all serious head-injuries that I am aware of were sustained by
skaters who did not wear any helmet or could not have been prevented
by a helmet with more rear or side protection. A single credible report
of a head injury sustained while wearing an ANSI/Snell-approved bicycle
helmet that could have been prevented by a more protective helmet, may
influence my opinions and the roller skating helmet standard.

I agree that the helmet you are using now is better for the type of
skating that you do than bicycle helmets.

> so i guess you could say i don't give a hoot about the standard because
> a bike-style helmet doesn't meet meet my protection needs and i
> wouldn't wear one even if it were 'approved' in some way.  but i do
> care because novice skaters could be buying something that is
> 'approved' but potentially of little or no use in certain types of
> relatively common falls or impacts.

My main concern is that novice skaters don't wear helmets at all.
Different helmet standards for skating and cycling would make skaters
less likely to wear helmets (due to higher cost and lower availability
of skating-specific helmets combined with a discouraging effect on use
of already-owned bicycle helmets for skating).

> seems to me there needs to be at least two types of helmets, one for
> 'general-purpose and radical' skating and one for 'speed' skating. else
> the 'speed' people end up with something they don't like and 'radical'
> skaters end up with a helmet that may not protect them properly.

I agree. Maybe the warning label on dual-purpose cycling/skating helmets
should also steer "radical" skaters to helmets meeting the multiple-
activity and skateboarding standards?

>> Due to the recent fast growth of inline skating there is an unusually
>> large proportion of beginners. 
>> Therefore skating backwards appears to be
>> more common than it will be in the long run.
>
> ahem. make this statment to any experienced defenseman and he or she
> will raise an eyebrow at least.  we need to be able to go as fast
> backwards as we can go forwards, not to mention being able to turn as
> fast backwards, and stop as fast backwards. this requires a lot of
> skating backwards at relatively high speeds while training.  not to
> mention while playing.

My statement does not apply to roller hockey.

>> I have been skating outdoors regularily, mostly on conventional skates,
>> for over ten years and I have done long-distance races for over six
>> years.
>
> but when was the last time you did a cartwheel with your blades on?

I have never tried it. No skater's experience can cover all modes of
skating. That's why I am soliciting input from others. I appreciate
your reply very much. At first I was afraid that nobody would respond.

[(Mr.) Uwe (pronounced "oova") Brockmann, (404)892-4872, uwe@cc.gatech.edu]