In reply to TobyA:
> (In reply to winhill)
>
> Is that a perhaps fair assumption or do you actually have evidence? I'm genuinely interested as I'm writing about helmets currently and side impact is something I've been looking into.
Even better, it's logic!
I've been looking at helmets too, as my youngest started leading and I thought it's best if he (nearly) always wears a helmet, my oldest never did but he was a much more competent climber before he started leading.
I think I asked the question on Dan Middleton's helmet thread? Or I meant to.
In that thread there was a climbing club who said their members always wore helmets, showed them using pisspots (the sit on your head stylee ones) at Stanage. I wondered (a) what was going to fall on top of you top roping at Stanage? (Bird shit and paragliders, maybe) and (b) if the danger is side and back of the head strikes, what protection do the pisspots really offer and do they engender a false feeling of security?
More recently I reviewed our helmet options, which were two pisspots (Rockstar and HB), my own HB carbon and kids cycling helmets,including one of those skateboard type ones which is actually by far the best as it offers deep side and back protection but has a sort of petal air vents on the top.
Weighing them on the scales though, the skate one weighed over 500 grams, so I thought it was a bit OTT, and I hadn't occured to me that my HB was the lightest, and it made much more sense to let them wear that, while I wore the heavy (568g fibreglass!) HB one for belaying.
I checked policy at one wall, where again the danger of death from above is minute, as they nearly always make kids wear centre style pisspots leading (if instructed, if under parental it's different) and they had no policy on type of helmet that could be used but agreed the skate/off road ones were the best protection without me mentioning it to them.
Helmet tests that include ice axe strikes seem fairly irrelevant in this scenario.
IME kids hate wearing helmets, they're hot, heavy and never fit well and can make the difference between doing another route or not, so if you use cheap, light, comfortable, effective pushbike helmets it may enhance the experience all round.
I'm trying to engender my kids with the ethos helmets aren't compulsory but asking yourself if you need one is. Unfortunately they hardly ever decide yes. This despite the fact someone did once manage to drop a 50M rope on one of them from a great height (he was leading at the time, too), luckily I saw it in time and shouted to cling on, after it clattered off his helmet I shouted up 'See, I bet your glad you're wearing a helmet now', I pointed out the route was Helmet or Not Helmet and they saw the funny side. Eventually.
I can see from a professional POV that uncertified, polystrene helmets that are difficult to detect damage in, would be unsuitable, but none of those concerns are directly relevant to an independent user. (Although this isn't an argument in favour of bike helmets, more an argument against pisspots).
I can also see centres being unhappy to replace dozens of pisspots for thousands of pounds worth of short life polystyrene but indoors, some sport, top roping they seem to offer better protection for the particular situation.
