As I looked at the excellent footage from this years IJSBA World Finals of Freestyle held in Lake Havasu; I couldn’t help but wonder, where all the helmets were with all this new found horse power followed by a double up wave at the end of the run. Full back flips, Multiple back flips in a row, why wasn’t anyone wearing a helmet.
I know that the new skis are much lighter than OEM but the human head is not design to except even a 200lb boat falling on it. As I watched the Jerimy Lusk video in horror I was reminded of my own brush with death in 2004 At the Chicago Air and Water Show while performing a barrel roll off Off a wave provided by a Baja wake board boat. I under rotated and dropped my jet ski right on my face. The result was I cracked my skull in three places around my eye and lacerated my tear ducts. Two and a half hour surgery and two months eating soft foods I was 80% healed when I went two compete at the world finals of freestyle in Lake Havasu. I was lucky because I had chosen to wear my Gath helmet that morning. It saved my whole head from being crushed. However if I had chosen my Bell full face helmet I would have avoided much pain and anguish. The IJSBA and the APBA are playing with fire they require helmets for racing yet not for freestyle. Maybe everyone has not noticed the changes in the sport. Bigger air equals bigger risk. I know about the problem with the helmet bucketing. As a competitor you get use to wearing the helmet and adjust. Helmets were not popular in snow skiing or snow boarding until a couple of big name celebs were killed, Then people woke up and now boarders and skiers wear helmets all of the time. I hope that the sport of freestyle jet skiing implements a helmet rule before one of our favorite riders gets seriously hurt.
Comments are closed.