“Live Testing” & high speed crash
Quite Ironic!
I was finishing up a blog about CTE “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy” for the S1 Helmets page while on a short trip to Colorado which included an afternoon of downhill skateboarding, when I put the product I’m promoting and selling to some serious testing!
The plan was simple, stay safe, don’t take risk and enjoy riding the black concrete pow of Colorado’s bike paths.
I surf. If I snowboard or skate, I still surf! I carve - I don’t bomb it straight. I curve it down. So my confidence was strong in promising my wife, dad and one year old son that “of course I’ll be safe”.
This blog about CTE had rattled me a bit, consequences of abuse revealed years later are quite troubling.
Being team and marketing manager for the past few years within the emerging freestyle scooter world, I couldn’t help but think, “How often have my riders have hit their heads hard? How many concussions did this guy get before landing that insane trick?”
Starting the S1 Scoot Division to bring the scoot industry quality protection gear (Certified helmets!) in a market dominated by “soft-shell” definitely brings a feeling of “doing the right thing”. Educating our audience about those drastic consequences of years of heads injuries is now part of my job.
How ironic, that I got to test those S1 Helmets myself!
Seriously, I didn’t need to test them. S1 founders Chris Terins and Dan McCashin have been testing the S1 Lifer in labs showing up to 5 times more protection than soft shell.
The test labs are unequivocal, numbers don’t lie, the impact is drastically reduced by the S1 EPS Fusion Foam, hit after hit! S1 is certified for high and multiple impacts. I really didn’t need to test those helmets myself…
Check, S1 lab testing video: https://youtu.be/EWMC4jtBCVM
I had been extra cautious on the first runs, breaking by dragging my feet when I could have let the speed take over little bit more. I was probably getting a little frustrated by this new daddy found extra cautiousness. Oh I did enjoy those turns, those accelerations!!
But then, it came quickly, greed and then hesitation ended a fun ride.
I hadn’t done that section when I rode there a couple of years ago, but with guys taking off straight in front of me the impulse to let it go, the confidence, took over.
There was an uphill after the turn, so it was a good place to let it go…
I didn’t put my foot down to control my speed; I stopped curving and aimed straight down, crouched and ready to take on the speed and the adrenaline.
No! I had promised to stay safe! Hesitations, mother of all dangers, kicked in.
Trying to slow down I got projected head first on the fast moving concrete!
I was about to reach the bottom of the hill too, safety of the uphill was a few yards away, too late.
It’s not the speed wobbles, the wheels, the skate or a rock that took me down, it was my hesitations. I committed and then backed down - WRONG!
I was falling… it still goes pretty slow in my mind… I had read about all the signs of head trauma and the long term consequences of head injuries.
I, for sure didn’t want my brain to turn to mush in a few years or sooner.
I knew I hit my head first. I knew it because I saw the ground coming right at my face. It was the bottom of the hill, full speed, my head, the concrete and just that S1 helmet in between.
I didn’t feel ANYTHING. My head didn’t move inside my tightly fit helmet - glad I had taken the time to try out different liners (color coded) to find that perfect fit.
I didn’t lose consciousness. No black out, I got up after a last roll, no darkness.
I didn’t feel anything on my head but I knew I hit hard, quickly confirmed by blood gushing out of my eyebrow. The sunglasses had done the job. Crushed in between the concrete and my face, they cut straight through the soft arcade.
Immediate pressure stopped the blood flow pretty fast.
Some road burns on my knee and elbow ruined my Super Brand shirt and Vans pants; even my belt got burned. But aside from the 12 stitches and destruction of my outfit, the damages were minimal (hospital bill still to come!). Thanks to the S1 certified helmet!
How ironic, “Saving your life” is the title of the YouTube video which introduced the S1 helmets to the scooter world, couldn’t be more appropriate! It would not have been the same ending with my old soft shell helmet, for sure!
Check Undialed TV helmets tests: https://youtu.be/HEsbeb9yqdk
To add some more to the irony… I was running an insta story on the @S1Scoot account, not planning to end up with a “Live Testing”! My fall was not filmed but our growing insta following got to the before/after pics!
The Insta Story featured, the car ride up with helmets already on, an inviting concrete “slope”, and then... the scratches on the helmet, the stain of blood and the open gap of my eyebrow… Finishing up by a panorama on a street graffiti “Have you done something awesome today”.
I had done something pretty awesome!
I also added a quite potent pitch to my sales tools!!
My ego is still bruised by the bad decisions but my S1 Lifer Helmet had kept me safe!
Enjoy the ride! Ride with a certified S1 helmets (and no sunglasses).
PS: I did get a full face helmet, for next time…
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