Ski Helmet Legislation Arrives, While Freedom of Choice Slowly Evaporates

By Michael Pearlman, 3-28-10

Each time I begin a ski descent, I experience an overwhelming sensation of freedom that few other activities provide. My speed, route and frequency of turns all depend on my own decision making. At the same time, I feel completely responsible for my own safety, but some state governments appear to disagree.

Last week, the California legislature advanced a bill that could make helmets mandatory for junior skiers. The bill would require all skiers and snowboarders under age 18 to wear helmets, but doesn’t place the enforcement burden on parents. Instead, Sacramento Assemblyman Dave Jones’ bill looks to ski resorts for compliance. The bill also requires “all California ski resorts to report every injury and fatality on the slopes, coordinate with other resorts to adopt standardized safety signs and equipment, prepare annual safety plans and make all that information available to the public,” according to an Associated Press story.

Doing what we can to encourage young skiers and snowboarders to protect their developing brains is, pardon the pun, a no-brainer. After all, states require parents to strap small children into safety seats in motor vehicles, and California law already requires kids under 18 to wear helmets when they’re riding bicycles. The government has decided that they need to play a role in overseeing children’s safety on the slopes, and California has decided to take the lead. Most parents already make sure their children wear helmets. According to a study done by the National Ski Areas Association, 77 percent of children 9 years old or younger and 66 percent of children between 10 and 14 wear ski helmets.

While the intention is admirable, asking ski resorts to take on the role of helmet police is ridiculous. What if a kid decides to strap his helmet to his backpack and not wear it? Are ski patrollers going to be forced to chase down teenagers who aren’t wearing helmets? Suddenly, it’s no longer a parental responsibility, but a responsibilty of the business operator.The impracticalities of enforcement hasn’t escaped notice of the California Ski Industry Association which voiced their opposition to the proposal and has pointed out its an invitation to lawsuits.

How about taking California’s law a step further? I didn’t imagine it would happen so quickly, but New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz hasn’t hesitated, apparently feeling that it’s in society’s best interest to legislate adult helmet usage. He’s proposing that New York state require ALL skiers and snowboarders, including adults, to wear helmets while on the slopes. Ortiz doesn’t ski or snowboard, but he sure is concerned about the safety of adults who choose to take part in this risky activity. Ortiz has developing quite the reputation in New York. Earlier this month, he proposed a bill that would have banned all forms of salt from the preparation and cooking of restaurant food.

Once upon a time (about 30 years ago), no one wore ski helmets except for downhill racers. Skiers who launched the freestyle movement with inverted aerials in the 1970s didn’t wear helmets. In 1984, Phil and Steve Mahre wore ski hats while winning Olympic medals in slalom. When I purchased my first ski pass at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in 1996, the only helmets visible in the tram line were worn by kids. Over time, helmet design improved and there was a shift in public opinion. Now, helmetless skiers like myself are in the minority, amazingly without any government intervention at all.

Ortiz’ legislation isn’t addressing some massive public health crisis­. According to the National Ski Areas Association, there were 39 fatalities and 44 serious injuries to skiers and snowboarders each season over the past 10 years. Both injury and fatality rates are less than 1 per million skier or snowboarder visits. It’s wonderful to want to protect children, but I don’t envision the California law wll have significant impacts if enacted, except for raising the sky-high liability insurance rates ski areas pay even higher.

I do own a helmet and strap it on periodically. I started wearing it when I learned to snowboard, because the type of falls I was taking frequently involved me smashing into the snow headfirst. I wear a helmet when I’m ski mountaineering to protect me from falling rocks or ice chunks, or when descending a route where a fall would likely result in an uncontrollable slide that would involve pinballing off of rocks. I won’t argue the scientists and physicians who point out the benefits of helmets, and I encourage anyone concerned about safety to choose to wear one.

The majority of the time I’m resort or backcountry skiing, I choose to go helmet free, as I have for the more than 30 years I’ve spent on skis. I accept the risk of skiing in trees, just as I accept the risk of skiing slopes that have the potential of avalanching. Skiing symbolizes freedom to me, and I want to continue to have the right to decide whether I need head protection when I’m on the slopes. In states like Wyoming or Montana, I doubt a law like this will ever be forced down my throat. In California, it may only be a matter of time before someone like Felix Ortiz is forcing adults to strap on helmets. I have no idea if New York’s legislature will decide it needs to take the lead in extending the nanny state concept to the ski slopes, but I hope not.

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