Wakeboard Helmets

In the sport of wakeboarding, wakeboard helmets have become much more commonplace and are seen a lot more often these days out on the lake. This is seen by many as a good thing as any seasoned wakeboarder has either experienced themselves, or seen a fellow rider experience a concussion when a trick goes wrong. Concussions have recently gotten a lot of attention from the media in more high profile sports but for a long time were looked at as just another wakeboarding injury that came with trying to progress riding skills. Another big contributor to the rising popularity of wakeboard helmets is the fact that more people are starting to hit sliders or rails and there are many more wakeboarding cable parks now than there were in previous years. Most people go to cable parks to hit wakeboard sliders as there are no wakes to jump and other than kicker ramps and rails the only inverts that can be done are air tricks.

It is imperative that anyone hitting any kind of kicker ramp, slider, or rail wear a wakeboard helmet. The risks are just too great and hitting your head on the hard surfaces these obstacles are made out of can very easily knock you unconscious. To my knowledge, there is not a wakeboard cable park that does not require that a helmet be worn at all times to prevent such things from happening. Many of those in the sport, myself including, are now encouraging wearing a helmet when riding behind the boat as well. The reason is, catching your heelside or toeside edge on a wakeboard will cause a sudden and violent fall that oftentimes results in a whiplash. A wakeboard helmet with good padding that is tight on your head will certainly absorb some of the impact when your head smacks the water. I personally have sustained 3 concussions while attempting to learn new wakeboarding tricks. I got knocked out learning how to do air raleys, one on a roll to blind attempt gone wrong, and another I was doing a simple backside 180 and just caught my back edge. I can't say that I still wouldn't have been knocked goofy, but I know for sure that a wakeboard helmet would have helped to soften to the blow.

These days wakeboard helmets not only serve the purpose of protecting your head, they also look really good too. Since the industry finally started to recognize just how relevant head injuries and concussions are in wakeboarding they have started to make helmets that look good and protect. There are just too many other ways that you can get hurt wakeboarding. You hear about a lot of blown knees, broken legs, and dislocated shoulders assocated with wakeboarding so why not wear a helmet and help protect yourself from the head injuries?