Painting Stock Outboard helmets

[Dave M]

Well

Sounds like you already police yourself Nate. This is what i call the common sense approach. Good for you. I always thought nothing about how good a helmet is, it should be a standard of saftey, and of the most basic concepts of saftey. Helmet and lifejacket.

I think the reason the color gets argued here so much is the fact that we CAN'T control how good a helmet is. We are simply buying what is considered a good helmet. There is no choice. Is the new on sale helmet that SRP sells top shelf for saftey ? We assume it is because SRP also supplies us with cut suites and lifejackets.

So with that said, we can control what color would be best for other drivers to be able to see if someone is in the water. Perhaps we should rethink the color our turn buoys are and require those to be of a certain color, and helmets of a contrasting color to that. Makes sense to me.

My point, lets worry about saftey on the things we can control, we rounded the sponsons, that saves injuries in a slight chance accident. If it will affect other drivers saftey, we need to worry about it. If it does not, we should be responsible for our own saftey and not mandated to use.

[PRO-MOTIONRACING]

While I am far from the worlds foremost expert on helmets and helmet testing ( snell foundation is very expensive)
I do sell helmets and meet with manufacturer representatives almost every day. All technology aside there are only two kinds of helmets as it pertains to there construction. One is plastic, they might call it advanced polymer or polycarbonate but they are still plastic. These helmets are usually under $200.00. The other kind of construction is fiberglass, these are usually layered with kevlar and or carbon fiber and usually cost $220.00+. I feel that in a crash (like a skid fin to the head) the plastic lid could split open like an egg. While the fiberglass lid might stay intact. Imagine setting two helmets on the ground one plastic one fiberglass, then hit them with an AX!!! you decide.
Secondly fit, studies find that most are wearing a helmet that is at least one size to big. Put a helmet on, if your fingers will fit in between your forehead and the helmet it is to big. It wont make much difference on the density of the polystyrene and its ability do absorb impact if your pulling excess Gs when sloshing around in a big ole bucket.

In my opinion... Get yourself a good fiberglass lid that fits correctly and break out the Krylon.

[Robert M Keogler]

Don"t cheap out on safety items such as helmets and life jackets.
I can speak on this topic from personal experience. Make sure you get the best full face helmet you can afford to buy. You can find a professional painter to paint it so it will not effect the entegry of the fiberglas or carbon fiber. Yes FULL FACE ONLY. I had to give up racing years ago, But am still here to enjoy watching and reading about thanks to a Bell full face helmet.