GoPro mounted to helmet = Danger

So.... thought I'd pass along some food for thought-- Michael Schumacher (Seven time F1 Champ race car driver - who, coincidentally, learned everything he knows about driving from me... but I digress...)

But Schumacher sustained a very heavy brain injury last winter while skiing- slammed his head on a rock.. he was wearing a helmet, but the helmet failed. (and almost a year later, he's yet to walk/talk etc.....)

The doctors/investigators believe that the gopro and its mount on the helmet, by contacting the rock first, created a focus point for the impact's energy- splitting the helmet and causing his injuries...

So.. while we've know for a while that photos can take away your soul... it may be that video can take even more away....

Just thought I'd pass this along---- Cheers!

No disrespect to Schumacher - obviously he is the real deal and that accident is a tragedy - but anyone who does anything with a Go-Pro on his head is an automatic finalist for a Darwin award.

Talk that shit and talk that shit but everyone films and takes pictures of whatever their passion in life is. Moms and dads post up videos of their children walking and talking on Facebook, Cat lovers upload their clips on YouTube and skiers film themselves doing their thing. I don't use my GoPro for climbing but they work great catching the action bike riding DH and AM trails and running from the police on a motorcycle. I always said contests and cameras make people do dumb shit. My excuse is i was going to do it anyway. Now it's on film!

A well respected IFMGA guide once told me that 90% of his clients take pictures. The another 10% do it for the experience alone. That's 90% with GoPros or cameras.

Well, Sinropa apparently researchers in France are still looking into it... regardless of what forbes says....

I'm not saying it's true-- but it's just something to think about.
Your mileage may vary.

A modern tragedy. I did not even know he was wearing a Go Pro. Hadn't considered how that would factor into brain buckets structural integrity.

I would point out that most climbing grade buckets we're designed to be used with a headlamp, and I hope have been tested as configured. Ski buckets I bet are designed with little to no such consideration. I would really be interested to know more on this aspect.

Interesting point Craig...
I wonder if headlamps could cause the same issue....
Although I think if they did, we'd of heard about the issues before now... but who knows..?

Well, if anyone is to blame it is the person that mounted the GoPro to the helmet. The helmet manufacturers clearly forbid this sort of modification. In any case, not all impacts are survivable and some will cause injury, whether the helmet is in good shape or modified.

The basic idea is sound. Just like cracking an egg on a counter instead of just squeezing. Focus the load on a single point and it's easier to crack.

For helmets, we've got super light low density foam that absorbs impact better than the old hard helmets of the past. I bet they don't hold up to point loading as well.

Still, considering where a gopro mounts, it must have been a pretty awful and hard wreck for the camera to take the impact (the top) rather than the front or sides like most impacts.

so are you saying that he (Schumacker) fell and landed Go-Pro first, creating a high pressure area where the mount was that cracked the helmet more easily? It's hard for me to imagine that the mount between the camera and helmet mount would be structurally sound enough to do that much damage....

Or, that the mount somehow changed the structural integrity of the helmet? (Easy to imagine if the mount was drilled vs the adhesive pads)

Also: ski helmet vs climbing helmet, designed for two different impact scenarios. UIAA tests climbing helmets for "falls from above" (rocks) only, where as ski helmets need to withstand multifocal impact forces.

-winnie

Winnie!

I've seen both lines of thought along this--

1. the particular mount used screws to attach to the helmet and the screw holes compromised the helmet's integrity..

and/or 2. Having something hard on your helmet creates a focal point for the impact energy onto the helmet, (negating the helmet's purpose of spreading the energy out)...

But either way... if you wear a gopro on your helmet, you're gonna die. (maybe)

Yer gonna die!

We're all gonna die!
So might as well put two gopros on your helmet!

For anyone reading this old thread, BBC and Transport Research Laboratory smashed a bunch of helmets and said that there is no extra danger from putting a camera on your helmet:

All helmet and camera combinations investigated by this project complied with current legislative performance criteria, while no combination exceeded published injury thresholds. No increase in head injury risk was observed for the forces transferred to the head during falling object strikes or with the linear accelerations experienced during falls onto flat and angled surfaces. Finally, although greater rotational head velocities and accelerations were observed with falls onto flat and angled surfaces, no injury threshold was exceeded by any investigated helmet and camera combination.

Jonathan Bright wrote: For anyone reading this old thread, BBC and Transport Research Laboratory smashed a bunch of helmets and said that there is no extra danger from putting a camera on your helmet:

https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/22/4/261

https://trl.co.uk/news/prev/35056

Tell that to Michael Schumacher.

Jonathan Bright wrote: For anyone reading this old thread, BBC and Transport Research Laboratory smashed a bunch of helmets and said that there is no extra danger from putting a camera on your helmet:

https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/22/4/261

https://trl.co.uk/news/prev/35056

tell that to people who have been dropped by gumbies wearing go-pros on their helmets...

Full report here:

​Safety Testing of Helmet-Mounted Cameras​​​

Brassmonkey wrote: I find it interesting how differently gopro's are viewed in the climbing community compared to other "adventure/action sports".

I like it. Dig deeper.

Brassmonkey wrote: I find it interesting how differently gopro's are viewed in the climbing community compared to other "adventure/action sports".

I attribute this entirely to the fact that Gopro footage of people climbing is just so terrible to watch. POV cameras do a wonderful job capturing the experience of surfing or skiing. But they only capture the nausea inducing anxiety of climbing.

Senor Arroz wrote:

I attribute this entirely to the fact that Gopro footage of people climbing is just so terrible to watch. POV cameras do a wonderful job capturing the experience of surfing or skiing. But they only capture the nausea inducing anxiety of climbing.

That's why we use drones instead!!

Brassmonkey wrote: I find it interesting how differently gopro's are viewed in the climbing community compared to other "adventure/action sports".

I organize Kart racing. Your helmet is what might save you if something goes wrong. We check yours everytime! Must be rated for Motorsport use and not passed the expired date. Must not be modified in anyway at all. No gopros or anything glued on, screwed into allowed. All manufacturers agree that changing the shape (adding anything)or weakening the material voids the safety rating. 

Senor Arroz wrote:

I attribute this entirely to the fact that Gopro footage of people climbing is just so terrible to watch. POV cameras do a wonderful job capturing the experience of surfing or skiing. But they only capture the nausea inducing anxiety of climbing.

bingo, you hit the go-pro on the head.  that, and the go-pro mount on the helmet is the official badge of the complete doofus.  when i meet one of these saps, it's an immediate "oh, hail no."