Helm is changing into more and more in style on the skating rink

• Noor de Kort

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It’s nearly unimaginable to overlook on the Dutch ice rinks: the skating helmet. Whereas ten years in the past nearly nobody rode round with a helmet, that is now very regular. “It grows yearly,” says Jurre Trouw of the KNSB skating affiliation.

This 12 months too, many helmets might be offered, in keeping with the Dutch producer Cádomotus. “Our low-cost copy is already offered out and we’re a month and a half into the skating season,” says director Diederik Hol. “We’re a bit of shocked by it.”

Helmets have been necessary for years by the KNSB for brief observe pace skating, marathon skating and mass begins. In particular person lengthy observe skating, the affiliation has no guidelines about head safety. Lengthy observe skaters typically resolve themselves to put on a helmet or associations make it necessary.

Skaters on the skating rink in Utrecht about carrying a helmet on the ice:

The rise of helmets in skating is in keeping with the rise of head safety in different sports activities, says Trouw of the KNSB. “This already occurred in biking twenty years in the past, then in snowboarding and now additionally in skating.”

The expansion within the variety of helmets on the ice rink began within the 2015/2016 season, when head safety grew to become necessary for the primary time in marathon skating. The KNSB determined this on the time after quite a few severe accidents involving marathon skaters in 2014.

The brand new rule sparked dialogue. For instance, marathon skater Irene Schouten advised the NOS that she didn’t like carrying a helmet. “Everybody needed to get used to it,” says helmet producer Hol. “You heard arguments like: nothing ever occurs.”

One other argument that Schouten put ahead is that marathon skating with a helmet may be very heat. The skaters put on the helmet whereas they need to trip many dozens of laps. Producer Cádomotus due to this fact launched a helmet in 2015, particularly for marathon skating. “It has extra air flow than a brief observe helmet,” says Hol. As well as, a skating helmet has no openings, so a skating blade can not cross by.

Since 2015, increasingly more skating golf equipment have determined to make it necessary to put on a helmet, even throughout common coaching periods on the lengthy observe. “And now leisure guests are additionally choosing a helmet,” says Trouw of the KNSB. “He is changing into increasingly more established.”

Regardless of all of the adjustments, skaters are nonetheless allowed to skate with out helmets on the particular person distances. “Lengthy observe skaters are extraordinarily conservative,” says Hol. “In different sports activities, the rule is normally: when you drive 30 to 40 kilometers per hour or quicker, you put on a helmet. However not when skating on the lengthy observe.”

The KNSB is optimistic concerning the improve in helmets in skating, however the affiliation just isn’t presently contemplating introducing a basic helmet requirement on lengthy observe. “We desire to stimulate intrinsic motivation,” says Trouw.

Furthermore, in keeping with him, it has not been correctly investigated whether or not head accidents are widespread in particular person long-track skating. The KNSB is now working with the SafetyNL information middle to achieve extra perception into this. “We should first do correct analysis earlier than we even take into consideration making helmets necessary on the lengthy observe.”

Neurologist Myrthe Boss of the suppose tank Medical doctors for Protected Biking confirms that not a lot is thought about accidents from skating accidents. “However an accident can occur in a small nook and a fall can have a serious affect,” she says. Within the occasion of a bicycle fall, a helmet can cut back the chance of significant mind harm by 60 to 70 p.c, in keeping with Boss. “Why should not that apply to skating? A helmet varieties a barrier between the mind and the ice.”

She is due to this fact in favor of utilizing a helmet on the lengthy observe. Furthermore, high skaters, who are sometimes on TV, even have an exemplary function, Boss believes. “If they begin carrying helmets, others will comply with.”