Polo Helmet Advice

I am looking at buying a new helmet but have a low budget, I ride 2 - 3 times a week and play slow polo in a local team, no big games for me!!

I have been told the only USPA certified helmets are from Casablanca, at $300 + or la martina if I want a smaller helmet (not like a mushroom). I have found Falcone for $160 at tackeria.com or the Falcone 2005 which seems to be a certified one.

Has anyone bad experience of buying a non-name brand helmet from Argentina? I wanted to get one from argentinapolo.com which are around $180 - $200

 

Again any help and advice would be much appreciated. My e-mail is junetate1@yahoo.co.uk

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Permalink Reply by Palo Alto Polo Club on May 12, 2011 at 2:06

Personalize your Polo Helmet. Choose color of Top, Brim Strap, Chin Strap, Rubbers and also put your initials on it..

Price USD 100 (not hipping cost inlcuded)

 

http://www.paloaltopolo.com/productos-cascos-esp.php

Permalink Reply by Kim Snider on May 12, 2011 at 8:37

June- 

You buy an inexpensive helmet to protect an inexpensive head! My advice is there are some things you do not scrimp on - a helmet is one of them. 

It doesn't matter that you do not play in fast games. Ask Rob Walton, who was an 8-goal professional. He is now a parapalegic and he wasn't even playing when injured. He was walking on to the field.

A certified helmet is the only way to know that a helmet meets minimal safety requirements. Otherwise, for all you know, you might be buying the equivalent of a baseball cap. I don't care what the manufacturer tells you about how good their helmet is. They are all trying to sell you a helmet. Use your head.

There is a reason certified helmets are expensive and there is a reason there are so few of them. Making a helmet that can actually protect your head from that kind of impact and force is hard. Throwing together a little foam, some cardboard and some plastic doesn't do it. It is also expensive precisely because it is hard to do.

If you want to see the ratings of the various helmets that have been tested, go to the safety page on the USPA website at http://bit.ly/k49aRg. These are the helmets that have been tested for the program here in the US. There also helmets which meet the British requirements that are different.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Kim Snider 

poloskilz.com

 

 

Permalink Reply by June Tate on May 12, 2011 at 12:31

Hi Kim,

 

I understand what are you saying and I do appreciate it. You buy a $10 helmet for a $10 head I think that is what evel knievel said. I will do as you recommend and buy a certified helmet.

 

Best regards,

 

June

Permalink Reply by Sandra Funk on May 13, 2011 at 1:06

Dear Kim,

 

the same for faceguards!!! When do they certify them!!!!

I see so many really bad faceguards running around. People think they are protected and it's the same like using nothing, when I can pass with my hands and not much pressure a ball between the metal of a faceguard or if there is to much space under it.

Permalink Reply by Tera Singh on May 23, 2011 at 4:07
Which La Martina helmet did they test? The new ones or the older ones?
Permalink Reply by Mark on May 13, 2011 at 1:42
Kim: I have to strongly disagree that the reason certified helmets are expensive is because it's difficult to construct a good one. Motorcycle helmets—even open-face motorcycle helmets—are designed to protect against a much much greater force than a polo helmet and cost much, much less. You can even purchase a ballistic quality military helmet designed for helicopter pilots for less and there's no way you can tell me the construction on one of those is shabbier. They are lightweight, solid and protect like nothing else. Likewise, just because a helmet is uncertified does not mean it's a bad helmet, it means at least partly that the makers haven't gone through the (expensive) process of having it certified. The fact is that polo helmets cost so much because they are **polo** helmets and polo jerseys cost so much because they are **polo** jerseys. Just my two cents. :)
Permalink Reply by Tera Singh on May 23, 2011 at 3:57

I disagree with that. When I was researching this there were test on motorcycle helmets and they failed (for polo). I think I read on the Snell website (or an article about the certification) that the reason for this is that equestrian accidents are completely different - you fall from much higher up. Also the NOCSAE certification requires that helmets take multiple hits without being rendered useless. The padding in a motorcycle helmet is also much stiffer to account for high speed impacts which again makes them less suitable for polo where your fastest speed is approx 40mph. Given this difference a dedicated equestrian hat will be relatively safer than a motorcycle helmet in most cases.

 

IMO polo helmets are expensive because of the low volumes. The market for normal equestrian helmets is much larger. If you want a cheap hat get the Falcone or get a jockey skull or eventing hat.

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Paul Day on March 7, 2013 at 21:07

Mark,

I would tend to agree with Tera that low production volumes are the predominant reason for the high prices of quality polo helmets.  In point of fact, you're intuitively correct that polo helmets and jerseys cost so much because they are associated with polo, which does not comprise a large market (internationally-speaking).  If a business can't sell high volumes of a product, it must achieve high margins to maintain profitability at low volumes.  It's the same phenomenon that explains the difference in pricing between a drink at a college dive bar in Nebraska and the same drink at Tryst in Vegas.

Also, to clarify, military aviation helmets are not ballistic-rated (which, in my world, implies they are rated against certain projectiles and fragmentation).  They're actually not even impact-rated.  At one point, I flew military high-performance aircraft, and our commanders were very clear that we should NOT attempt to play full contact football in our flight helmets (that apparently actually happened right before I arrived).  They exist primarily to provide a mounting platform for all of the head-centric gear required by pilots of high-performance aircraft (microphones, headphones, oxygen masks, visors, weapons displays, etc.).  That's not to say that they don't provided a VERY LIMITED degree of impact protection (I bumped my head on the canopy a few times during my short career flying high-performance aircraft and I was glad the helmet was there), but they're not designed to protect your brain like bike, equestrian, and combat helmets.

I just thought I should share that in case anyone decides they should play a game of polo in a helicopter helmet to make a point.

Permalink Reply by Ric Lara on May 25, 2011 at 3:45
My first helmet was a Polo Gear 2000...Pricey but the best rated at the time. I figured I'd spend at least that much in the ER if anything ever happened as a result. Happened, it did  I took a pretty good fall (on my head) and felt the impact for days but luckily no damage to my head or the helmet aside from a scuff. I've also bought a cheaper helmet as a spare which I liked initially because it was lighter. In a couple of years the foam padding inside is breaking down quickly (as a result of heat, age, sweat or whatever). I'm buying a new helmet and i'm willing to spend a little more for quality and for security....arms, legs break and mend but you only have one head....how much is that worth!?
Permalink Reply by Cacique Mc Cormick on May 25, 2011 at 6:24
I play for 40 years with a 2 helmets made in englamd and i have 2 more from falcon i one of the fests in argentina and the cost is U$S 120 .Enjoy your polo .
Permalink Reply by Alejandro Viel Temperley on June 14, 2011 at 9:01
Permalink Reply by Tera Singh on June 14, 2011 at 17:11

When is it available?

 

The new La Martinas are available now but are not NOCSAE...

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