Today I had one of the most weird and dangerous crashes ever and without full face helmet I probably would had break my neck, jaw or teeth.
I was riding downhill on a dirt single trail and hit a tree with a front wheel. So i got catapulted forward pretty heavy. My upper body did a quarter somersault but the rest didn’t follow because my feet were strapped to my 18.4kg (40.6lbs) board. I landed on my head and my chin was pressed against my chest really hard. My head was trapped between ground and chest and during sliding at least half of my body weight pressed against it plus my head was pulled in the other direction because of friction resistance of sliding. My spine was also bent in a weird way. That it happened downhill was also not best. However when I stopped sliding I couldn’t move my head because it was still trapped. After some sideways rotation of my body I could free it.
I’m very lucky that there were no other trees or obstacles which could have hit my head or neck. I mean there were a lot of trees but I was sliding exactly on the single trail, there were only some roots.
I’m writing this topic as a reminder how important full face helmets and protectors in general are. If you are riding MTB with a half cap then please switch to full face!
The scratches are not too heavy because of dirt and roots only
You really should get a full face.
I’ve seen guys break their jaws on skateboards going two miles per hour…
Getting your jaw wired shut is a horrible experience.
