On March 24, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) announced it would move forward full-steam ahead with a made-in-Canada alpine helmet standard. 

Before now, there was not a uniform standard governing the construction and impact-resistance of ski and snowboard helmets in Canada. Currently, most snow sport helmets are single-impact, similar to those used for cycling, but a new CSA standard will require a helmet to withstand multiple impacts to receive the seal of approval. 

The push to develop this standard started about five years ago, said John Walter, vice president, standards development at the CSA. “We did some initial investigation ourselves to see if there was a need because CSA has some 3,000 codes and standards and we really only want to have those in place that actually serve a Canadian need,” he said. 

Helmets standards from Europe and the United States “tend to be standards that are self-certified, or they’re declared to meet the standard by the manufacturer,” said Walter, “there isn’t a third-party certification.” The CSA standard developed by the technical committee is “probably better than anything around the world,” he said. 

Helmets currently out on the market aren’t unsafe, said Walter, “they’re certainly better than nothing,” but “the committee believes that this new CSA standard will provide a helmet that’s even more safe,” he said. 

That said, the “biggest challenge,” according to Walter, “is to get a bunch of people who aren’t wearing helmets to start wearing helmets.” On March 19, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre, Hedy Fry (who happens to be a physician), urged the Conservative government to fast-track her Private Members’ Bill that would declare all non-CSA snow sport helmets banned under the Hazardous Products Act, according to a media release on her website. 

Although not a negative development, Walter sees the bill as “only part of the solution... that would just mean that you could not sell such a helmet in Canada unless it met the CSA standard. That doesn’t mean that anybody’s got to wear it,” he said. 

Brian Rode, vice president of marketing and sales for Marmot Basin, said “we’re just digesting all this information and seeing where it’s going to go in the industry because it’s so recent.” Although a self-proclaimed “old fart”, who doesn’t wear a helmet, Rode is looking to change his habit now that he has a daughter who is beginning to ski. As far as Marmot Basin is concerned, he said, “we’re looking at the information... and then we’ll make the appropriate decisions.”

Walter thinks one way to mandate helmet use is to get ski resorts on board. “There’s no reason why the ski resorts in this country, or their associations can’t get together and say, ‘we’re not going to let anybody ski on this property unless they wear this helmet’.”

Another way to go about solving the helmet wearing issue is for each province to get involved, Walter suggested. “Each province regulates the ski lifts. There’s no reason why they can’t say that as part of their licensing process, you can’t get on the ski lift unless you have a helmet with this mark [CSA] on the back of it.” 

However, Walter does believe in personal responsibility. “We should say, ‘You know Natasha Richardson fell on the bunny hill and died, do I want to die?’ That’s all I can say,” Walter said.

Helmet testing will begin in April with one manufacturer from the United States that has already indicated they will submit their helmets for CSA accreditation, said Walter.