Helmet in Open Water Diving?

[Random Dude]

Hi all, was reading up on military equipment, specifically helmets recently when a random thought hit me.
How viable is it to wear a helmet in a recreational open water setting?

Off my mind, I can think of some advantages, and of course, disadvantages.

Advantages
- Provides a good GoPro mounting point
This is my primary point of interest, as I am currently searching for a way to take handsfree, passive videos.
- Mount for backup lights
I've seen some cave divers doing this, but don't really think this reason is compelling in OW settings unless one happens to prefer helmet lights. Still, I consider it an advantage as the option is available with a helmet.
- Protection for your noggin
I think some argument for this point can be had, especially considering that fact that I live in SEA, where there are plenty cases of boats hitting divers. From what I know, licenses and classes are not mandatory for driving a boat around here, and boat traffic around some diving spots can be quite heavy. Especially when considering that most of the boats around here are longtails or sampans with small propellers, I figured that a helmet may well be capable of taking the brunt of a propeller hit, perhaps saving ones' life.
I do understand that proper training and adherence to established procedures (such as buoyancy skills, observing the surroundings before surfacing, shooting a DSMB, putting a dive flag up etc) are the real ways to avoid such situations, but accidents do happen, and the helmet might well save ones' life in such cases.
If protection from propellers is not convincing, at the bare minimum, you would be able to protect your head from bumps when diving under a jetty, when pushed by waves into your boat, or when running into obstacles in a low-vis environment etc. Therefore, I would consider that protection for ones' head is not entirely a baseless point.
- Identification and Personalisation
Helmets can well be useful for identification purposes, if one personalises the helmet with morale patches, high vis stickers etc. At any rate, I wager one would be instantly recognisable with a helmet since they would be rarer than a swimming pig in OW settings.
I consider this to be especially useful since I went the route of choosing almost all black, no personalisation, route when purchasing my equipment.
Also, I love the "gear" part of diving, and would definitely enjoy personalising a helmet as much as I would when learning about the workings of my reg and algorithms of my dive comp.

Disadvantages
- Ridicule from other Divers
I can imagine that one would receive lots of "advice" and weird looks from divers when donning a helmet in an OW setting. I figured that there would, at the very least, some explaining to be done; or at the worse, being branded as a cave/techie wannabe by divers who are not too accepting of unconventional equipment and practices. However, I do realise that some of them have a demonstrably valid reason for criticising so.
- Difficulty Performing Certain Skills
I think that it is quite possible that certain skills such as mask donning and doffing, air sharing, might be inconvenienced by a helmet. This is especially when one isn't too familiar with the helmet, or has neglected to re-practice the skills concerned. Would like to hear more feedback in this respect from y'all.
- Backup Lights
I've heard of how backup lights mounted on the helmet will result in backscatter in silty conditions, and that there is a risk of blinding ones' buddy when looking at him or her.
- Too much Trouble
Although for me, trouble is more of a result of disadvantages outweighing advantages, I can well imagine that needing to buy, tend to, and familiarise self with a new, non-essential equipment might be off putting to some. At the very least, the helmet will be one more thing to forget, and one more thing to bring along, especially in situations where baggage estate is limited.

If the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, I might very well purchase a helmet and try it out.
I saw a good deal on replicas of FAST Maritime helmets with velcro patches, Picatinny rails, 4 point suspension system, ratcheting strap mechanism and NVG/camera mounts and am thus considering them (Very similar to the Aqualung military bump helmet). Those are meant for Airsoft, cycling, and other activities. Being a replica, it will obviously not stop a bullet, but I think it is more than adequate for attaching equipment and providing some protection.

Also, if one is curious, I am currently diving a Hogarthian setup with longhose, bungee necklace secondary, tech shorts, BP/W, the works. The only non conforming points are 1)Single tank 2)Soft goodman handle with cordless light.

Would love to hear your constructive advices and opinions on whether I should give this a try!

 

[JohnnyC]

A plastic cave diving helmet won’t protect you in the event of a real impact. A crappy air soft clone will be even worse.

Mounting backup lights to a helmet in open water is silly. Aside from rampant light discipline issues, they also get in the way.

Have you ever seen helmet mounted underwater GoPro footage? It’s nauseating at best, often unwatchable.

Helmet identification is pretty silly. If you need to be seen, you should be using an SMB. Good SMB’s already have retroreflective patches on them. Your head is tiny, a small patch is much less effective than an actual signaling device. Everyone will know who you are though, that’s for damn sure. And they’ll probably tell stories about you for years.

Nothing in the scuba world uses picatonny rails. Very little in the tactical world is appropriate for use underwater, and those that are, are often compromises and do not offer the same functionality as their purpose built scuba alternative. Stuff that’s designed for use with NOGs has a chin-cup. It holds your mouth pretty well closed. Go to donate, get your backup, and you’ve got a strap trying to keep your mouth closed. While trying to manipulate your long hose around your head/helmet/backup light combo.

Overall a bad idea. Also, having worn a helmet with NOGs for an extended period of time, the last place I want to wear a helmet is during a single tank recreational open water dive.

 

[Random Dude]

@JohnnyC Thanks for the reply!

I also felt that it might not be too good of an idea, but it's interesting to have different viewpoints and reasons on why not.

I agree that head mounted footage might not be the optimum method of mounting a GoPro, and that's a good point about tactical chin cups that I've never thought about before.

As for identification, I was referring to markers from which your buddy or group can identify you by underwater. I fully agree that a human head would be a poor substitute for a SMB for identification purposes at the surface.

Lights wise, I agree that they might be a hindrance in the majority of situations, but I can still see how they might potentially be useful in tasks such as search and recovery where usage of both hands would be helpful.

Picattiny rails, I think are an inconvenience, but not one that is insurmountable, seeing how it's not really that difficult to just clamp the holder over a scuba flashlight, or to attach a GoPro to one if you are inclined to have it at the side of your head.

However, I'm a bit curious as to how the protective effect of helmets are usually automatically discounted in scuba situations. I've always thought of propeller strike situations (small propellers at least) as glancing of the head of a victim after a strike, as photos I've seen of propeller fatalities usually present a large gash on the head instead of turning it into minced meat. If so, wouldn't a helmet be able to at least lessen the impact a bit for that one decisive strike?

I tried searching for cases in which helmets failed to prevent a fatal encounter with a propeller, and also tried searching for pictures or researches as to how fragile helmets are when faced with a propeller, to no avail.
Also, given that there are sailing helmets in existence, and the fact that there exists plenty of competitive boat races that mandate a helmet, I can't help but wonder if helmets are really that useless in a marine environment.
So far I have yet to find evidence that demonstrates the pointlessness of a helmet. But the converse is also true, that I have yet to find a situation where helmets are demonstrably useful in scuba. (Probably due to lack of evidence as helmets are not commonplace in the first place)

Are there any facts that led you guys to conclude that a helmet would not be useful in such situations? Is it because of the flimsy construction of helmets commonly used in diving? If so, would you guys see the possibility that material advancements (lighter and stronger) might one day result in the helmet become an important piece of kit in scuba?

As for how difficult it is to manoeuvre a longhose around helmets, does anyone have any idea how do cave divers do it? I'm genuinely curious as to how they can do those required skills, given that I've seen videos of European cave divers mounting up to 4 torches on a helmet in cave diving scenarios.
Is it an inconvenience they learn to deal with? Or is it not such an inconvenience as we usually think it is?

Thanks to those who took the time to read and respond to my long answers!

 

[tbone1004]

I totally opened this thread thinking hard hat helmet, not bump cap helmet lol. That said, I have done quite a bit of helmet development work for whitewater/tactical/sports avenues on concussion related incidents, and dive one when in a cave.

that said, basically what @JohnnyC said.
I use a helmet for cave diving, though my helmet gopro footage isn't nauseating, but I make an effort for the helmet to fit properly and pay attention to smoothly moving my head. I certainly don't try to make "movies" from it though. Usually just run the dive in case something exciting happens, and then delete it if it doesn't.

Don't need backup lights in open water, certainly not on the helmet. I have helmet mounted lights for cave diving, but they are video spread so I can do work with my hands without my primary. In OW they usually aren't powerful enough to be useful unless night diving, and/or the particulate is bad enough for it to be a problem. Light etiquette is also obviously a huge problem and downside to them being up there. In OW, traditional stowing of backup lights if you even need them is fine. I usually just use my harness mounted backup lights as primary/backup. If you are in a SaR scenario they can help, but are you doing that with any sort of regularity where you need lights? If you really want them, you can just as easily strap them to your mask strap which is commonly done in cave diving.

Helmet won't stop a prop, it will slice right thru, they spin too fast, end of discussion. You also can't move fast enough for it to really be an issue that a 3mm neoprene beanie can't help with unless you're on a scooter in an overhead environment. It is quite nice for ceiling protection when sidemount scootering. I obviously try to avoid it, but sometimes you can't help it or screw up. No real other head injuries that it would prevent because you can't really move fast enough in water.

Personalization maybe? I use a tigger hood if that's a problem, much more fun than my helmet. You can also get a bit creative with stuff on your fins that is usually as beneficial as a helmet. Certainly useless at the surface and u/w you shouldn't be far enough from your buddy for it to matter. There is almost always some sort of distinguishing mark in the water with divers that you can use to tell them apart, just have to pay attention for it.

Ridicule-deal with it if you want one

Skills-air sharing shouldn't be an issue, but mask, hood, and necklace use are certainly changed with them. If the pros outweigh the cons, use one. You can donate fine from a long hose, just have to tuck your head a bit more when deploying. It can most definitely catch on the helmet, but it's not that much of an issue, practice it a few times and you're fine. Johnny and I are both cave divers fwiw.

I doubt they'll become useful in OW environments because there really just aren't that many benefits to them for that environment