Why wear hats?

[Pitbull83 0]

I'm brand new to skydiving, and I've been looking into equipment on-line. When I cam across the leather hats, I thought they definetly had the potential to add some style, but I didn't really see a purpose in it. So I ask, what exactly is the purpose of the leather hat?

[phoenixlpr 0]

If you have a certain license you are allowed to use non-hard helmet like a frap-hat(leather). It keeps your hear warm. I think you don't need nay for a while.

[jmidgley 0]

Ah! I can answer that. The 'sausages' are designed to concentrate the force from a blow onto a small area of the skull, kind of like a shaped charge, ensuring that the wearer is knocked spark-out.

What, that's not what they're for?

John

[dragon2 0]

To prevent your ears getting hit by risers, and to have a place to put your audible.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[kallend 1,635]

They make you look "French" and stylish.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[vt1977 0]

Frappe hats are great hair nets (seriously, jumping without a helmet with long hair is a nightmare!) but they offer little protection to your head. I stick with my hard, full face helmet for 99% of jumps.

Vicki

[jimmytavino 16]

for years and years I jumped with NO helmet/hat at all....
I'm pretty tough.. jumped with fairly capable people, enjoyed the freedom of going "hatless",, and always flew/fly my canopy quite conservatively... i.e. no bad landings...
However from time to time I would lose a pair of eyeglasses during freefall..
so then as long as i was going back to a helmet, i figured,, "might as well mount a video camera on it"...
Now,, if not jumping camera,,,, a do wear a frapp hat to house my Pro track and keep my glasses on my head...i don't expect the F hat to protect my skull, I count on my brains and abilities to do THAT..plus i learned how to anticipate problems, recognize possibly hazardous "jump colleagues", stay alert, and keep myself out of harms way....
so far so good. jmy

[airtwardo 6]

I always figured my Frap Hat was there to give the EMT's an easy handle to pick up my head with....!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[nate_1979 9]

LOL


ewwwww

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

[riggerrob 558]

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To prevent your ears getting hit by risers, and to have a place to put your audible.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ask Steve .... a tandem riser clipped his ear through a leather frap hat. He needed 7 stitches to re-attach his ear!
That is why professional tandem instructors wear hard-shell helmets.

[diablopilot 2]

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That is why professional tandem instructors wear hard-shell helmets.

Some wear frap hats.

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[Frenchy68 0]

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They make you look "French" and stylish.

Good point. Are there any downsides to them though?

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

[EvilLurker 2]

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That is why professional tandem instructors wear hard-shell helmets.

As opposed to amateur tandem instrutors?

[BlindBrick 0]

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They make you look "French" and stylish.

Good point. Are there any downsides to them though?

Well, they do make you look "french"...

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[Andy9o8 0]

A hard-shell helmet helps protect your noggin, and especially that gooey CPU inside it, in case some of these not-so-uncommon things might happen:
- you land on a paved surface like a runway or road and whack your head in the process
- you do an off landing into rough terrain, PLF, and conk your head on a rock
- you flare too early, or too late, and just plain smack your head on the ground in the process. Not all landings are in nice, soft grass. The dirt in the desert sun gets pretty hard.
- you whang your head on the side of the door on exit
- you're in a flat spin during AFF and smack into your AFFI hard when he docks to save your butt
- you're on a RW or FF jump & you and another jumper smack into each other in freefall
- etc, etc.

Tandem students, quite properly, wear either frap hats or nothing at all because you just can't have the TI getting smacked in the face by a student's hard helmet. Other than that and maybe keeping yor head warm, however, as another jumper on these forums (Hi, Tom) has aptly said, frap hats don't do a whole lot more than contain your leaking grey matter after you crack open your cranium.

[mjosparky 3]

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Tandem students, quite properly, wear either frap hats or nothing at all because you just can't have the TI getting smacked in the face by a student's hard helmet.

What is the difference between a "hard helmet" and the student's skull?

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[airtwardo 6]

What is the difference between a "hard helmet" and the student's skull?

***

"Hard Helmet" cost more?

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[riggermick 6]

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Tandem students, quite properly, wear either frap hats or nothing at all because you just can't have the TI getting smacked in the face by a student's hard helmet.

What is the difference between a "hard helmet" and the student's skull?


I give up what's the difference?





Oh, it's not a joke? Could be if some bright spark comes up with a punch line.


Mick.

Sparky

[MB38 0]

At least a frap hat will add a little padding from the impact. A bloody nose beats having the lights go out.

I really don't know what I'm talking about.

[mjosparky 3]

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Tandem students, quite properly, wear either frap hats or nothing at all because you just can't have the TI getting smacked in the face by a student's hard helmet.

What is the difference between a "hard helmet" and the student's skull?

Sparky

"or nothing at all"

Not meant to be a joke. If the student wears nothing, then they have no head protection and the TI can still have his bell rung by the back of the students skull.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[Andy9o8 0]

My post acknowledges the value of frap hats for tandem students; but my main focus was to address situations other than that

[sd-slider 0]

I can honestly say I have no idea......

Do they make on "Big Enough" for MY noggin'?

Anvil Brother #69

Sidelined with a 5mm C5-C6 herniated disk...
Back2Back slammers and 40yr old fat guys don't mix!

[kallend 1,635]

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Tandem students, quite properly, wear either frap hats or nothing at all because you just can't have the TI getting smacked in the face by a student's hard helmet.

What is the difference between a "hard helmet" and the student's skull?

Sparky

1. Most people have a slightly better idea of where the boundaries of their head are than where the boundaries of a hard shell helmet are, especially if they are not used to wearing the helmet.

2. The skull has a (thin) layer of softer stuff covering it. Most hard shell helmets do not.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[airtwardo 6]

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I can honestly say I have no idea......

Do they make on "Big Enough" for MY noggin'?

***

Don't tell me that White Frap I left at your house isn't BIG enough?!?!?

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[riggermick 6]

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At least a frap hat will add a little padding from the impact. A bloody nose beats having the lights go out.

I wore a frappe hat for thousands of jumps. It was always nice to take it off under canopy and feel the wind blowing through your hair. As a main side JM you could put your head right up against a students rig and body without brusing them and feel the exit as though your head wasn't wearing any covering at all, much like wearing gloves as opposed to not wearing them. It worked for me, had the same one for seventeen years until some bastard in Anapa (Russia) stole it. I use an Oxygen theese days.


Mick.