This week we’re talking with the co-founder of WaveCel, Dr. Steve Madey. We discuss the origins of and the development of WaveCel; Steve makes what might be the best case we’ve ever heard about why rotational forces play such a critical role in brain injuries; and we discuss how WaveCel compares to MIPS and Koroyd.
TOPICS & TIMES:
- What is WaveCel? (2:08)
- Development of WaveCel (7:06)
- Woodpeckers, head injuries, & rotational forces (17:25)
- Current iteration of WaveCel (28:38)
- Koroyd and WaveCel (30:51)
- Lawsuit (32:51)
- A few specific WaveCel helmets (36:31)
- What’s next in helmet tech? (38:26)
- What We’re Celebrating (41:32)
RELATED LINKS:
This one speaks to me. I was skiing with friend last year. She was skiing a little bit above her level, but nothing crazy. It wasn’t back country, or some big CO mountain. It was a fairly generic groomer. I didn’t see exactly what happened but in short, she fell and hit her head on the slope. No rocks, no trees, no…anything. She was wearing an older Smith helmet with goggles. For the rest of the day, she couldn’t remember where she was, or any conversation past five minutes. Literally, we had the same conversation on a loop for hours. Luckily the hospital said she was generally ok, but it’s freaky to have someone thank you about 30 times on the way to the hospital because they can’t remember what they had just said minutes prior. It was straight out of a movie. At the time, it seemed weird because she was wearing a helmet, just an older one, maybe five years old. So just having a shell on isn’t enough.
Since you’ve been speaking with a number of helmet manufacturers a great topic would be the challenge of finding helmets that fit an oval versus round head. I have a large oval alien head and most helmets are a bad fit being tight front to rear but than have gaps on the sides. It’s impossible to find shops that stock multiple brands and models in multiple sizes to try on. It would be great if manufacturers either made or specified which models fit different head shapes. In my searches it seems many others have the same problem. Thanks!
This is awesome. It is great to see new technology coming out that will help people. Skiing. Biking. Whatever sport it may be that a helmet will help. WEAR ONE!!! Id be all over this when released. I just got a Bern mips but would love to try/test this out. Thanks!