Why is USRowing promoting helmets in its March 9th mailing while still opposing PFDs? It’s easy to understand why USA Cycling promotes bike helmets. And it’s easy to understand why BoatUS promotes PFDs. But why is USRowing promoting bike helmets rather than PFDs?
Let’s look very briefly at some history.
Rowing shells and bicycles both emerged in their modern form in the mid- to late- nineteenth century, and both became major sporting events in the early years of the twentieth century. Both are non-contact sports that are intensely aerobic and generate a lot of body heat that has to be dissipated. And for the first hundred years the two sports eschewed safety equipment and accepted the accidents that occurred as part of the game.
But that’s not really the way we operate today, particularly in scholastic sports.
In the 1970s and 80’s, new materials and technologies allowed advances in a wide variety of sports equipment and were met with varying degrees of acceptance and resistance. Lighter, more comfortable PFDs became available for boaters and helmets designed for bicycle racing (beyond leather “hairnets”) became available in the mid-80’s. About the same time, the deaths of several collegiate rowers led to USRowing’s creation of its Safety Guidelines, and in 1991 the Union Cycliste Internationale introduced a requirement for professional racers to wear helmets. Professional cyclists organized a strike in opposition to the rule (this is from Wikipedia) and it was withdrawn the same year as cyclists objected to helmets for much the same reason rowers have objected to PFDs. In each case it was argued that the equipment was hot, uncomfortable, and unnecessary. A little more than ten years later, however, the death of a leading professional cyclist in the sort of crash that commonly occurs resulted in those objections being brushed aside and UCI mandating helmets for professional cyclists.
There’s a lesson here, and rowers should pay attention to it. The Rudy helmets USRowing is promoting are the result of advanced engineering and design. They’re also really cool looking, if that’s your style, even if they are a little hotter and less comfortable than riding without them. More importantly, however, they’re worn because they can save lives, and in this sense they’re very much like PFDs. Even the cost is about the same.
USRowing has already noted (in small, hard to find print) that there are PFDs suitable for rowing; so perhaps it’s time for them to reconsider their opposition to PFDs and think about partnering with one of the companies innovating new designs to develop and promote PFDs specifically designed for rowers.
As I look at the ice between our boathouse and open water and think about the kids eager to get out on the lake, it would be nice to have a USRowing discount on suitable PFDs to protect them, rather than just really cool looking bike helmets.
Row smarter, row safer, row on…
Marc
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