What are the main manufacturers of hurling helmets?
Are any of these Irish based?
If so, do the GAA allow the use of foreign manufactured helmets?
Which helmets are the best and why?
What is missing from the best helmets that would make them better?
I'm just doing a wee bit of research. ;)
We have a hurling section ! ::)
Quote from: Star Spangler on August 22, 2007, 01:14:50 PM
What are the main manufacturers of hurling helmets?
Are any of these Irish based?
If so, do the GAA allow the use of foreign manufactured helmets?
Which helmets are the best and why?
What is missing from the best helmets that would make them better?
I'm just doing a wee bit of research. ;)
At the minute Micro are the main hurley helmet manufacturer. They're a Cork based outfit and i think the helmet is made there but as to where the plastics, steel are actually formed, I couldn't tell you.
I think there's a few other companies who make helmets, SES and maybe Auzurri but I'm not sure.
Christy Goodwin used to make a helmet more akin to an old fashioned motorbike helmet with no chin guard. Paul McKillen of Antrim is probably the most renouned for wearing one but you don't see too many on the go now.
Historically the Cooper helmet is the most preferred but it's actually an ice hockey helmet imported from North America. I think Cooper have stopped making them and you'll behard pressed to get your hands on one.
Why aren't they made in county colours?
Mycro helmets are designed by Cork centre-back Ronan Curran.
Click here for the skinny from the Mycro site.
http://www.mycrosport.com/comments.html
You'll get some feedback from hurling folk here
http://www.kilkennycats.com/phpBB2/archive.php/o_t__t_1954__helmets.html
Good man thanks.
Mycro is best one at the minute, i had an azzuri one last year but didnt like it. Mycro is far more comfortable.
I see you can still get new Cooper helmets off ebay. Are you still allowed to use them? They're not cheap though.
Had heard mention that Coyle Hamilton (GAA Insurers) were considering bringing in a clause about hurling helmets having to pass safety standards.
Quote from: aontroim on August 24, 2007, 02:19:57 PM
Had heard mention that Coyle Hamilton (GAA Insurers) were considering bringing in a clause about hurling helmets having to pass safety standards.
What safety standards? I know the Mycro ones have British Standard marks on them.
Quote from: hardstation on August 24, 2007, 02:45:23 PM
Quote from: Balboa on August 24, 2007, 02:35:12 PM
Quote from: aontroim on August 24, 2007, 02:19:57 PM
Had heard mention that Coyle Hamilton (GAA Insurers) were considering bringing in a clause about hurling helmets having to pass safety standards.
What safety standards? I know the Mycro ones have British Standard marks on them.
The aul Christy Goodwin ones had that too.
You needed a head the size of a baby elephant to look half normal in those things...........
Quote from: hardstation on August 24, 2007, 02:53:13 PM
The visor was pure dung too. I remember Paul Mc Killen didn't wear his. A wild looking helmet.
I think the visor took on the form of an American Footballers visor/faceguard.
The new mycro helmets are a good job, light and comfortable. I only wore a cooper once in a match, got an inocuous knock, helmet split, 8 staples. :-\
Quote from: hardstation on August 24, 2007, 03:02:33 PM
I remember taking a soft blow to the visor and it f**king dented by about 3 cm.
On the point of helmets and grinds my gears.
Feckers that come up behind you and give you a whack over the head for a laugh (in training) and say "sure you're wearing a helmet". Aye but my brain's bouncing about my head you cnut. >:(
Was playing in a match this year and a fella in the opposition got a belt through the helmet, he went down with blood coming from his head and our manager shouted "why is he lying down hes hes wearing a f**king helmet", reading between the lines....if your wearing a helmet anything goes
Quote from: hardstation on August 24, 2007, 03:23:57 PM
Also remember playing against Gort na Mona and a high ball came in. I caught it and about 2 seconds later the boy I was marking near took the head of me. I wasn't wearing a helmet. I dropped to the ground and the referee put your boy off. Joe French shouts on to the pitch, "Fcuk off ref, he should be wearing a helmet".
I was gonna belt him in the head and say the same thing.
What do you expect from a pig but a grunt.......
I have a white cooper with a Gerry Cleere which i got about 2 years ago. I also have one of those replica coopers from Tipperary and can say that they are exactly the same. I have went through all the mycro's and various other helmets and i feel that the coopers are the best as they are light and the padding is comfortable. If they are fitted with a good guard then your safe as houses in them unless someone pulls a real dorty stroke, but no helmet would stand up to a full belt of a stick.
Incidently i got 3 green SK100 coopers today. I was working on the Vhi Cul Camps, in a football area. A man comes out on the pitch and says to me, 'I have 3 oul hurly helmets sitting at home. They have no guard on the front of them and there only taking up room in my shed'...Next minute i see the son coming across the pitch with 3 brand new coopers. He said 'are they any good to you'...I was like 'Awk im sure wel get some use outta them.' I then quickly fired them into the boot of the car and have a Gerry Cleere fitted to one of them already. All i need now is the wee studs to clip the strap into.
I have seen a few lads wearing the Cooper SH100's and they look a tidy fit. The only difference that i have found with them is that the strap things that goes around your ear are black as opposed to white on the SK100 model. The Cooper logo is also a wee bit bigger.
Cooper helmets seem to go for a lot on ebay cos they are so rare but i would say that there is a vast amount of them out there just sitting in peoples homes that dont realise how valuable they are, just like the man who gave me those three today.
Another Cooper helmet that i like is the Cooper SKB 100. This is exactly the same as the SK 100 only that its meant to be a skateboarding helmet and has a logo of a skateboarder on the front underneath the Cooper logo.
I also have one of the new Mycro helmets designed by Ronan Curran and dont particularly like them. I found them to be heavy and restrict your neck movement a lot more than the Coopers. The foam on the inside is also very hard and i havnt found any way of adusting the size apart the straps on the side.
dont need helmets
jus stick a lock of tape round yr head n make sure u eat ur porridge in the mornin
like this?
http://www.quirke.ie/catalog/photolibrary_info.php?id=41888&first=0 (http://www.quirke.ie/catalog/photolibrary_info.php?id=41888&first=0)
Received a 6 staple bash while wearing my old cooper (with Cleere visor) two years ago. Still reckon it is by far the best helmet around. We have torealize that no helmet will give you full protection from a full belt.
Grew up wearing the helmet without the visor and our club and school coaches were always emphasizing safety and protecting yourself, basics I think are now being neglected as a result of the complacency with the new mycro helmets.
I think the GPA should be ashamed of themselves they are undermining everything the GAA stands for. What they are asking for is Pay for |Play dressed up in fancy clothes.
They are an elitist Organisation who are only concerned with themselves and I firmly believe its a case of a few leading the many.
Don't get me wrong i totally agree with players being treated well and looked after if they get injured but they are always looking for more and more.
Currently every season inter-county players in Derry get:
2 pairs of boots
2 full kits a season,
2 full sets of training gear. (1 wet and 1 normal)
1 rain jacket
1 zip up top
1 jumper
2 polo shirts
1 tracksuit
Home training Equipment
Free access to state of the art gym
All the above are official Derry gear from O neills with emblems and crests and this is only the gear I KNOW FOR CERTAIN they get!
Also they have access to a top class physio, team doctor dietician and heart screening facilities.
they receive meals after ALL games and on the way to away games
they get fed after every training
and they also get VERY GOOD rebates on their mileage expenses.
Again these are jut the things i KNOW FOR CERTAIN!!
for each national league game they receive 4 passes each allowing friends and family to gain admission to the games for FREE and the passes can be used for both hurling and football even if only involved in one code.
They receive at least 2 and sometimes more FREE tickets for ALL championship matches they are involved in
They receive 2 good tickets for the all Ireland final in their code (hurling or football) for FREE
Before the club championship begins they receive a pass allowing them to gain FREE entry to ALL championship matches within the county in EITHER code at ANY level
The above list was given to me when I asked a PRESENT COUNTY PLAYER from our club about conditions at inter-county level.
I don't think anyone would begrudge them these things as the gear and medical farcicalities are a MUST and so are the mileage expenses and the meals.
The other stuff are added perks and again I would say Just right they are training very hard and giving a big commitment to Our County.
Looking at the list I would say our county players are fairly well looked after wouldn't you? And this is just the example of our county alot of other counties like Armagh and Tyrone get even more gear and perks which again is fair enough.
But to ask for money and to make out that they are so hard done by and listening to some of their leaders you'd think some were hardly fit to feed themselves and on the way to financial ruin is an absolute myth and border line lie!! Nobodies making them play!!!
What ever happened to being proud to play for your county and pride in the jersey? That used to be enough to make people play for their counties.
Has Pride and honour fallen of the radar of the GPA in their obsession with self-worth and self-gain.
If pride in the jersey and being honoured to represent your County plus the list i have supplied aren't enough to make individuals play for OUR county teams do we really want them to? The type of character who would undermine the very fabric of our great organisation to line his own pockets.
I was also informed by the County player from my own Club that most county players don't want to strike but are being openly pressurised to do so. Is this Democracy?
Its also evident the GPA are so far removed from the grassroots GAA and the supporters that they haven't noticed that the vast majority are strongly against it, but why would they listen to us mere mortals?
Down Manager Ross Carr has the right idea:
If these prima donnas strike and refuse to play Each County should find a panel of players who will represent their counties for pride honour and the other perks i listed. There would be a stampede to trials and it would totally negate the strike and render their actions futile and meaningless.
We cannot let the elitist few hold the rest of us to ransom while they try to gain financially for doing what most TRUE Gaels consider an Honour and a privilege – PLAY FOR YOUR COUNTY
super stuff billy, but whats it got to do with hurling helmets
Billy has put this piece on every thread imaginable !
:D they should get helmets. give if dont wearing they give them to someone that will!