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In its 2021 Olympic debut in Japan, the surfing took place on a beautiful beach break and was a fun viewing experience. 2024 is a completely different year. A storm brewing in Tahiti’s famous Teahupoʻo brought thick, house-sized barrels crashing into razor-sharp coral reefs as the world’s best surfers deliberately put themselves in danger in their quest for gold. But the medals weren’t the only hardware on display.

If you’re watching the competition, it’s probably the first time you’ve seen surfers wear helmets. Even if you spend a lot of time at the beach, you’ve probably never seen a surfer with a helmet before. In the first round of the Olympic surfing competition, 17 of the 24 female surfers wore helmets, and five of the men did too.

We didn’t have to wait long to see why helmets are so popular. Earlier in the competition, Johanne Defay from France started without a helmet, then fell on her first wave and crashed head first into the reef, splitting her forehead. She immediately requested a helmet, which staff delivered to her on a jet ski and placed on her still bleeding head. She would later need four stitches, but it was sheer luck that the blow wasn’t worse. Not everyone has been so lucky lately.

A Brief History of Helmets

I reached out to Kai Lenny’s team (Lenny is arguably the best big wave surfer in the world), who has some experience. Earlier this year, Lenny fell on a seemingly harmless wave at Oahu’s famous Pipeline. It was one of the first times he’d ever worn a helmet while surfing, but something told him that morning that it was a good idea. He eventually hit the reef with such force that the impact split his helmet in two. Lenny somehow managed to pull himself to shore, but he suffered a severe concussion and remembers almost nothing of the incident. He struggled for months with all the nightmare brain injury symptoms you hear about from NFL players, and he recovered. The helmet almost certainly saved his life, and the debate over wearing a surf helmet has only grown since then.

Surf helmets aren’t actually all that new, though. Surfers have been wearing them on hard bottom breaks since at least the early ’90s. Australian Tom Carroll famously wore them during his dominant performance at the 1991 Pipeline Masters. Takayuki Wakita, Naohisa Ogawa, and Atsushi Imamura were a trio of legendary Japanese chargers who all wore helmets. More recently, France’s Jeremey Flores and Australia’s Owen Wright won the Tahiti Pro at Teahupoʻo in 2015 and 2019, respectively. So, surf helmet use isn’t unprecedented by any means, but it’s never been common either, so seeing nearly half of surfers at the Olympics feels like a sea-change moment.

Gath Eva Hat helmet ($169) (Photo: Courtesy of Gath)

Anatomy of a Surf Helmet

Generally speaking, there are two types of surf helmets: soft and hard shell. As the name suggests, hard shell helmets have a plastic shell on the outside and a layer (or multiple layers) of foam underneath. They are more similar to bike helmets and ski/snowboard helmets. Most are uniformly rounded shells for less drag in the water, with significant holes around the ears to prevent water from pooling. Soft shell helmets are a bit more similar to something you would see in a martial arts competition. While they are lighter and more comfortable, they also don’t provide as much protection. From what I understand, everyone in Olympic competition wore variations of the hard shell design.

The three biggest players in the surf helmet game are the Gath and Simba hard shells and the DMC Fins soft shells. Gath helmets don’t look like bowling balls, with a little venting here and there, and typically run $170 to $190, depending on the model. They provide solid protection for the top, back, and sides of your head. The Simba helmets go a bit further, giving a more intense gladiator look with the helmet extending down the sides to cover more of the delicate jawline. They go for around $200. The DMC Fins Soft Surf Helmet ($79) offers the least protection, but it’s made of a soft, non-absorbent foam to prevent water retention. It’s also one of the lightest and least expensive options.

There are other brands that make surf helmets, and it’s not uncommon to use ski helmets for surfing. Kai Lenny is currently developing his own surf helmet made of carbon fiber. Like bike helmets, plastic surf helmets are designed to break on impact to help disperse the energy of the impact. Carbon fiber will also break, but it will distribute the force more evenly around the shell when it breaks, theoretically reducing the energy transferred to your skull and brain. There’s no word yet on when it will be available or how much it will cost.

Some Olympians, like Defay, were wearing what looked like bike helmets, with cutouts all around for ventilation and drainage. They also had some ear protection, so I don’t believe they were actual bike helmets, but the point is, if you’re going into heavy water, any protection is better than none.

Should You Wear It or Not?

There are a few reasons why helmets aren’t ubiquitous on the beach, though. While it’s universally preferable to wear a helmet if you’re going to hit a hard object like a reef, a rock, a surfboard, or a hard-packed sandbank, these are still thankfully rare. But one thing you’re almost certain to encounter during any surf session is turbulence during a duck dive or a whitewater flip, and this is where surf helmets can actually be a disadvantage. Because they increase the relative mass of your head, they mean more torque on your neck when you’re pushing it underwater, which can increase your chances of getting a whiplash or whiplash. This is one reason why you want to make sure you’re sizing up and wearing it as tight but comfortable as possible. If too much water gets in, the helmet can act like a parasailing device and pull your neck back.

Another reason is the cool factor, or lack thereof. Many surfers fear that wearing a helmet will make them look like a crazy person. However, it is worth noting that helmets were almost non-existent at ski resorts in the 1990s, but now they are everywhere, worn regularly by the pros, and no one thinks twice about seeing them. There have been so many significant surfing-related brain injuries this year that I think more influential professional surfers will get involved. Jamie O’Brien, Koa Smith, and Kai Lenny are all big advocates, and helmets will continue to evolve and improve as demand increases.

Personally, I’ll probably get one myself. I probably won’t wear it on lighter days or my local beach breaks, but the next time I’m paddling when it’s big and heavy and there’s a lot of rock around, having my head protected will give me peace of mind. I’ve actually gotten better at snowboarding when I wear a helmet regularly, so who knows—maybe it’ll work in the waves, too.