It’s a wonder that in 2026, some people still can’t wrap their heads around wearing a helmet, or more aptly, wrap a helmet around their heads. To be honest, I'm one of those riders who abstains from donning a bucket on my dome, and I actually do wonder why that is. That said, it took me decades to quit smoking, so, well, it tracks.
For me, whether I strap on a helmet isn’t an issue of looks because, frankly, when it comes to grabbing, I was social distancing from my toe edge long before the pandemic; therefore, style is no longer a factor. It could be a comfort thing, but I’m sure there is definitely an option out there that is snug, secure, and safe. This leaves either willful ignorance or just plain laziness. Yet, it still isn’t too late, as Todd Richards proves.
Up until recently, Todd chose to go au natural when it came to his noggin. Now one of the most opinionated, sarcastic, and inspiringly stylish shreds to ever strap in has changed his tune and traded in his tuque for a Pro-Tec because even an old head is worth protecting. - Pat Bridges
How did you link up with Pro-Tec?
Back in October, Pro-Tec dropped a couple of posts on Instagram that were terrible, like someone grabbing tindy or a whack guy in the sky shot. I sent them a DM and said, "It's not that hard, guys. Do you want someone to help? " That's literally how this whole thing started. Some people can make a great product, but they're not the best at getting into the right places. I actually appreciate that because it means that Pro-Tec’s head is in the right spot. They want to make the best product. They're not so concerned with being the cool guys.
Ironically, the cool guys worried about their image are the least likely to wear a helmet.
Right. Helmets are a piece of vital equipment, the same way that you'd approach a hockey helmet. It's there. It's not meant to make you cool. It's meant to protect your head. I’m someone who has some history with the brand and maybe an attitude that can help Pro-Tec connect to people who otherwise might not consider wearing a helmet. That's where I think I can make a difference, because at the end of the day, there are a million different helmet companies that are out there, and ultimately, the goal is to protect your head the best way possible.
What I find interesting is that you recently started wearing a helmet while riding, even though you are a few decades past your peak years of progression. That isn’t to say that you’re not still pushing yourself, but you know what I mean.
There's a saying in auto racing, “With age comes a cage.” Like a roll cage in your car. I look at the helmet the same way. I don't have the balance of a 20-year-old, even a 30-year-old, or the muscle strength. I am a dad and the head of a household, and people depend on me. If I'm going to go out there and try to push myself the same way I used to, I need to be a little bit more responsible about that.
I probably hit my head, conservatively, 30 times in my career, at least, so I am late to the helmet game as far as that goes. Ultimately, it really came down to my wife giving me an ultimatum. We have had too many friends over the years, close personal friends of our family, and friends in snowboarding who have had traumatic brain injuries. That becomes a little bit harder to ignore when you get older. I don't want to put the burden of not being able to function as a human being on my family.
Wearing a helmet isn’t just for the known risk, but rather it is for when the unexpected happens. I imagine that most of the time when you hit your head while riding wasn’t while you were hitting a big jump or learning a new trick.
Exactly. It was when I would come off a rail early and catch a heel edge, or cruising across the flat bottom of the pipe and jackknifing into the wall because you hit something in the flat bottom. It wasn't trying something crazy. Most of the time, it's just you and your friends in the woods, and you hit a root or a stump or something under the snow, and it throws you forward. Next thing you know, you're bouncing your head off of an aspen or a rock that's buried under the snow. Quite frankly, I've gotten very, very lucky with the head whacks that I've had. It's a myth that helmets prevent concussions, but a helmet will prevent you from cracking your skull open and making things a lot worse.
Who else is riding for Pro-Tec these days?
Max Warbington, who has literally been carrying the torch for Pro-Tec for years. He runs the full cut helmet. I think it's synonymous with who he is as far as style goes. Max has been an early adopter.
And Slush’s own Katie Kennedy is also a part of the program.
Yeah. I look at Katie Kennedy as the kind of person that when you see her hit a jump, you say, "I think she needs to wear a helmet."
Well, they do say, “If you want Katie to clear an 80-foot jump, tell her it’s 60-feet."
True. There's no brake pedal at all with Katie, and that's what makes her the fricking best. If we can preserve that attitude by strapping a bucket on her head, let's go.
What do you say to the cynics who are self-conscious about how a helmet makes them look?
Honestly, if I can inspire people, cool. The person who inspired me was Chris Grenier, because I look at Chris as someone who's very, very conscious of his style, how he's perceived. It’s always about the aesthetic with him. Tricks have to look perfect. Everything has to look good. Grenier is a really good friend of mine. And when he opted to go full-time helmet, I thought that was cool, and it almost meant it was okay for me to wear one.
I'm going to be straight up honest, I don't like wearing a helmet. I don't want to wear a helmet, but I know that I need to wear a helmet. When I go snowboarding, I look around the hill, and maybe 80% of the people wear helmets. Everyone still looks normal to me. I put my helmet on, I put my goggles on, and it all feels normal. But when I walk by a mirror, I see Megamind, I see Spaceballs, I see this crazy thing on top of my head. For me, it’s a bit of an ego death, but you get over that pretty quickly because the good far outweighs the bad.
I'm not telling anybody what to do, but if this crusty, get-off-my-lawn, old head can change the way that he thinks about wearing a brain bucket, then maybe some other people will think it's okay for them to wear one, too, the same way I drew inspiration from Chris Grenier.
As far as helmets go, what I like about Pro-Tec is that they aren’t trying to overcomplicate anything with tons of bells and whistles. In turn, their helmets are more affordable, which makes it easier for more riders to adopt them.
I think that's really important. A helmet is just like a pair of gloves, a pair of goggles, or whatever. It's just part of your kit. But what I'm stoked on with Pro-Tec is, number one, their helmets have been on all of my heroes since I started in the world of action sports, from Steve Caballero to Tony Hawk, to Chris Miller, to whomever. My idols from vert skating all wore Pro-Tecs.
And then, you've got all these helmet companies that say they make a skate-style helmet. In other words, what they're really saying is that they make a helmet that looks like a Pro-Tec, because Pro-Tec is the original skate helmet. It's the one that everyone wore. There was no other brand of helmet that anyone wore when I was coming up skating.
There are also plenty of pro skaters who don’t always wear a helmet when skating, but they always wear a helmet when snowboarding.
And that says something to me. You've got some of the gnarliest skaters in the world that skate sketchy pools, and they're doing the craziest tricks, or they're skating vert padless, with no helmet on. They’re doing crazy lip tricks that could kill you, but when they go snowboarding, they put a helmet on. If you think about hard-packed snow, it's a lot like cement, and the jumps that we hit are a lot like Elliot Sloan's mega ramp. Picture a cement mega ramp. The last thing you're going to want to do is not wear a helmet when riding that.
As I said, I don't want to be preachy. Everyone can do whatever the hell they want. You want to wear a helmet? Cool. You don’t want to wear a helmet? Cool. But this whole no helmet, no steez thing that people like to comment is stupid. Helmets are a personal choice, and life is all about doing that.
