It’s essential to protect your head and its contents when taking part in any sport, especially kayaking. A well fitted and strong helmet is the best way to ensure you protect yourself whilst out on the water. We see a huge variety of helmets on people’s heads whilst paddling with us at Lee Valley Whitewater Centre.
A helmet is a sacrificial piece of kit. It’s designed to withstand impact and essentially break before your skull does.
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Most “centre style” helmets have a thin layer of plastic and a thin foam inner or cradle that might adjust to fit. These are “cheap and cheerful” disposable items that should be discarded and replaced upon one hard impact.
Sweet Protection helmets are made of stronger stuff.
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The Sweet Protection Wanderer has a hard plastic outer shell to deflect multiple glancing blows. Inside is a thick foam inner which displaces an impact and absorbs a lot of pressure. Between those layers is a mesh membrane and carbon fibre plates which make it light, stiff and strong. The Sweet Protection Wanderer comes in three sizes (S/M, M/L, L/XL). Its soft padded liner moulds to your head shape and is comfortable to wear whilst whitewater kayaking all day long.
Shop – Sweet Protection Wanderer
The Sweet Protection Rocker has a similar protective layering system but with a little more carbon fibre. The Rocker comes in two sizes (M/L and L/XL). It’s shape is slightly more oval than the rounder Wanderer and also comes down the back of your head lower to offer more protection to the soft part of your upper neck/lower skull.
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The Sweet Protection Rocker comes with detachable ear pads fitted and an adjustable visor to add if you want to keep the sun out of your eyes when kayaking on sunny days. You can also buy the ear pads separately to attach to the Sweet Wanderer.
The Sweet Protection Strutter has an iconic baseball cap style:
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Its made with long fibre thermoplastic (LFT) with a carbon fibre reinforced polymer in the temple area. It’s exceptionally lightweight and offers great protection from the sun. Like the Wanderer, The Strutter comes in 3 sizes (S/M, M/L, L/XL). Its fit is more narrow than the wanderer (like the rocker).
All 3 models of the Sweet Protection Whitewater kayaking helmets are equipped with the occi-grip system backband. This is an adjustable band which you can compress into place and hold your helmet into position on your head. Although Sweet helmets are really comfortable they still are supplied with sets of fit pads which are self-adhesive and can be placed inside the liner and really dial in a super snug and comfortable fit.
Paddlers are able to buy Sweet Helmets via our website. Or better still, we have all the models available in all the sizes to try on at our shop. There’s plenty of cool colour styles to choose from.