WRSI HELMETS

The history of this project, and hence, a safer helmet for non-motorized water sports, especially the extreme sport of whitewater kayaking/rafting, can be credited to the “living spirit” of one person, Lucas Brandon Turner. Upon his fatal accident on a very dangerous river in Idaho, his surviving family sought some solace in seeking the reason for his “needless death,” and committed themselves to implement a solution to that problem. Ever more, they believed, it would give not just whitewater boaters, but worldwide communities of non-motorized water sports participants, a better chance to provide their own conscious assistance in their unfortunate participation in an accident in a water recreation environment.

The WhiteWater Head Impact Protection (WWHIP) Project was initiated 4 years ago as co-sponsorship between Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and Whitewater Research & Safety Institute, Inc. The resultant, safer whitewater helmet prototype development was due to the efforts contributed by Dr Andrew Conn and a senior design team from the Johns Hopkins Mechanical Engineering Department, Chang Lee and Michael Corderio.