Images
Stuff magazine
Tue, Sep 25 2007, 6:00AM
It’s all very well screaming full speed down a piste wearing nothing more than a beanie and a Jack Nicholson grin, but your grey matter won’t thank you when you inevitably high-five Mr.Tree. A helmet is required, and this Giro Omen has the added bonus of a built-in entertainment system.
It also has three protective materials sandwiched into a sleek streamlined shell; a hard outer, ABS high impact resistant zones and an EPS liner. All this makes for a good looking, tough and pretty much essential addition to your winter wardrobe.
Snug fit lid
No matter how well it protects your head from hits, a good helmet needs to fit. The Omen is incredibly comfortable to wear.
A specially designed ergonomic clamp cradles the back of the helmet and can be dialled in using an adjuster wheel to fit 98% of head shapes. Hammerheads may struggle, but for most people it’s rock solid and snug when fastened.
One of the difficult things to get right in a snow lid is clima-control. When it's freezing you want your head to be warm so a helmet with no vents is best. If you are charging hard with the sun beating down on a blue sky day, though, your bone dome can get baked if there's no air flow to cool it down. No problem with an Omen: it has sliding shutters, one for the back six vents the other for the front eight.
No wires for sound
Despite all its safety and comfort features, the thing that makes the Omen stand head above the rest is its built-in entertainment system. They are designed to be compatible with Giro's optional-extra Wireless TuneUps.
Wireless TuneUps are a pair of bluetooth DJ headphones with detachable speakers that sit inside the earflaps of the helmet. Each speaker has control buttons so on the outside you can toggle through songs, up the volume, play and stop just by touching your ear.
It’s a nice touch to what is one of the finest the snow sports helmets you can buy.
Comments
apvb48
5 years ago
As someone that has never wanted to be constrained by a big cumbersome helmet I decided it was time to get one after a big fall in a half pipe earlier in the season. So as someone who also loves gadgets I came across this helmet after many hours of trawling the internet. It arrived a couple of weeks ago and I have to say I am soooooo impressed. One of the criticisms that has been levelled at skiers and boarders who enjoy music from their headphones is that they cant hear what is going on around them. Well having speakers in a helmet goes a long way to stop this. Sure if you have them turned up full blast you still cant hear anything, but if what you want is some good background tunes to ski along to then you can still hear most of the stuff going on around you. The kit doesn’t come with its own Bluetooth adaptor but I just picked up one of Ebay for about £15. It paired really easily with the helmet and instantly I was able to scroll through tracks and Play/Pause my Ipod. The next challenge to pair my mobile phone was equally easy. You can then answer your calls by pressing the button on the left speaker. This then mutes your music and via a small inbuilt microphone you can then have a conversation. Warning on this – don’t expect to have a proper conversation when you are flying down the mountain. In the same way as trying to use a Bluetooth handsfree kit in a soft top car, its not really practical. But if you are standing still or moving slowly / on the lift the sound quality is excellent. As to the buttons, well the ‘scroll wheel’ / volume control which is done by twisting either the right or left speakers respectively couldn’t be easier. The two large buttons are easily operated, even with gloves on (unless you have the worlds biggest mittens). Sure its a bit expensive but its really comfortable, has excellent battery life, crystal clear sound, gives great protection and looks totally wicked.