A professional and famous windsurf coach once mentioned that he avoids windsurfers who wear helmets as they generally seem to assume they are invincible and subsequently lose their awareness of their surroundings and just plow into carves, jumps etc regardless of other water users. After he pointed this out i did start to notice what he meant at popular sailing spots.

Worryingly i'm noticing the same is happening with SUP'er when they wear helmets.

almost gave a SUP'er helmet a good test today as he carved up the wave into the exact location where i was just pulling off the wave as it was his wave. Missed his head my inches as i forced the back of the board hard into the water to get the nose up . Totally unaware of his surrounding and he could of waited 1 second for me to be clear.

So helmets wearer you are not invincible, boards hurt, so remember to look around and be aware. It spoils a day when incidents happen.