This Ruroc helmet ruined my ski vacation

“I don’t like “Talking to you wearing that, it’s scary.”

A friend told me this, and he’s not kidding. His name is Stuart. Stuart is as friendly a guy as you could want to meet, and we’ve skied together three or four times. Now, however, he doesn’t want anything to do with me. I didn’t bother him, we get on well, but he hates what’s in my head. By the end of the week, so am I.

The scary headgear I’m wearing is a Ruroc RG2. It is, according to Rorrock, the only full-face snow sports helmet in the world – and now I can completely understand why, although at first I thought it looked like the perfect cover to replace my POC cap. On paper, the RG2 should be a winner, despite the $379 starting price (making it more expensive than almost all of WIRED’s picks in our ski helmet guide). It’s only when you wear it that its flaws become fully apparent.

The RG2 is actually an ISPO award-winning helmet. It has a built-in Twiceme NFC chip, so it can store important medical information that first responders can easily access in emergency situations. To protect your head, it’s lined with Rayon, a porous, energy-absorbing polymer (originally conceived from a NASA project investigating alternatives to space shuttle foam) that is flexible in its natural state but instantly hardens on impact.

For a little extra expense, there’s an optional JBL-powered Cardo connectivity system that lets you stream music, take calls, connect to your GoPro, and chat with up to 15 other Ruroc users on a mesh network.

However, the RG2’s big boon over the original RG1 comes in a slight tweak in this updated design. On the RG1, I secured the bottom face plate with plastic clips that slid into place – usually accidentally. It worked, but any supposed cool factor for the wearer was instantly ruined when others watched them trying to hold those clips in place with no useful mirrors on hand outside of the average ski lift or mountain restaurant. the solution? magnet. Rorrock finally This call was made after sifting through “15 years of direct feedback.”

Slope: The RG2’s full face setup proved to be a look not conducive to social skating.

Photo: Jeremy White

Gone are the plastic clips and in comes the magnetic visor system, which “allows users to easily remove the helmet’s chin piece while wearing gloves.” The problem is that removing the chin piece was no problem at all. The placement of the darn thing was the problem. However, this new magnetic system is certainly easier, but it’s by no means foolproof, and you’ll likely still have to make two or three stabs to lock it down every time you want to add it to the helmet.