Grow the Game®

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on reddit
Share on whatsapp

Helmet Overview: Helmets, Helmets Everywhere

This summer has been a glorious season of awesome helmets for me, and as a guy who loves new gear, I couldn’t be happier.  While I’m still rocking the orange and white Cascade CPro7 for the Southampton LC and I picked up a mint silver CPro7 for the Woozles 2 weekends ago in Tahoe, I’ve also got some good new stuff to share.

Now, quite possibly the worst helmet I own is the navy blue Gait Identity I picked up last year for next to nothing.  Cheap you ask?  Wouldn’t have purchased it otherwise.  The mask is really far from your face, the helmet is front heavy and presses down on your forehead like crazy and overall just isn’t that comfortable.  I’d give it away but I don’t think anyone will take it.  I’m up for a trade! Any takers? Didn’t think so.

To make up for this abomination of headgear, I even bought a hockey helmet so I could finally put my box cage on something a little more legit than an old CPro I had lying around in my equipment bag. (A little more on the CPro lid later.) It’s a little weird, but I love rocking the boxla helmet and since I don’t get to play a lot of box, I’ll even wear it during a field game.  That’s just how much I dig the look.

matchy, matchy helmet choice.

To spice up my collection and give it a little BAM!, I received an XL red and white Brine Triumph specially designed and created for Team Canada at the FIL World Championships from my friends at Warrior/Brine.  I plan on securing some new Wesleyan decals and turning this magical dome into an alma mater homage piece.  Can’t wait to get that going! And yes, the red part is definitely a little metallic.

Two-tone helmets, so hot right now.
The plastic on the inside of the ear hole is yellow. That means this is a custom number!

The helmet is an XL, and when I say XL I mean something much bigger than what those letters usually bring to mind. Thankfully, when it rains I wear a huge hat myself so if I really ratchet it down and make it as small as possible, I can get it to fit really well.  I have a 7 3/4 hat size and I still have to shrink this bad boy down as much as it goes so my prior assertion that John Grant Jr. didn’t wear the helmet in the FIL World Championships because it was too small, is clearly false.

Upon further reflection, Brian Dougherty, Kyle Dixon and Paul Rabil all wore the XLs and I KNOW Doc’s head is as big as a beach ball.  If it fit him, it would have fit Grant.  Add in the fact that Junior wore different gloves (his Toronto Nationals gloves) from the rest of the team and something was definitely up.  Dra-ma!  I kid; it’s pretty inconsequential, but I’m a lax nerd so I find stuff like that interesting. If you’re also on the Geek Squad and know more, hit the comments.

Onwards and upwards.  Since I had the old CPro and I wasn’t wearing it, I decided to experiment a bit.  I sanded the helmet down a bit to remove the shiniest part of the plastic and tried to dye it.  First thing I noticed was that I didn’t sand it down nearly enough. Parts of the helmet are still really shiny and slick.  The dye took inconsistently and the brown dye I used came out almost silver in coloration.  I also decided to quickly slap some stickers on it just to see what would happen.

A far from perfect first effort.

The results are very much like that of a failed dyed stick, in that places where I stretched the tape bled badly.  I never heated the tape either so some of it just fell right off.  Not a really bad result, actually.  I also need to leave the helmet in the dye for a MUCH longer time.  The dye takes very slowly to that type of super high density plastic and is always multiple times lighter in hue than desired.

I wasn’t done yet so I dipped the whole thing in red dye just to see what would happen. It now looks absolutely awful, but that’s not the point.

It’s not a pretty sight right now. Hopefully, it will get better.

Next up for the old CPro is to be re-sanded and then painted.  Probably with an automotive enamel for the color and design and then multiple layers of clear coat.  I may do a metallic color or a metallic fade from one color to another.  Or something totally different.  Who knows.  Thankfully, the lovely girlfriend is renting some studio space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn starting soon so I’ll have a real place to get my lacrosse art on.  Wish me luck – I’ll need it.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
About the Author: Connor is a life-long lacrosse player who doesn’t know when to give up on the game. He played and coached at Wesleyan University and now plays for the Southampton LC in NYC. Connor lives with his fiance in Brooklyn and thanks her for allowing him to keep the dream alive.

Contact him at connor@lacrosseallstars.com.