Risks of sport helmet use

In short you will have to be very careful to find what you are looking for. All season helmet requirements vary for different sports, and although the technology has advanced enough to combine multi and single hit helmets, you won't get one unless you look carefully. In the past, manufacturers typically did not go out of their way to inform you that a helmet was good for multiple sports. That increases their legal liability and might cut into their sales. And the differences in helmets are significant enough to make it difficult to manufacture a helmet that is really versatile without compromises you probably do not want to make. But the current demand for multi-purpose helmets has led some to add skateboarding to the outside box decals, even if the helmet is not certified to the skateboard standard, and even if it is not designed for multiple hits. In effect, real human subjects in the field are now testing whether or not skateboarders really need multiple hit helmets. You don't want to do that, so look carefully at the certification stickers to be sure the helmet is certified for the sports you want to use it for.

The amount of protection you are willing to settle for is, of course, your own personal decision in areas that don't have helmet laws. If you wear a skateboard helmet for bicycle riding that does not have the bicycle standard sticker inside you might think it's better than nothing, but you should know that a significant percentage of the head impacts will be more than that helmet can take and keep your brain in one piece. Or if you send your child out in a bike cask to do some half-pipe skating or snowboarding where falls are constant, you will have no way of knowing when the child returns whether that helmet they will wear again next time had an impact that ruined it or not. The child will not know, since helmets cushion the blow, or will just forget to tell you. Although this advice is annoying, a different helmet may be the only way to have maximum protection. All season helmets don't work every time anyway, and compromising by using a helmet not designed for the activity is stacking the deck against the user.