In January 2017, American Downhiller Steven Nyman took a gnarly crash at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, which ended his season prematurely due to a knee injury.

“Safety is at the forefront in my skiing,” says Nyman. “I had a big crash last year and yes, my knee broke, but my head was fine. When I put my helmet on, I want to feel fully confident in what I am doing and I am protected if things go wrong. I also want to be fast, and POC has made some adaptations to the new helmet which make it more aerodynamic and faster without sacrificing safety.”

Nyman has trusted POC products to protect his noggin for many years now, and that trust continues into this coming season in part thanks to a new innovation known as SPIN. It’s a unique helmet technology created to counter the effects of oblique impacts.

“SPIN pads have been designed to work during an oblique fall, which we know is a very common type of fall,” explains POC’s Head of Product Research and Design Oscar Huss. “By using precise and innovative materials, which are placed at specific locations inside the helmet, SPIN pads offer rotational impact protection as they are able to shear in any direction. The aim of SPIN pads is to help reduce rotational forces from oblique impacts by allowing the helmet to move relative to the head. SPIN pads simply replace the regular foam pads found in most helmets with highly innovative pads which have a clear safety function, improves comfort and which doesn’t require any additional components or add-ons to the helmet.”

POC is not the first company that has sought to battle rotational forces in a crash. MIPS Brain Protection System (BPS) has been around since the 1990s. In a helmet with MIPS, the shell and the liner are separated by a low friction layer. When a helmet with MIPS is subjected to an angled impact, the low friction layer allows the helmet to slide relative to the head. Huss says that MIPS taught the team at POC the importance of reducing rotational forces inside a helmet.

“Helmet technology has evolved considerably over the years, and we often take the protection offered by helmets for granted,” he recalls. “Together with MIPS we have created new awareness of helmet safety and challenged what’s next for helmet safety standards.”

Huss continued to explain the technology.

“SPIN pads and MIPS are different technologies that have a similar objective: to reduce the effects of an oblique impact by allowing the helmet to move on contact,” Huss says. “SPIN is built around shearing technology and is based on re-engineering and re-thinking what pads can do inside the helmet.”

SPIN is also an award-winning technology, taking home the Outside – Gear of the Show award at SIA. These continued innovations and the constant state of improvement make POC a helmet of choice among athletes traveling 70 miles per hour down icy ski slopes.

“I have been a part of POC since the beginning,” Nyman continues. “I have seen all the effort, technology, and thought they put into their helmets. The main reason the company was started was because the founder didn’t think ski helmets were safe enough for his son and wanted to make something safer. POC listens to their athletes and wants to become better.”

SPIN will be integrated into several existing POC helmets that are available for the 2017-18 ski season.