I took a pretty bad fall last weekend skiing on a hill near Bariloche and hit my head. The helmet is from about 10 years ago, one of those everyone had back then. After the fall it has a small crack but didn't break completely. Should I replace it even though it still seems to work, or is it really dangerous to keep using a damaged helmet?
After a hard fall like that, the helmet won't protect you the way it should anymore, even if it looks "fine." That crack you're seeing is the problem: the foam material inside got compressed on impact and lost its ability to absorb energy, so in another fall it won't cushion like it used to. Plus a 10-year-old helmet has been exposed to sun and temperature changes, which degrades the material without you noticing it. Get yourself a new one as soon as you can - it's not worth risking your head to save a few bucks.
You shouldn't keep skiing in that helmet, period. The crack you see is just what's visible; what actually matters is that the impact has already compromised the entire internal foam structure. Those old helmets have another problem too: the foam degrades over time, especially if you've exposed them to sun or temperature changes, so after 10 years it wasn't absorbing impacts the way it did when it was new. Even if the crack is small, you can't rely on it working if you hit your head again.
What you see in stores now is way better than what was around a decade ago. Modern helmets have more sophisticated impact absorption systems and they're lighter too, so it's not like everything's lost. The thing is, a damaged helmet is basically like not wearing one at all, because the material won't do its job when you need it. It's not worth saving a few euros by wearing protection that's basically just decoration at this point.
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