Optimized whitewater helmet design

A helmet for an individual, comprising:

• an outer shell having an outer surface and an inner surface;
• an outer padding system coupled to the outer surface;
• and
• an inner padding system coupled to the inner surface, the inner padding system comprising pad clusters that are respectively positioned at different locations on the inner surface, each of the pad clusters comprising discrete pads that are individually coupled to the inner surface in a defined arrangement.

A process of designing a helmet, the process including:

• evaluating different arrangements of discrete cylindrical pads individually coupled to an inner surface of an outer shell of the helmet based on system stiffnesses corresponding to the different arrangements;
• identifying an arrangement of the discrete cylindrical pads that corresponds to a defined system stiffness based on evaluation of the different arrangements;
• and
• designing an inner padding system of the helmet based on identification of the arrangement of the discrete cylindrical pads that corresponds to the defined system stiffness.