I've only ever had one composite lay up helmet and that was a home made glass/carbon jobbie I built away back in about 97. But when I found that Grateful Heads were flicking seconds stock on EBay for 1/2 price I snapped one up. I'm not sure what denotes a cosmetic second but I couldn't for the life of me find anything whatsoever wrong with it. Arguably there may, just may, possibly, if examined with a magnifying glass, be sme dry spots on one side... but they took several minutes of finding. The helmet is Red/Black marbled color- it looks cool. Feels really stabe on my head, the fitting system is good, nothing fancy, but good. The layup seems pretty strng but I still reckong I'd go for the heavier layup in a creeking helmet. I got the bird shape which is a Snyder design with a slight peak at the front. Looks cool even on my fat head. THe helmet has not drainage holes but the liner pretty well seals off when on your head- still wouldn't want to be in a foot pin swimmer situation wearing it though. A nice thing about the lack of drainage holes is you can use the helmet a as adrinking vessel!

Shipping to NZ was reasonable and Julie from Rain and Snow was really helpful in that she transshipped my IR Shorty Cag with the helmet to save $$$. Next time I think I'd buy a few and bring em over for frinds. All in all a great lid- it's got a few scratches already.