He’s a legend among Microsofties: the dude on the Segway wearing a glittering gold helmet. I’ve been stalking him for months, collecting sighting reports from breathless ‘Softies who’ve seen him at Target, seen him on 40th, seen him in elevators! And finally FINALLY, I tracked him down. Meet Stephan, aka The Golden Helmet.

A top speed of 12.5 mph!

The Geek in question
Stephan T. Lavavej

The job title
SDE, Visual C++ Libraries

Stephan, what do you do at Microsoft?
I originally started as an SDE in Outlook. If you do a search in Outlook and stuff lights up yellow — that’s me. I did hit highlighting.

I’d been quite vocal on our internal mailing lists for C++ users, and when a position opened up on the the Visual C++ Libraries team after we shipped Outlook 2007, I was ready to make the move. The internal move was great — it felt like quite a leap, but it turned out to be really good.

Stephan aka The Golden Helmet

Nice! So, tell me about your commute.
I live on West Lake Sammamish and after a couple months at Microsoft, I got sick of walking up the huge hill on 40th. It took me 20-23 minutes to walk, and if it was raining or too hot — I was like, eh: screw this. So I got a Segway in 2004.

I go to work on my Segway every single day, rain or shine. If there’s a crazy winter storm, I just work from home — but every other day I ride, even if it’s completely pouring. Day in, day out, I ride.

I not the first person who had a Segway at Microsoft, but I’m the person who started the internal Segway email list.

But Stephan, I really need to know: why the gold helmet?
Well, back in 2005, I was heading home from work one day, and the next thing I know my Segway’s on its side, my head kinda hurts, and some nice firemen are talking to me. Apparently one of my wheels had tipped off the curb, and I threw myself the other way into the grass, hit myself on the head, and lost five minutes of consciousness. At the time, I was not wearing a helmet. I was wearing safety glasses like a chemical engineer would wear.

In June 2006, I was heading to work and from my apartment complex and hit an unmarked speedbump going full speed — 12.5 miles an hour. I went flying. The Segway landed down hard, and I landed down even harder — on my face.

Ack! It sounds like Segway riding is a dangerous game.
It’s actually not dangerous — unlike a bicycle, the Segway is actually intelligent. It does everything it can to keep you balanced.

Hold on. We’re getting off subject. The helmet. Tell me about the helmet!
After my second accident, my original Segway was mangled. At that point I said, “Let’s get a new Segway, and let’s get a helmet because I don’t feel like smashing my face on the pavement ever again.” I had a lot of colors to choose from, but I wanted something that would tend to stand out day and night, without being totally neon. Gold seemed like the most reasonable choice.

I should’ve had this helmet before — it keeps the wind out of my eyes. When you’re going 12.5 miles an hour, the blast of cold air makes your eyes water. The helmet also keeps the rain off my head.

So, you never feel dorky wearing a gold helmet?

Come on: I’m riding a Segway — I’m already dorky.

Beware the fist of the Golden Helmet

Thanks again to Stephan for being such a good sport about all my questions about his helmet. Now I’m on the hunt for the Gothic Lolita who works in one of the 30s buildings…

Links?  YES!

• Stephan on Channel 9