2006/2007 Season Accident Thread

[Neuffy]

I think we need an accident thread. While I'm hoping this will be mainly non-serious injuries, the community will decide that through action, I'm betting.

Well, I was at Lake Louise yesterday, and at Sunshine today. Lots of fresh snow. Beautiful day at Lake Louise. Nice, but a tad chill at Sunshine. Fair number of powder patches at Sunshine, but unfortunately I missed Friday's powder heaven.

So...basically, I'm going along smooth semi-groom, doing ~120 degree carves. As I pass a standing skiier, I do a hard backside carve, leaving a decent trench. I quickly cross-through into a very hard frontside carve (elbows could've touched the ground, no problem. Unfortunately, I did not see the patch of powder coming up.

At this point, I am going perpendicular to the currently shallow hill. I hit it at full carve, somehow manage to flip, roll backward over my head, onto my board (which is now at 90 degrees relative to motion) and then slam onto my back. Thankfully, this is still inside the powder patch.

I now have mild whiplash, and somewhat compressed ribs. I'm just happy I'm lucky. Could've easily gotten way more hurt.

On a side note, can anyone explain what happened? I don't understand how my motion went from the long axis of the board ninety degrees so I was moving backward. (Maybe my motion wasn't so far that way yet as I was still in the hard carve?) "It happened so fast..." It seems as though I went from a hard carve to catching my downhill edge? And then my forward motion somehow disappeared? I didn't fold the nose though...no torquing. Just ended up going straight backwards.

Perhaps I carved into the powder and then it gave way, leading to me catching the edge somehow?

Well, in any case, I look forward to many other crash stories.

[bobdea]

on my tanker tonight and hit a peice of wood that was just laying on the trail, exploded the nose a bit, got the wind knocked out of me
too bad too 3rd day on it and I love the board, hopefully if I epoxy it, it will hold
Gleb can probably give a better description of the fall than I can.
Speaking of Gleb the kid has gotten so much better since the last time I saw him ride, pretty soon he'll be better than me!

[Justin A.]

I was skating towards the lift on a shorter board than I'm used to with funny angles on the bindings, and I ended up stepping on the nose and trying to turn or continue to skate or something. Short version: I almost twisted the living hell out of my knee before I even got on the slopes :barf: . Again, it could have been alot worse.

My friends ducked a rope opening day at cannon (14" of fresh on the ground), and one of them caught a snowsnake and saw his skis EXPLODE away from him and he went face first into the snow :lol: . He was fine, but it was an EXCELLENT fall.

[ealely]

Many (most?) of us haven't started the season yet, that's kind of depressing to already talk about injuries :freak3:
Anyway,I don't know if it's the age or what but over the last 4 years, each season I got a little something (muscle trauma mainly or pain in the knees later on), that sucks.

[Allee]

Glad to hear you're OK, Neuffy. Sounds like you had a good weekend - both the other half and I are down with colds and weren't keen on the -16C at Louise yesterday.

I know how you feel - I did the exact same thing first day out at Kicking Horse, and faceslammed so hard that I gave myself a bloody nose (all over my nice new gloves :mad: ). The other half has it nominated as the best fall of the season so far ... he said that the board came straight up in the air and over my head, so I went down face first, got flipped over, and ended up facing the sky.

At least the landing was soft...

[John E]

I'm a newbie to hardbooting. I'm trying to imagine the most likely way to wipe out. I keep thinking it would be from riding the edge hard & then losing it - being thrown to the outside of the curve (hopefully not into the trees or others on the slope). More experienced riders have told me that the most likely way to crash was in the transition from heel to toe side (or vice-versa) when the board is off edge.

What is the most likely way to wipe out? What is the most common way to get injured?

[pebu]

Well, I'm still ridin a softy, with angles near zero, so I'm layin it down all the time. I hate that feeling when snow is hitting my back leg, cause that means my front heel or toes are buried in the snow... And that is never good. The worst I have so far is a charlie horse in the thumb.. Hows that happen you ask? Well, its soft, so I decided to play park monkey for a couple runs.. On one jump I went to do a heelside grab and whacked my front hand on my front binding. I still have kind of a swelled up section near the wrist. But thank goodness it wasn't bad. We also saw a guy goin down the hill in the sled. Later I talked to a friend of his and he said it was the guys first day and he decided to do a jump... Landed on his back all goofy... Way to ruin the year, possibly your whole life you moron. I hope the moron ended up ok.
Ok, I'm done ramblin. Hopefully there aren't any serious accidents on this thread...
Ben

[carverboy]

Got out for the first turns of the season the other night. Took my Atomic Hatchet with soft boots since conditions arent great yet. First run was great. Got stuck on the chair for 15min going up for the second run. Took off making a lot of fast tight turns over packed choppy snow. half way down I hit a bump as im turning and get an unpleasant sensation in my low back.
Long story short Ive been laid up for almost a week now with low back pain!

[sandarapark]

first day on hardboots was hell (2 weeks ago)... i almost murdered 3 of my friends and myself on the slopes (now they made this rule to stay away from people riddding a fat ski)... plus i accidentaly wound up in the trees and got my feet buried and stucked (took me like half an hour to get back to the piste)

[Gleb]

on my tanker tonight and hit a peice of wood that was just laying on the trail, exploded the nose a bit, got the wind knocked out of me
too bad too 3rd day on it and I love the board, hopefully if I epoxy it, it will hold
Gleb can probably give a better description of the fall than I can.
Speaking of Gleb the kid has gotten so much better since the last time I saw him ride, pretty soon he'll be better than me!

its because you called out "last run" :rolleyes: Its a superstition of mine to never say "this is the last run."

But yeah, you fell hard, really hard. Unfortunatly, we were right next to each other and you fell right as you were passing so I only saw the fireworks after they began. Ending up in the dirt is not fun though.

I'm feeling the pain from a certain run where my upper body didnt match what my legs were doing and I took a digger face first. My neck and chest are killing me.

I have ways to go to being able to carve like you do on your softy, on my silberpfeil. Crazy! It was a pleasure carving in the slush with you:biggthump

[Allee]

What is the most likely way to wipe out? What is the most common way to get injured?
I hate the dreaded frontside mackerel slap - aka catching the downhill edge. The quickest way to do yourself some serious mischief. And most of the time, you never see it coming.

[tex1230]

YOU ARE A JINX! :angryfire

[Bullwings]

nothing big, but I folded the nose on a snowboard for the first time ever. This is my first season on HBs and we've had mostly hard packed man-made stuff here. No more than 2 inches of fresh usually. Well, yesterday had about 5-6 inches of natural and an additional combo of man-made (they never stop making snow out here if the conditions are met, even if it's currently snowing).

I was using the same technique as on the harder packed stuff and really loading my nose at initiation and then evening it out through the carve. well, on one toe side carve, i got low enough to touch my elbow to the ground and next thing i know i'm doing a backflip.

no major injury though, so it's all good. in fact it was kind of nice experiencing what "folding the nose" on your snowboard is like, and i made it out with little to no injury - at least not related to that incident.

[Chris]

for those of you who haven't done it....yet, here's a great video of Jasey Jay putting a little too much energy into the front end. :eek:

I spent a six weeks in an air cast for going too hard, too early in the season. My advice-- warm up to it, hopefully we'll all have a long winter of riding.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=43epugj

cheers everyone, have a great holiday

Chris

[Neuffy]

That Jasey Jay video is...painful. Although, when I've folded a nose (pre-alpine...Coiler can't fold :P) it hasn't been like that. Then again, I've never folded a nose while still on slope. My nose-folding consisted of me moving perpendicular to the fall line, and then having the nose stop. So basically, I did a rotation with my body as the long axis.

The last run is evil. Whenever I think "this is my last run" I just don't go. Seriously. If I get to the top, and I think "last run" I just take off my board and take the gondola down.

My list of most likely ways to wipe out: (in no particular order)
1. Transition from heelside to toeside - I don't know when this got to be dangerous for me. It just did :(
2. While not carving at high speed. If I'm not in a carve, I don't feel stable. If you're flat-based, a small bump can cause your board to rotate just enough to catch an edge.
3. Side-slipping downhill. Damn that downhill edge! Most painful forms: Hard backward fall, smashing your tailbone (possibly breaking it) and whipping your head into the ground. Hard forward fall, resulting in Scorpioning. (Where your board goes over your head, and into the snow in front of you.)
4. Riding an edge hard, very nice, deep, hard carve. And then....ice. This reminds me...damn, I forgot to stay balanced all weekend! No wonder I fell...In any case, the board loses its edge, and skids out. Hopefully you just slide.
5. Folding the nose: Usually happens in softer snow, particularly upon transition from hard snow to soft snow. As seen in the JJA video, the board starts to carve _way_ harder than it was before. Because it happens so quickly, you don't have time to compensate and lean over further. So...depending on your circumstances, you either get thrown out of the carve like JJA was, or you cartwheel.

Injuries: Trees. Damn trees. Also, rocks, drops, jumps, other man-made obstacles. But mainly, other people. Even if you do nothing wrong, there's nothing you can do about the damnfool running into you from behind (at least some of the time).

[tex1230]

That Jasey Jay video is...painful. Although, when I've folded a nose (pre-alpine...Coiler can't fold :P)

<ahem> Jasey Jay is probably on a coiler in that video <ahem>

[Neuffy]

Well, I was referring my my own, obviously inferior carving. To correct, then, "I cannot fold my Coiler's nose".

[bobdea]

<ahem> Jasey Jay is probably on a coiler in that video <ahem>
thats old!
from 1997 or so, probably on a burton FP.


I've never folded any of my coilers, pretty hard to do so, I have cartwheeled on a coiler but sometimes thats just plain un-avoidable

[Mallard_with_a_Gun]

Was up yesterday, day started grim, it was raining which is never good. But it got colder and started snowing in earnest.

Was cruising down on almost perfect powder, big grin, all is well. I'd just switched to my toeside and found a BIG chunk of ice, never saw it coming it was snowing too hard. Did a perfect lawn dart, freaking board hit me in the back of the head I crunched so hard, my buddy gave me a 8/10. Bloody snoot, put three teeth through my lower lip, and have something of a concusion. *sigh*

Used large handfulls of snow to ice the injury, triple crown on the rocks to soothe the ego, and stayed on the hill for three more hours.

[jnshapiro]

I was out on Thursday at Alpine Meadows. Really wet snow, poor visibility, though that had nothing to do with my tumble. I was riding flat (that's never good) and caught the healside edge. OUCH! Thank goodness I was wearing a helmet. Otherwise I'd have been knocked cold. When I got to the bottom, I checked my helmet for damage. Took a couple of days to clear my head.

I had a similar fall at Snowbird about 10 years ago. Went down. Next thing I knew there was a ski patroller standing over me checking my pulse. He quizzed me to make sure I was ok. I was out briefly. Got to the bottom and went straight to the shop and bought a helmet.

Can't wait to get out again on Wed!

[pebu]

Well, I've got some good news and some bad news... Which do you want first?
Well, the bad news is I had to use my helmet... The good news is it payed for itself...
So there I was carvin down the hill... Goin at it pretty hard. 4th day out. I was goin toeside. I got into a bit of the manmade and my nose just hooked right up. My turning radius got cut in half in a snap and I just launched over backwards. I went flyin through the air I don't know how far and landed on my back and racked my head on the ground. According to expert witness testimony (a friend) I bounced and went flyin through the air some more. To tell you the truth, I don't know what happened between the first hit and when I was on my hands and knees tryin to figure out what the hell just happened. I'm flippin glad I went out and got a helmet... LAST WEEKEND...
Luckily I got away with just a major headache and took some advil and sat down for a while and went back out on the hill for another couple hours..
Lemme tell you, it's hard to get back on and ride it like you should after something like that. It made me pretty timid on the board and I ended up leaning back and it just wasn't quite the same the rest of the day.
But don't worry, I'm ok.

[trikerdad]

I think the easiest way to get hurt early in the season is when your legs are toast and you try to make a heelside stop....and....you....just....can't....quite.....h old....that....toeside edge....off.....BAM!

[Jim]

I folded my Coiler. :freak3: It took 12" of pow after a cat track bisecting a black diamond and a mogul of ice on the other side. The run was hardpack on the top half and corduroy over pow and icey moguls on the bottom half. Gave me a nasty snapped collarbone. It is still my favorite board for any carveable conditions.

[pebu]

Well, I didn't quite fold the nose of the rossi, but it sure curled up a ways. And holy crap, when you wind up a stiff board it will take you for a ride...

[carvin29]

Haven't had an "accident" (knock on wood), but today had a mysterious pain inside my left knee. Frickin sucks.

[lstzephyr]

Probably the worst injury I have had was when I was trying to ride a box in the park next to my lift and went head first into the ground(note to self, should get a helmet before doing boxes), that hurt for a bit... but I was mostly ok. Well that or when i went down some moguls in deep powder(like a foot or more) on a ski break, in full aspen uniform, and right infront of some guests when I caught an edge, lost my ballance, and went head first into a crazy upside down what-the-hell is happening spin throwing a huge cloud of snow. didnt hurt a bit, just felt stupid. Popped right back up to there questions of "are you ok?" lol...I'm supposed to be riding carefully on my breaks! But that powder was awesome, especially once I set the board up for it. Its still out there too, its fantastic.

[Pow]

It was late afternoon, when the sun just went down behind the trees. the terrain blended together and the very choppy run looked like a grey blur. I started a heelside turn but halfway through i realized i had just gone over a mogul and i wasnt on the ground anym-

I hit the ground.

and after a few twists and flips i turned around, looked over to my friend dave who was straightlining towards my general area, and called out "wow, what a wipeout!"

at that moment he caught his toeside edge, faceplanted the hardpack and smacked his back with his snowboard.

theres my wipeout story so far this season, and i hope i can't top it when the season's over!:biggthump

[Blackbird]

A few seasons ago, The snow was magnificent (For Australia anyways) Lots of pow pow...
Decided to go out freeriding with my softboot buddies... Found a really nice natural kicker that didn't need heaps of speed but just gently "popped" you into the air... The hang time was great felt like ages..
Anyway as one of the more elder riders I was pulling methods all kinds of grabs, 180's 360's 540's etc etc etc....so I decide to pull a backflip....(Now I have done them before Both on snowboards and BMX) and hit the kicker with a teeny bit too much speed... overrotated and landed in very packed snow... (which might as well have been ice) with the tip of my tailbone.
result.. I broke my tailbone...
So bad in fact it stayed in it's broken position (Basically pointing straight down)
I had to have surgery to have that repaired.... Nice scar.... I call it my Butt crack extension!!!

Most painful Bastard of an injury I've ever had in any sport (BMX freestyle, BMX racing, Road cycling, MTB's and snowboarding)
I have never felt such pain... seen such swelling, or stuffed that much snow down the back of my pants................ ever........!

I'm much smarter now:smashfrea

[carverchick]

Ok now I'm a little worried. Not really :P Well at least I know I'm not the only one who gets bruises or other injuries. Here all this time I thought hardbooters were perfect. Dang! Back to the drawing board :(

[Allee]

It's not a day on the hill if I don't wake up the next day feeling like I got hit by a truck. One bad digger a day is about par for the course. I fall so often that my other half is always really surprised when I actually do some damage!

(Touch wood) I have yet to tear ligaments and things. But my helmet has proved its worth a few times this season, and today I am sporting a couple of hippers and a very bruised and swollen elbow...

[carverchick]

I wish I were sporting some bruises or something. I haven't been riding in about a week and it sucks. I think most of the time when I do fall it's from something lame like falling off the chairlift. Although last season I got my bell rung (thank god for my brain bucket) otherwise I would have had some drainbramage.

[Bullwings]

well, i'm finally in the clear.

i sprained my ankle about 3 weeks ago due to my liners packing out a bit (have had them refitted since then). haven't been on the slope for 3 weeks either

x-rays came back and they're all clear, no talus fracture, and the ankle feels great. i waited about 2.5 weeks before i got the x-ray so there wouldn't be any swelling clouding up the picture.

[Mr.E]

12/8/06
7th day on snow
4th run of the day, on the baby hill, with my students...

One of my kids dropped her board and boot from the chair lift down a small ravine. I left the kids at the top of the run with another instructor I was training, rode half way down the lift, and proceeded to post hole up to my hips down and up the ravine with her deck. I put my board on my right foot (on piste) and tried to push off my left foot (up past my boot) in the mash. Heard a pop, fell over, and couldn't straighten my leg. Long story short, I popped out my patella and ripped a ligament, had to ride down to SLC with a morphine drip and haven't been on snow since. :nono:

My PT person thinks I should be back out in two weeks if I keep doing the homework, so I guess I got off fairly lucky.