Snowboarding and Safety

Posted: 16 October 2009 09:08 PM

I would like to know what you guys think about the topic snowboarding and safety.
Where do you think does coolness end and levity begin?

I personally do always wear a helmet and there happened to be several situations in which I was glad about wearing one. I do also have a cheap back protector I always wear when it’s not too hot on the mountain.

Do you wear wrist protectors when boarding? Because I am thinking about buying some Level gloves with integrated wrist protectors (need some new gloves, anyway).

Regards

Posted: 17 October 2009 10:29 AM

NNnnnnnnnnooooooooo!

1st rule of snowboarding is “fashion before function”. I know the gloves you’re talking about and the kind of look like you’ve stolen your mum’s oven gloves. Wrists are a funny subject, I never had the issue with falling on my wrists because I learnt to freestyle on a dryski slope with dendex (google it, it’s pure evil!) and if you fell and put your hands down, you boke you’re thumb or fingers, so I bought impact shorts and took the hit with my behind. Now when I fall I always instinctively put my hands up.

Regarding safety equipment I’m completely sold. I ride with a back protector, impact shorts and knee pads, I hardly notice wearing them and you cant notice them under my gear, although if i was into the tight pant thing i might look a little silly! The only thing I don’t wear all of the time is a helmet, which is really stupid as i own a nice Smith Holt helmet which looks dope. I just don’t like the feel of a helmet or the way it looks (sorry so vain). If i’m riding big jumps in the park 12m+ or an icy halfpipe then I’ll wear my lid and i think in future on steep and rocky backcountry I’ll wear it as you never know whats under the pow.

Back to wrist guards, falling onto your wrists from catching edges, is a short lived period of snowboarding. Falling back on your ass, you should try and keep your arms up. If your still keen for the gloves with guard, make sure your jacket cuffs go over the top! Alternatively, look at the dakine wristguards that fit under gloves. But in all honesty, don’t let my stupid chat dissuade you from buying wrist guards if you think they’ll help. If you’re studying medicine, you’ll need your hands and a straight wrist and i hate for you to pop on the forum mid season with, ‘Ididn’t get the guards and now I’ve broken my wrist’...doh!.

Second rule of snowboarding is “be safe”.

Posted: 17 October 2009 07:53 PM

Hahaha, hangover, eh? :>

Actually I don’t think all the wrist protected gloves look like “oven gloves”. Just like this one: Click for image

Maybe I should just try some pairs on and see if they are still comfortable and not too stiff at the wrists. As I do not own any impact shorts and do have like 3-4% of body fat the hits on my behind are not really connected with a soft feel for me.
That’s why I mostly absorbed the hits with my hands/wrists.

Let’s hope the situation you described will never happen.. never EVER!

Posted: 19 October 2009 05:11 PM

I heard that if you wear wrist guards there’s a likelihood that the impact is often transferred further up the arm which can break the bigger bones in your arms….....but maybe that’s an old wives tale!

Posted: 19 October 2009 09:02 PM

That is definitely something I will go after. Sounds reasonable but that impact has to be a rather big one, I guess.
Going to ask a sports physician about it; will post the answer as soon as I know it!

Posted: 27 October 2009 07:48 AM

Hey guys, I just found a real interesting website about ski and snowboard injuries.
Check out the wrist-protection parts:
http://www.ski-injury.com/specific-injuries/wrist

Finally, the most recent paper on the topic is perhaps the most important of all. Russell, Hagel and colleagues published an overview of all the studies on wrist guards in snowboarding - what’s known in the business as a systematic review. They conclude “Regardless of study design our analysis shows consistently that wrist guards significantly reduce the risk of wrist injuries”. They also demonstrate that beginner snowboarders are the group who get the maximum benefit from wearing wrist guards.

So there you have it. There really is no escaping the significance of all these trials and studies which really do provide conclusive proof that wearing guards protects against wrist injuries amongst snowboarders.

http://www.ski-injury.com/prevention/wrist_guards

Don’t wrist guards lead to injury further up the arm?
O.M.G!!! - This is an old chestnut with very little actual basis in fact but it still rears its ugly head far too frequently! In 1995 (quite a few years ago now), Cheng et al reported four cases where skaters (not snowboarders) wearing wrist guards sustained open forearm fractures immediately proximal to the wrist guard. They hypothesised that the guard could transfer the energy of impact from the hand to the mid-forearm level. Their report did not describe the splints each individual was using or if they were fitted properly. Whilst it may sound a cautionary note, very few other case reports have been forthcoming out of the many thousands of skating injuries occurring every year.

Very interesting to read! Seems like the articles are based on some serious investigations, too.
I will now definitely be looking at some gloves with wrist protection included.

Posted: 06 November 2009 08:03 PM

Fairly conclusive! If you want to avoid broken wrists… get involved with wrist guards!

Posted: 07 November 2009 03:02 PM

Visited a local sports shop some days ago and checked out the Level Fly and Halfpipe gloves.
Originally I wanted to go with the Flys but as I wore them, the Halfpipe felt waaay better!
So I will have to figure what’s the difference between them and then decide if it’s worth the ~100€..

Posted: 14 November 2009 09:54 AM

Is there anything one should keep in mind when looking for an impact short?
Any special feature that may not be missing, anything nobody needs?
Thanks in advance =)

edit: Okay, so to put some last thought/opinion on this topic:
I actually bought a pair of Level Halfpipe Gloves and testet them out on the Zugspitze. I got to say they are really comfortable and warm. My fingers really never got cold at all, and this at up to 35km/h wind-speed and around -20°C. So yeah, they really had to prove they are good, hehe.

Anyway, the wrist protector makes you feel really saver when wearing the gloves. I personally hardly had any restraints wearing them. Of course it takes a while to get used to the stiffer part in your glove but in the end it wasn’t like I was unable to do anything special with the gloves on..

So my personal opinion is: if you want to feel at least a bit safer for your wrists and want some really decent gloves in addition, don’t hesitate to get the Level Halfpipe Gloves!

Posted: 03 September 2010 07:59 PM

Funny how your site is coming up on my info searches so much Rich and Zoryfl. 

Have to post a note on this old thread after reading it.  Day one last year, my then 9 year old daughter Madeline finishes her first lesson at Wintergreen.  We pick her up and slide out onto the bunny slope where she catches the front edge on some ice and falls forward hard onto her palms, with the left taking the big hit and bending back pretty far. 

Gets to her knees, split second pause, gasp and wrist grab as she starts to curl up and cry… 

As a physician, I was pretty sure she’d managed a Colle’s fracture despite the Level Butterfly mittens I bought her, and that our weekend trip was done, but she hadn’t.  Her wrist was sore for a day or two, but she boarded both days and I suspect those mittens had paid for themselves before she made it to the bottom of the hill! 

Obviously they won’t stop all wrist injuries, but at less than the cost of a lift ticket, wrist guards should be a no brainer for kids or beginners.  Both my kids wear women’s XS or maybe XXS butterfly mittens.  I got them at Levelninesports for $30 a pair last year, and am going to order my wife a pair tonight.

There are a not that many safety treasures out there, but I put Level gloves on the list, along with protech dent mouthguards for hockey, and a few others. 

Thanks again for creating such a helpful site.
Best regards,
Todd

Posted: 03 September 2010 08:46 PM

Hey Todd, I’m stoked to hear SB-R happened to come up several times during your research!

With Tom we do now have a new member in the “pro wristguard” fraction as he just recently suffered a serious injury at his wrists. (Check the comments here for more informations)

Generally I got to say that I’m pretty impressed that helmets and other safety equip more and more became a matter of course during the last years. Definitely a positive trend in my eyes whereas Rich will probably throw his hands up in horror, reading this =D

Posted: 03 September 2010 10:04 PM

Ah the old chestnut of wrist guards… I’m obviously stoked that it’s popped up again as a well established non-wrist guard wearer.

In all honesty, since Tom smashed his wrist to smitherenes I advise that anyone who isn’t 100% confident on a deck wears wrist guards. Tom managed to mame himself by spinning on the black line of kickers and getting it wrong. I asked him the day before, what’s the park like. His reply - ’ it’s hard as f*@k’... and hey presto the next day he manages to dismantle his wrist like a lego set.

The moral of the story is. Wear protection if you can afford it. It makes sense and it doesn’t reallty detract from the fun.

Lesson learnt, but Tom and I are identical twins, so I felt the pain!

Posted: 03 September 2010 11:29 PM

Rich,
Sorry! I didn’t know you’d had a recent injury in the family, and hope your brother heals up quick. 
Feel bad for reviving the thread right after that happened.
Todd

Posted: 04 September 2010 02:26 AM

My two cents, you can never have enough protection…  it’s like insurance, you hope you never need it and nobody likes to buy it but you are *ucked when shit hits the fan and you don’t have it.

This season since I’ll be hitting the park almost weekly I’ll be packing:
- helmet
- spine protector
- wrist guards
- impact shorts
- knee & shin pads

I think a helmet should be mandatory at all resorts, I’ll bring up the horrible accident to Kevin Pearce just prior to the Winter Olympics…  ER doctors said if he wasn’t wearing a helmet he most likely would have died.

As a massage therapist working in Lake Louise and Banff over last winter I saw my share of injuries both minor and severe…  safety gear doesn’t stop injuries but it can help lessen them.

Posted: 05 September 2010 11:17 PM

Just been reading this thread and thought I’d add my bit!
Have used wrist guards since I started boarding and could not do without them now - I’m so used to putting my hands out whenever I fall over it would be silly not to use them!
As for helmets - did not really bother to start with, but as I improved, got faster, pushed my limits and tackled harder terrain I started wearing one - good job to! on my last boarding trip I managed to loose it on a kicker and in true comedy fashion land on my head! The helmet (Giro G9, thoroughly recommend), was a complete loss, but did exactly what is was supposed to do - I never even had a headache! spent the rest of my holiday with severe nech ache/wiplash, but it could have been much worse!

Posted: 18 September 2010 10:03 AM

The only reason I wear a helmet is because it’s required to get in to the park on my local mountain. I’ve never considered any body protection and imo if your not tough enough to take the slams then maybe try a different sport…... ballet anyone?