By Jared Christie
Every winter, snowboarders migrate to their nearest mountain to launch from cliffs and do insane moves that defy gravity. But what often happens is that unsuspecting fall that tweaks a knee or breaks a wrist. In a recent survey called Epidemioloqy of Snowboarding Injuries: 1988-1995 by J.E. Shealy, C. F. Ettlinger, and V. Buonomo, they looked at the amount of snowboard injuries between 1988 and 1995 and evaluated ski-patrol reports of 3,696 snowboard injuries occurring in 617,081 visits at two medium-sized resorts in Southern California.
During the seven seasons, attendance of snowboarders has increased from 4.2 percent of all visits in the first year (1988-89) to 36.7 percent in the final season (1994-95). The overall rate of injury to snowboard participants was 36 percent higher than skiing.
The injuries of snowboarders were unlike those incurred by skiers. Snowboarders had a higher percentage of wrist and ankle injuries as opposed to the lower-leg and knee injuries common in skiing. Among snowboarders, males had a higher percentage of ankle and lower-leg injuries, while females had a higher percentage of wrist and knee injuries. The wrist was the most commonly reported snowboarder body-part injured. The snowboarders' wrist injury as a percent of all injuries was 19.4 percent for males and 26.4 percent for females. Currently the rate of wrist injuries in snowboarding is thirteen to fifteen times higher than skiing. Many of these wrist injuries are fractures.
On the other hand, the ankle injury rate in snowboarding, according to this study, has shown the greatest decrease-although the ankle injury rate in snowboarding is still 2.38 times higher than in skiing. At the beginning of this study, over twenty percent of all injuries involved ankles; by year seven it was less than ten percent. The researchers claim there is no obvious reason for this decline, but the production of vastly improved binding systems and boots probably account for the decline.
The average lower-leg injury in snowboarding in this study is 59 percent lower than in skiing, and it is still declining. This study found the rate of knee injuries in snowboarding to be about half that of skiing. However, snowboarders' rate of reported fractures is more than four times that of skiers because the typical fall in snowboarding is a violent event with the boarder falling in a more vertical manner, as opposed to a horizontal fall for skiers.
Besides looking at common injuries such as those of the knee, ankle, wrist, and leg, the researchers studied collisions with fixed objects. They found that skiers are involved in collisions with fixed objects at a rate that is 54 percent higher than snowboarders. Based on their observations and evidence, skiers run into snowboarders more often than the other way around. The rate of collisions between snowboarders and fixed objects did not increase during the seven-year study.
According to the report, even though snowboard injuries are on the decline, safety must always come first. Snowboarders are still suffering from major knee, ankle, and wrist injuries that can frequently be avoided. Over 3,600 boarders were injured in two resorts over this seven-year period. The researchers suggested that some type of conditional ankle support may be appropriate to help avoid severe ankle fractures.
©: 1996 TransWorld Publications, Inc.
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