Crash stories ...

[Allee]

It seems from reading the threads that quite a number of us manage to do damage to ourselves on a regular basis. It's kind of nice to know that I'm not the only one who falls off!

My roommate's son came off a rail in the park on the weekend and knocked out his four front teeth. Which kind of got me to thinking about the injuries that we suffer in the name of sport ...

So what's your best (worst) (most embarrassing) (stupidest) crash story?

[bobdea]

got knocked out was buckling a boot while riding hit one of those orange poles that you use for baricade mesh

my little lady ate a rail the week before

I guess she is a jib monkey

[Guest Jagger]

Shoulder separation, I was working the pipe at about 9:00 pm (we have night skiing) me and a friend were working it pretty good. Well anyhoo about halfway through my run I go up for a hand plant and right at the pause the deck of the pipe gives way under my hand, I fall landing with my head in the pipe and my shoulder on the deck. So my friend says "You OK " I say yea andd try what I always do and 'walk it off' by taking a couple more runs and about the fourth time up the rope tow I get my buddy aside and tell him that I can't get down off the mountain. So he goes and gets Ski patrol and I get to go for a ride in the tobogan. Turns out I had a fourth degree separation in my shoulder. That put me off my board for about 2 weeks.:(

[Jon Dahl]

who looked about 3 years old while I was doing about 30 on a flat heading back to the chair, I turned to watch him and hooked the heelside edge. I left 6 half board length edge plants in the snow about 10 feet long total and drove both my elbows into my ribs, knocking the wind out of me. Little cruiser fellow goes by and his dad just kinda laughed at me.

[Guest Todd Stewart]

we had a race to the base with about 10 snowboard racers, we were all pretty tight going down the hill so when on of us turned to avoid some skier, it was just a giant chain reaction of collisions, about 6 of us were lying motionless on the ground by the end of it. The worst part was i lost control and hit some girl.

[Scotty Pumpkins]

how about one last run........oh isnt that always the way? its my second year on a board, im riding the edge of a trail, and i fall. i put my left hand down, and i end up falling on my thumb, bending it completely backwards. Tore most of the ligaments and tendons in that connect my hand to my thumb.....took a year to heal.

fast forward to super bowl sunday of this year. A few hours before Janet Jackson flashed the world, i was making my first turns on my carving board. Im just starting to get the hang of things, when i get a little tentative on a steeper slope. i slow things down and just got caught up somehow. I go in the air, and the first thing that hits the ground is my shoulder. A non displaced fracture of the upper tuberosity (the ball part of the ball and socket)....1/3 of the way in from the outside of my shoulder towards my head......and a complete break all the way through. No ligament, tendon, rotator cuff damage though, so i was lucky. Things healing up nicely now, should be out on the Mtn before the end of the month!

Scott

[C5 Golfer]

Was not really a crash - I was going down a pretty steep run and my board just slipped out from underneath me on a heel side slip thru the bare spots last spring at Blackcomb. I was sitting there on my butt waiting for my girlfriend to come over while we took a break on the hill. We were talking where we should go next and which chair to take when all the sudden I was struck in the back with a rolling rock about the size of your gloved fist going what felt like 60mph. I have never ever felt anything so startling and ringing in my entire body, I yelled and writhed all over the place while my girlfriend did not know what happened. It imobilized me for quite sometime and I could not stand up or even talk. Finally was able to get up and go over to the lodge where we called ski patrol for a check up. Scared the crap out of me. Still have a mark on my back right dead center of my spine and a cut on my coat.

[sic t 2]

Hunter Mountain 2 years ago: all pissed off at the spodes going slow on the narrow icey part. threw a 180 in the middle of them, overrotated and caught my back edge and knocked myself out cold WITH a Borei helmet on. A big knockout: like several minutes looking like a corpse on the slope. Everyone was mightily impressed.

Hunter Mountain 3 years ago: Riding the edge of THE CLIFF looking to stay in the powdery edge. Little orange marker warns of danger near the edge. I cut the marker too close and clip it; it grabs my board flipping onto my back and off the snowpack head first. Down the side of the snowpack head first and helpless I go. Hit a big rickety fence and my Borei helmet blew a board out of it and my death slide was over. I thought the cracking was my neck for a moment though.

Moral of the story: helmet laws suck.

Sic t 2

[Baka Dasai]

Originally posted by Scotty Pumpkins

Tore most of the ligaments and tendons in that connect my hand to my thumb.....took a year to heal.

Ouch, I know about thumb injuries.

Five years ago I was carving in softies, and put my hand down on the snow for a fraction of a second. Got to the bottom of the hill and thought "Ouch, my thumb hurts", but I ignored it and rode the rest of the day. And the next day too. Day three as well, but my thumb wasn't feeling any better.

Got an X-ray that night (after driving 3 hours to a hospital). Yep, 'twas broken, and it was a bitch of an injury. The whole "opposable thumb is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom" became very clear to me.

Basically, with a broken thumb, you can't do sh1t with your hand.

And I never even fell, let alone crashed.

[UK2TX2CA]

So my first time in Breckridge CO, I was picking up speed to coast the bottom of the run back to the quad chairs....it's a longist flat section. Super-G tuck and moving fairly quickly..next thing I know I'm flying through the air and landing hard on my shoulder.

I was with a party but since I was the sole snowboarder I was on my own...as far as I know I made it back to the rental shop gave them back the 'board and boots, wandered back to the hotel in my socks and passed out on the bed. The group I was with found me at about 7pm...I was concussed so I was a little bit groggy, that plus the altitude and alcohol wiped me out for the night.

Next day I go back the rental place and they are laughing it up ( once they knew I was ok ) apparently I had been asked if I wanted to go to the hospital and had declined. They still didn't think it was odd that I walked out of the shop in my socks....into the snow....

Breckridge had just let snowboards on the mountain so I guess that would make it around 1994, I think the 'board was a Burton PJ.

Regards,

UK2TX2CA

[chrisk]

It was about 1995. My friend (call him Bill) and I had just started riding hardboots. We were at Big Sky, perfect weather and perfect snow, on the southern end of the resort, on a trail named Larkspur (?). Having a great time exploring our newly found carving skills. We were alone on the trail and it seemed the entire southern end.

With Bill 20 feet in front of me, we blasted down the edge of the slope and onto the newly groomed trail under the lift. About 25 feet from the lift, he pulled this beautiful layed-out toe-edge turn and ended with his body prone on the snow, facing up the mountain. Considering we had just started carving it was one the prettiest turns I had seen.

Before I had gotten close enough to match his turn, a big guy on skis went screaming past my right shoulder. Without slowing down this skier ran into Bill right at the knees. His skis sliding underneath Bill's legs and Bill's front knee stopping both of the skiers boots. The skier's skis and boots stopped but his bindings opened and he launched over Bill like Superman. Unfortunately for the skier, his bindings hadn't released fast enough. He broke both legs where his shins met the boots. Bill laid on the ground for a few minutes and didn't move. I tried to make him as comfortable as I could while he regained his senses. He started to move and eventually accepted a ride back to the Ski Patrol station. He was walking reasonably well and didn't want to go to the hospital so we ended up back at the condo.

Once we got back, he pulled up his bibs so I could look at this knee. I couldn't believe how swollen it was. There were two large knots above his knee cap where his quad muscle attached. I told him it didn't look good and that we should go to the hospital NOW! Bill looked down at his leg and said that was the way they always looked. Turns out the years of lacrosse had created a pair Frankenstein legs, there were muscles in places that I didn't know you could have muscles.

I guess it payed to be in second place on that run, had the skier hit me, he would have cut me in two. Shortly after that I started to wear a helmet.

Chris K.

[Allee]

Mine wasn't really a crash, but probably the scariest moment of my life. At Turoa, a renowned ice bomb in the middle of New Zealand's North Island, late season, and it's started to white out at the top of the hill. I came down on the trail, but ran off the edge of it somewhere, fell, and started to slide. When it's whited out you have no idea of which way is up, and the snow under me was just solid ice. I'm on my back, I can't dig the board into the ice to stop, I have no idea where I am, and no clue as to how far I'm gonna go or what's at the bottom.

I don't know how far I slid, but I finally managed to dig an edge in and slow down. In fact, I don't even remember how I got back to the base, I was so shook up ...

And one afternoon at Kicking Horse, I was following the cat track down when I swerved around a fallen skier, copped my edge, and tumbled off into the powder on the side. Problem was, the powder was mega feet deep, and I couldn't get out! I finally had to stop thrashing around and just wait to be rescued, as by this time I'd sunk up to my armpits. Do people ever disappear, never to be seen again???

[ncermak]

Earlier this season...the on-snow demo at Killington. I'm testing the atomic GSII. following a couple of guys down this trail, ripping big GS turns (but the ski never felt right). they hop onto a cat track to cut onto another trail, I come behind them, and must have cut the corner short. I put on the brakes, caught a patch of ice, then a bald spot. prereleased out of one ski, the other got turned straight down the hill into a nasty compression with all of the snow that had scaped off of the ice above. released out of the second ski and hurtled across the catwalk. There were two guys standing at the edge of the track. one was fixing a buckle. here's how his buddy described the incident: " I was looking at (him) fix his boot, then he turned red and was gone". the victim said he was fixing his boot when the mack truck hit him. He went about 20 foot into the woods, as did I. He broke his clavicle, I broke my helmet (giro 9.9 - highly recommended...I'm still here). Partol saw 3 other peopel do the same thing (minus the prerelease) as we were loading the sleds. fortunately the victim was the coolest guy in the world, and was happy top have saved my life. If i hadn't hit him, It would have been a large tree.

Glad to be here

-Noah

[mirror70]

Most embarrassing fall:

It's my second day on a board and I'm at Bretton Woods with a friend (also his second day on a board) for a 24hr Ski/Snowboard-a-thon. He is in front of me and looks up to see where I am. His lack of attention send him off the trail and into the woods. Being the good friend that I am, I of course point at him and laugh as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. The next thing I knew, I was sliding downhill on my face.

The moral of the story? Do the obnoxious laughing where I can be heard but not seen.

[Rusty]

I was at Sugarbush this January on the twisty end section of Jester (great trail!) riding my BX board (Burton Fusion w/custom bindings) after riding plates all morning. I was heel side coming around a skiers left corner and pretty much just didn't make the corner. (could've folded the nose but I'm not quite sure) Before I could blink I was headed straight to the woods and had a wrestleing match with one on VT's toughest maples...I lost, but there could have been more than one of them.

I ended up breaking both wrists(shattered the right one...pins suck), broke my sternum(still hurts like hell when I sneeze), three ribs and fractured part of my hip.

Need less to say my season came was put on hold for a little while. The good news is that my hip is healing up nicely and i'm working like hell to make a few turns this spring.

Is there a prize for the worst injury of the season? Not to brag but I think I could be a strong contender...:rolleyes: :D

[Guest dragonfly jones]

Racing at Cooper - coming to the last 5 gates - cranker turn - hit it hard flexed to boot enough to cause the binding to disengage front foot out spun down - partial hip dislocation - tight hip, AC sprain in right shoulder - bruised ribs, off board for weeks.

Wish I had it on video

[ncermak]

Originally posted by Rusty

Is there a prize for the worst injury of the season? Not to brag but I think I could be a strong contender...:rolleyes: :D

Rusty-

I'm not positive, But I think Gilmour has you beat...

[Guest Crispy23]

I was up in pc on the top and some lady was standing in between 2 trees that I was gonna shoot through but I dodge her and hit a tree, cracked my helmet, got a ride down but they didnt pull the blankets up enough so I had a nasty brain freeze the entire ride down, 5 hours later I'm stuck in salt lake w/o a ride down and no money.

[D-Sub]

the ONLY time I ever hit a jump without checking the landing, I shattered both bones in my left forearm. literally shattered as in broken into many segments. exploded. you get the picture.

I was riding at Mt Baldy here in SoCal, and at the top/mid it was horrible. wind, ice, zero vis

so we quit

on the way down the main run to the lot, which is a very narrow canyon, the sun had been out all morning so suddenly it was soft and wet, and I start jumping off everything I can get. I cruised up the side hill on skiers right, cut back in, ollied over a bunch of rocks and bushes. nice clean landing

but:

more rocks. instead of being a man and ollieing them, I sat down and tried to stop. hands at sides, board in front.

POP. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

only 100 feet from the bottom. I rode down and said to my friend who was an EMT in training, "I broke my arm"

"lemme see!"

"hell no, dude. take me to the hospital"

I didnt have insurance, and I knew it was bad which meant repeat visits to the hosp so I had him drive the 45 miles to St Jude...

anyone know what crepitus (sp?) is? Well if you dont, you dont want to.

other than that, nothing major. broken hand, one bum knee, and a funny incident coming around a corner at steamboat...Im horizontal toeside and suddenly theres a skier standing right smack in the middle of the run. I push off and try to go around, but I get in the front seat somehow. Board flexes and pitches me up and over toward heelside

off the road/run into the trees. in the air.

I MISSED ALL OF THEM

lucky bastard

[knoch]

I had a bad fall once, but i don't remember it, imagine that. Funny thing is, i was at the bottom of the hill, people were telling me about exactly how it happened, and i didn't even remember leaving the top of the hill. I even forgot what they told me happened, and that anything happened at all until the next day when my buddys started talking about it again. I guess i hit a jump and just kind of slowly rotated until my head was the closest thing to the ground, and then i hit. But i'm still not sure.

[BBQ Chef]

I banged my right shoulder pretty bad this past Monday at the ECES at Sugarloaf/USA. I was skidding heelside to slowdown coming up to the lifts and suddenly the board went flat and hooked the toe edge. Next thing I knew, I was flying thru the air. I had just enough time to cross my arms across my chest to brace myself, but still lande almost fully on the shoulder. Of course I had to go out and bang it up again today before I left.:D

[knoch]

sugarloaf must have a thing for shoulders. I was there for the college national stuff going on during the past week and witnessed 3 different shoulder injuries, 2 of which happened right in front of me.

[Bubba]

Three weeks ago............

Me trying to see how close I can cut it by the lift tower. Losing edge, kissing tower, breaking clavicle. OUCH!

Crepitus - The sound a bone makes when the broken ends grind together.

[D-Sub]

Originally posted by Bubba

Crepitus - The sound a bone makes when the broken ends grind together.

clavicles do that?

its more of a feeling than a sound. like...rocks in a bag, grinding together

rather unpleasant, no?

[NateW]

"I've been riding [6 ... 8 ... 10] years and never had a real injury."

I knew saying that would jinx me eventually, and it did. I turned old, and my body quit bouncing the way it did in the beginning.

Five years ago: Air out of the halfpipe, just barely out... board landed out on the deck, I struggled to get it back in, didn't, passed the board on the way down, landed on my shoulder somewhere way down the transition. Knocked the wind out of me... My arm was numb and felt really weak, which was strange. I poked and prodded it, but it felt fine, just weak and vague, like I'd slept on it wrong and it went to sleep.

I just sat there for a bit, someone came by and asked if I was OK, I said I'd just knocked the wind outta myself, got up, rode out of the pipe, kneeled, and examined my arm. Still couldn't figure it out. Stuck my hand inside my jacket to feel my shoulder, and there were these new bumps under my skin where my collarbone was supposed to be. I almost hurled right then and there.

Got up, walked ~100 yards to the lift ticket counter, butted into the front of the line and asked where first aid was. "Is someone hurt?"

"Yeah, I broke my collarbone."

"YOU broke your collarbone?"

"Yes. Which way to the first aid building?"

"We'll send someone to get you."

It was about 50 feet away but someone came on a snowmobile.

Hours later, in the ER, the doctor asked if I wanted some meds and I said it actually didn't hurt much, I could just take some advil if it started to hurt later. He looked at me really funny, paused, and wrote me a prescription for hydocodone anyway. The next morning I was still feeling OK, then I sat up and experienced pain like never before. Utterly incapacitating. Not just "more pain" than before, but a whole new kind of pain. Took a pain-killer. 20 minutes later I could have kissed that ER doctor. On the lips. With tongue.

The X-ray kinda looked like someone smashed a beer bottle. It took 3 months to heal... Fortunately this happened really late in the season so I didn't miss much.

Last year, or the year before: I went for a 360 on a park jump, on an icy day. It's like what sic2t and knoch said... I don't remember much. I guess that happens when you rattle your brain. I remember thinking I'd done enough 180s to be confident in a 360, and then I remember lying in the snow thinking, "can I wiggle my fingers? check. toes? check. flex my shoulders gently? seems ok. deep breath? check. lift my head? so far so good. Sit up? check. I guess my spine is ok." I had a helmet on, but still. I rode down and sat at the bottom of the chair thinking, "What day is it? I must be here on a weekday, the lines are really short... did I get the day off?" Scary stuff. Really.

Went to the lodge to have some food and shake off the groggyness. Coming out of the bathroom, this guy looks at me and says, "DUDE! Are you OK???"

"Well, I've been better..."

"I saw that 360, man, that was BRUTAL."

Did I mention the jump was right under the chair? I'm not sure how long I was lying there, but nobody came to pick me up so it probably wasn't that long.

And of course, this year: Went off a ledge I've been jumping off of many times per season for many seasons. My weight was just a little tiny bit too far forward, though. Went over the handlebars on touchdown, did some cartwheels, felt much pain in my knee at some point. Then it didn't hurt, just felt "wrong." Rode down the hill, still didn't feel quite right, decided to quite while I was ahead. Changed clothes, shoes, stowed the board and boots, got into my car... as I sat down I discovered the motion that affected whatever it was I'd damaged. Ouch! Nothing like the broken collarbone, but enough to make me glad I'd stopped. Found out later it's called the medial collateral ligament. I got back on the slopes 6 weeks later, I think now it's been 8 weeks but I'm still riding cautiously... don't wanna miss the rest of the season.

Being old is a drag.