Injury Rates - Skiing vs. Boarding

[patmoore]

Has anyone ever done a study on the comparative injury rates between skiing and boarding?

I just came back from the doctor's getting the stitches out from my latest ACL tear and got thinking. In the past four years I've had three major injuries while ski racing - broken ribs (led to pneumonia), broken foot, and torn ACL. I've had other earlier injuries from sky diving and unicycling but this is it in alpine sports. I took up skiing and boarding in the winter of 96-97 at the age of 50 and have never had an injury while boarding. I rarely ride a softboot setup (the Long Trail Brewery was kind enough to give me a logo model). I've been racing on the board for about nine years.

At age 63 my long suffering bride and I are getting weary of these disruptions. I really can't give up skiing because my weekend winter job is to paceset the NASTAR course at Okemo.

I was just wondering if some enterprising grad student had ever done a comprehensive survey of the relative frequency of injuries.

[Arje_Vandemeer]

When I used to ski, I had an ACL injury and one broken tibia. Since I've started boarding years ago, I had only one sprained thumb and one broken rib and many bruised ego trying stupid thing like rails when ice.

All my snowboard injuries have been minor and healed up, including my ego!

My skiing injury (ACL tear) persists. ACL repairs, no matter how good the doctor is NEVER heal 100%. If doctor says that - he is lying! Close sure - maybe 90%. But 90% is not 100%. I am lucky, I had very good surgeon and good rehab, so I have full movement and strength. But still 90 - 95% stability.

Common snowboarding injuries: thumbs, ribs, wrists, maybe shoulder. All heal usually well for most people. Takes a while, but 100 % healing is often.

Common Skiing injuries: ACL, MCL. These injuries usually DO NOT heal to 100% original stability and tend to re-ininjure.

So in my opinion: Snowboarding injuries are more acute, but tend to fully heal (except maybe shoulder...but that is rare). Skiing injuries, on other hand tend to be more diffuse (such a partial ACL or MCL tear) but longer lasting effects...maybe ever! Skiing is more dangerous to longer use of limbs.

I didn't speak of head injuries for both sports because we don't want to go there!!!

[Snowman]

After 20+ years of doing it, and all on plates, I would agree that thumbs, wrist shoulder and neck injuries are very prevalent. But, lower joints (knees, hips, ankles) are also taking a beating. I think that standing on a race board for years and years at very high binging angles has got to create additonal wear and stress on those joints wearing them out prematurely. If I look at myself in the mirror, my body and muscles have developed very asymetircally with a dominate or stronger side and a weaker side. As the years progress, MCL, ACL, and miniscus problems are going to manifest and become more problematic, probably to the point of surgery. I think that it is still a very small price to pay for the fun that I have.

Think Snow!

[Seraph]

I think that there was a study published around two years ago on comparative injuries. Can't find it now, but I recall that one of the findings was that the majority of snowboard injuries happen during the first season and drastically reduce afterwards, and that skiing was less in the beginning but slowly raised up and stayed the same year to year.

[NateW]

I am not a statistically significant sample, but having done both for 20+ years, I haven't noticed anything that compensates for a couple of fundamental differences: snowboards keep your feel pointed the same direction, but poles help you stay upright.

I'm sure skiing has a higher risk of leg trauma and snowboarding has a higher risk of arm/shoulder trauma. I'd be shocked if data showed otherwise, but I'd love to see some, either way.

[Cindy Kleh]

Studies have been done comparing snowboarding and skier injuries. They occur almost at the same rate, but, as mentioned, beginner snowboarders seem to have a higher rate, with wrists the most common injury. As the rider gets better and goes for faster and higher in the air, shoulders, neck and ACL tears become more common.

Skiers injure their thumbs the most, but knee injuries are also common.

I believe that in either sport, if you are pushing yourself to progress, injuries will happen. It's still better than doing it on a Wii.

[patmoore]

Thanks for the input. Therapy started on the knee this morning. I should be fine in time for running gates next year. I just need to be able to bend my knees. Competing at this years Nationals on two bum knees was a challenge. I showed my doctor the composite shot below and told him I'm the guy on the left in both shots. That's as much as I can bend either knee. I need to look like the guys on the right.

[philw]

I like that way of explaining to the doctor what you need. Did he ask for your credit card right there and then?

[leeho730]

Perhaps the most relevant research that can answer your question is done by Flørenes et al in the Scandanivian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, June 18 2010. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20561277)

Basically, the study suggests that among FIS athletes, snowboarding, Alpine and freestyle skiing (up to 1/3 of athletes suffer from injury) are the most dangerous sports, and puts Nordic skiing as the discipline with lowest-risk of having injury.

The injury rate among snowboarders, alpine skiers and and freestyle skiers were similar, although alpine skiers seem to suffer less injury than the other two groups. It is not certain the difference in injury rate among those three groups are statistically significant.

There are other studies done but I have limited access to journal articles...

[MJB]

If you want to look like the snowboarder to the right, you will need to look something like this... :lol: