Post accident analysis.

[Tugboater]

Hi gang. I took a decent wipe on friday night at Mohawk. I washed out the back of the board on a toeside turn and ended up on my stomach. The board ended up hitting the snow a few times and kind of jammed my ankle. Thanks to my car keys and Blistex container in my pocket I have a 8" bruise with my pants pocket imprinted on my right thigh. My ankle was so messed up I had to get Xrayed and am now in a soft cast and off the hill for 4-6 weeks. Here is where I need some if you more experienced riders. I'm trying to figure out how my ankle which washing a hardboot got jacked up like it did. As best I can figure my foot didn't move due to the boot but the ankle did causing a rotational injury. It also felt as if my boot liner had a weird lump in the wrong spot now too. So:

1) How do I prevent this from happening again?

2) Should/do I need to replace the liner in my boots?

3) The boots are older Blax Tonis should I plan on new boots next year?

I've been riding plain boards for over 20 years and carving (sort of) for 2. Until now I've never been injured to the point I thought I wouldn't be able to go back to work. I guess soft boots would have allowed the movement of my feet and thus I would have been bruised but not gimping around on crutches.

Tl/dr: Crashed- why? How to prevent foot injury again?

I love snowboarding regardless.

[Corey]

Sorry to hear about the injury! If the terrain is not so steep that you will actually speed up while sliding, just lift the board off the snow and slide to a stop. Once it starts bouncing the energy that builds up is incredible. The patterns left in the snow show huge board deformation and deep ruts. I'm bad at this; I always think of lifting the board just after I stop, usually with sore shins or knees.

As for stopping the fall - I fall frequently as I like to push what I can do to see if more is possible. Generally, angulate more (upper body upright and board tipped up high on edge) and drive the sidewall into the snow..

Edited January 31, 2013 by fin

[Allee]

Ouch, I hope you feel better soon! That sucks.:(

I am something of an expert on falling:), and I know the slide-out you mean. When it happens to me I don't even try to stop it - I just flip on to my front, bend my knees up so the board's off the snow, and ride it out on my jacket. I find that if you try to stop the toeside slide, you either end up getting shocking shin bang/chatter, jamming an ankle as you did, or risking having the nose/tail catch again and throw you out the front.

It sounds like you were just unlucky. You'd think hardboots would give you more support, but I dunno. I put my foot down in a hole sitting on a motorcycle a couple of years back, and rolled my foot and dislocated it - through a motorcycle boot, go figure. Sometimes it's just bad luck.

[NSSage]

Ouch that sucks I hope you can get better soon and get back on your board.

I know that feeling when you slide out like that on toeside. Last week I was training on the GS course and through one of the turns I slipped out and banged my board into the ground then flipped backwards and hit my head. It was not fun. But all I can say is lift up your legs when this happens and when you start to slow down put your legs down and try to stop. If you are on something steep then you are pretty much screwed but you can try to stop yourself by putting your legs back down.

[kieran]

you'll probably find your knee will start hurting in a few days too, but it sounds as if you tried to get to a 0° binding angle on the rear foot while sliding; was it mostly the tail digging in?

[BlueB]

I know the feeling, ouch, I banged myself pretty good on the rear shin, few years ago. It was hurting to the end of the season.

With softer boots you'd get ankle discomfort, with stiffer shin. Spine compression is also possible. From my experience, it is worse with flatter angles then with steeper ones. The things become twice as bad with a plate, due to the increased weight of the rig, increased bite and decreased abillity to twist/tweek the board.

Possible bail out on the steeps is to react the very moment that slip happened, by collapsing the knees to decrease/dose the pressure to the edge - the fall might turn into an EC type turn and recovery.

[Tugboater]

Thanks for the well wishes. I'm lucky in that I may get to ride again this season. I'm going to use it as an excuse to get a new pair of boots. I'm still new to carving but was starting to get a decent feel for it. I just figured I'd get more support from the boot then I did. I'll fall differently if given the chance the next time.

[BlueB]

The boot underhang can also bad - it increases the load on the vulnerable parts.

On the side note, it is not uncomon to get the calf muscle or achilles rupture, on softies, when that sort of fall happens at adequate speed...

[Beckmann AG]

Know a guy who looped out on his softies off a toeside turn (sensible angles, no quacky), did a backflip, and the subsequent landing broke both ankles.

A good rider, and he wasn't on difficult terrain.

So yours could have been way worse.

(And this is not meant to diminish your misfortune. Take care with the healing, and pay close attention to the progress.)

Bear in mind that a small hammer will do a lot of damage if swung well and frequently.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Beckmann AG

[Puddy Tat]

I did that under a lift about three years ago, it felt like someone was taking a hockey stick to my shins for about 50 meters of sliding, then I flipped onto my back and slid for another 50 meters or so.... Not a pleasant bail.

I'm still out with a sore shoulder/clavicle from what was apparently one of those Jasey Jay Misty Flips that I did on upper North Axe a on Jan 13th. Definately one of the worst wipeouts I've been in. One moment I'm hanging onto a toeside turn and the next thing I knew I was looking down the hill from about 4-6ft off the deck in a superman position and still rotating. Some friends were amazed that I actually got up from it. Looking at the carve marks it looks like the board skipped once then the nose caught and wrenched me harder into the turn, and then I launched off the nose like it was a diving board.

Here's a link to the one Jasey Jay did in a WC race sometime ago. He was moving much faster than I was but man if this ever happens to you it's unbelievable. I had no warning this was going to happen.

http://www.theadventureshow.com/v3/play_video_popup.php?id=304

Dave

[110/220V]

OK

97 percent snow bo a r d e r s employ the safety toe side (because they never developed the feel or ability the difference between a safety turn to get out of trouble and a controlled sequence radii to move from one part of hill to the next). Likely you were tired or moving too fast for your ability to keep control but in any case, we all want to help yea?

I have said this many time with sugar and sweet and empathy for riders and skiers who are avers=e to training.

Is unfortunate you needed this accident, but if you trust you will remember the times you were in trouble, you went toeside and traversed.

OK This takes seasons of daily training to correct. Any advice is like anus we each must have, but you ultimately decide where to go from here. I recommend when you return to snow that you train your weak turn, that is--you train the heelside cut turns, with the emphasis on cut rather than skid or slide stop. The heelside is not a slide to reposition for another overbearing toe pressure, but that is my elbow of advise. If you were in the Sierras I would suggest coaching and at the very least hockey drills (write Wescott or one of the east coast boys to help out).

1) Take time off there will always be snow.

2) Nutrition to your human design, rather than pancreas. Sugar is the US subsidized poison that proliferates every meal. Take responsibility and dictate what you put iin your mouth.

3) PT yourself (who knows better than a physiotherapist, what hurts than you) with iincline board, then disc or bosu, THEN baps (PT will show you how to use this)

4) Relearn your snow intention: do you want to look "proficient," or do you want to use your radii effectively as dictated by the fall and speeds and sinew? YOu need to unlearn the toe side safety, and quit bvshltting and train what is not only hard work at an unglamorous modality like hockey drill, but fight the urge to abandon the hard work only to repeat your mistake that every snowb o a r d e r seems to cherish.

5) Trust me. There are a couple coaches and even US team alum like Trish Byrnes that can explain this hockey drill (again , not fun, but it will teach you to turn to control rather than slide or transition your toeside safety turn.

6) Yea, I am helping, so please no offense or argument. I do actually understand the problem and your accident, yea?

In any case, heal well and remember that your body will hold you to the shortcuts you take.

[Tugboater]

Thanks for the comments. I think I understand what you are saying but I don't completely agree on all of it.

1) Fatigue was certainly a factor, it was my second day out this year and 4th on a carving board.

2) I'm forced by my job to be away for weeks at a time so I should be good to go when I get back next month (I really hope so).

3) I do pt now including running and core exercises and consider my self to be in decent shape.

4) If I have to bail out my first instinct is a heel side slide. I've always done this since I started riding. I can see where I'm going and can use the board to stop or slow myself if I need to.

5) Can you give me more info or a link on the hockey drill?

6) It's the internet, getting offended means nothing. However an open discussion is always welcome. I appreciate you taking the time to type your response, I hope to see you on the hill some day.

[LeeW]

Hmm, I don't know what to say except be real careful the next time?

I do know I was a lot more cautious after I broke my lower leg (fibia/tibia) from hardbooting many years ago.

[heroshmero]

I had a similar injury to my back foot ankle in a toe side turn a couple years ago. For me it was an injury to the smooth cartilage in my ankle joint and tendon sprains.

One thing I would suggest checking is if you are getting any heel lift. Heel lift is a bad thing. Wearing your boots tighter around the ankle will help. Getting some liners molded will help even more.

Heel lift was a big factor in my injury. When I got into that toe side turn and happened to get some chatter I started to loose the edge contact with the snow. The board started catching and releasing from the snow and my heel lifted and then dropped repeatedly causing the injury.