Safety

On 8/6/2002 john gilmour wrote in from 205.188.xxx.xxx:

It's been a long time since I've posted since the Turner stuff. I really didn't know what to say. I still don't know what EXACTLY to say- though I obviously have been thinking about it. Being computerless I haven't had much access to NCDSA but while looking for airfares I popped over and saw this injury list.

I do know what to say about this falling stuff. Enough.

Sure I've fallen while learning to slalom and gotten the occassional hipper- skinned knees from cheap pads that slide down or weren't adjusted right, and I've even blown out a shoulder from slaloming. But it all (almost all) could have been prevented. I don't fall much anymore. I certainly don't like to see my friends get hurt. So there are a few things that I used to teach my students when I coach snowboarding. After a huge wipeout + injuries from a day of snowboarding you usually have a long car ride home to think about what and why it happened.

I call these things "injury factors" have one...there is a chance for an injury, have two the chance is about doubled, have three and your chances for injury are about 50/50 for that day.

Injury factors:

In no particular order, too hot, too cold, tired, hungry, alone, in unfamiliar terrain / surface/course, on unfamiliar gear, new gear, newly adjusted gear, riding with people way above your level, riding with people way below your level ("show-off" wipe outs), riding terrain or a course you are bored with (tempts you to try unreasonable risks), riding in bad conditions (humid, dewy surface, sandy surface, riding irregular or changeable conditions (Ie irregular pavement or bad pavement), lastly riding a board unsuited for the type of course you are running.

Any 3 of the above and you should severely dial back your intensity. Got more than 5.....go home.

Most falls that happened to me occured when either I was not warmed up- or when I was too fatigued. The day I blew out my shoulder (1981) It was a hundred degree day, I was riding a new course and hill, I was dehydrated, tired from lack of sleep, and hadn't eaten a thing a day. I was riding a different set of wheels, and I was riding with a friend way below my ability level. That's 8 injury factors.

I felt the board slide a bit, clipped a manhole cover, and had plenty of time to react.....but because I was tired I said "Awww screw it...I'll just crumple and not bother to run it out" my arm got caught behind my back and popped out of the socket. I had surgery to repair it 10 years later after more than 100 dislocations. So after that I now know that if things go wrong....don't wait to react....react immediately and prepare to ditch your board and run it out or knee slide or roll.

If you practice falling before it happens you are less likely to get hurt. Vert skating falls are very different from slalom falls where you don't have the "luxury" of an extra second of air time to prepare. Slalom falls happen quickly and can be twisted- and like Atilla said TS falls are more vicious.

Here's an embarrassing fact. I teach Inline skating to pay the bills. Over the years I have taught over 15,000 students to skate (many of which probably shouldn't be on skates in the first place). My insurance does not cover me for teaching students to fall. Yet I teach falling anyhow as an integral part of my course. I show students how to figure out when they are unable to recover their balance and when they should prepare to fall, I show them how to fall facing forwards and three ways to avoid backwards head slams. I make them practice lightly on the grass. Then lightly on the pavement- if you can learn to fall "lightly" it really helps to reduce injury. It isn't hard to learn.

95% of my Inline skating students are women. They all learn to fall before I teach them to skate. The worst injury a student has ever gotten in my class is a broken fingernail. Even years after taking my class students still have no injuries...probably
because they wear pads and take time to get to know their equipment and surroundings. And...they aren't "chickens" -at one time almost every top speed skater in New England had taken my class. Matt Butterly- a top vert Inline skater took my class as well, he suffers from a fragile brittle bone syndrome where as a child he broke over 85 bones growing up. My class really helped him stay off the injury list.

So take about 20 minutes and learn how to roll on the grass simulateing a fall, and also take about 5 minutes practing knee slides and orienting yourself to a knee slide from a slightly twisted position. Keep your knees together. Outstretch your hands fingernails upwards to make a tripod. Keep your eyes on the road- never turn your back to the road.

Best of all prevent falling in the first place. At WLAC I got a wheel stuck in these frisbee like "death cones" but I rode preparing to fall just in case- toasted a set of Ed Economy's pads in a single wipe out- Thanks Ed! But not a scratch. (Injury factors Bad surface, wrong board ..tiny wheelbase for GS, wheels too soft at 78A, Hot day, hairball course) At the Dump road I fell while attempting a speed scrubbing slide- but I was expecting it -so again not a scratch. When you first get to a new course or have any new gear go through the course at 1/2 speed. Feel out the tight sections that are hard to make- pick up the rhythm of the course slowly. Do that about 3 times gradually increasing your speed- that way you'll know what places need extra attention traction wise or body position wise before you go all out.

Now adjust you equipment.

Take a run at 75% speed.

Readjust.

Take a run at 95%- make sure you are in full control of the slides. Unless you are Edwards or Olson or Coleman or Yuppie- they just are "saving bacon" the whole way down. Then go ahead and top out.

And one other thing- before even running the course test the surface. Test the midddle of the road (which can get sandy/ gritty) test the middle of each lane, test the edges. Start by taking slighly sharper turns at the same speed and learn when your wheels slide at that speed on that surface. Then up the speed slightly and repeat. Know the surface before you run the course. Don't use a wheel that is too soft or it will let loose abruptly and rumble away. If you use a wheel that is too hard it will "wax out" from you even quicker so when you are doing those 75% speed runs figure out your duros. Choose the "predictable wheel". If your back end is blowing out...your back truck is too loose. When you start hitting about 2-3 extra cones per run...stop skating. And next time stop skating just before you start to get sloppy.

If you know the surface and your gear you will have plenty of warning in advance of your wheels going into a potential slide. Also watch your body positioning first...even MORE IMPORTANT than monitoring your traction. In that video Chaput posted (looks like an old run of Atilla's at WLAC) you see the rider "falling off the line" ie his navel was not over the line of the cones and caused over turning and he got pitched. So if you find you are falling off your line - don't fight it....just blow out and take another run. If it's a competition and you fall off your line you'll have to decide whether or not you will post a faster run on your second run WITHOUT a blown out shoulder/rotator cuff and make up the 1.5 seconds on the next run, or if you would rather highside...DQ- blow out your shoulder for the season and try to go fast on your second run. Choice is simple for me. Don't fall. Stay centered on your board...and even if someone collides with you....so long as you are both going downhill you probably won't fall even if you come off your board.

The best advice I give to my snowboard racing students is this...if the conditions look like you might get injured, go do something else for the day...nothing makes you "slower" than being in traction (in a hospital bed) while the other racers are getting faster.

Slalom is one of the safest low impact sports I know of. It is only the rider's judgement that makes it dangerous. IMHO Falling does not make anyone faster. Checking out the surface throughly and dialing your gear in before going full bore through a course will always make you go faster and reduce your chances of injury to almost nil. Somehow I'm sure I posted something similar to this before.

I probably won't be able to afford to go to Hood for the Technical TS but I hope people skate with their heads and not over them. If Fluitt takes it down just one notch........

Leave no skin just urethane

Good Luck