How safe is Snowboarding ?
Every year there are thousand of snowboarders are injured. These injuries range in various degrees of seriousness. Most common for snowboarders are injuries to wrists. In fact the sum of head injuries and shoulder injuries would be about the same as to the number of of wrist injuries. Snowboard injuries numbers occur at a slighly higher rate to that of skiing ones. Typically there are 3.55 injuries for 1000 boarder days compared with between 2-3 injuries per thousand ski days for skiers. Playing with the numbers here, we see:
- 3.55 injuries per 1000 snowboarding days.
- This means that every 280 days a snowboarder could expect an injury.
- An average snowboarder will board for 12 days in a season.
- This means that on average you can expect to have an accident once every 23 years !!
Preventing Snowboard Injuries
Here are some steps to prevent injury on the slopes::
- Wear all the correct protective clothing. This includes items like helmets, wrist guards, etc. Also it is important that these items are kept in good repair and come from reputable manufacturers.
- When falling, use a closed fist to break your fall.
- Always board within your limit, pick the level of piste to suit your experience level.
- Be aware while on the slope, keep a particular eye on new skiers and snowboarders. Also when pistes merge, make sure you give right of way to people coming from the higher piste.
- Warm up before boarding, or at least take the first 2 or 3 runs of the day a little bit more cautiously.
- At the end of the day, don't be pressured to do "one more run", most accidents happen when you are tired.
Further reading about Injuries
We recommend you take a look at this article. There is an oasis of information available on this webpage.