I have gotten away descently lucky, but I have had my share of bumps and bruises while snowboarding.
I have banged my head pretty good a few times when I was new to snowboarding. I would get the confidence to get up some speed, try to make a turn, and then catch my toe edge and slam my forehead into the snow. I remember creating a bit of a yard sale when I did that once. I had to sit down for a few good minutes.
I have also bruised my tailbone. That was the suckiest one of them all. This was also in my first year or 2 of snowboarding. I went off this little jump near the end of the day when I was really tired and lost my edge during the landing. I hit by a** pretty hard. I could not sit straight for about 3 weeks afterwards. I probably should have gotten one of the a** donuts.
Once again in my first couple years of snowboarding, I lost my edge on some ice and slid about 20 feet into a tree, chest first. That one knocked the wind out of me pretty good and after I regained my breath, I realized that I knocked my sternum loose.
My most recent injury of any consequence was last February. I was going off this wind lip and when I landed, I saw this little kicker that I wanted to hit. Only when I was about to go off it did I realize that there was a nice rock in the way. I had to make a split second decision on whether let my snowboard take the impact or sit myself down fast. I choose the latter. Everything ended up fine except my wrist, which went straight into the rock. It jammed it back pretty good and hurt constantly for about 3 days or so. To this day, it hurts every once in a while.
For none of these did I go to the doctors, though in retrospect, it might have been a good idea to check out, just in case. Oh well.
|