Thrillhouse

fuck man, what an awful thing to happen to you. i'm in my second full season after about 4 years of riding, the thought of hurting myself so badly that i couldn't put a board on anymore just makes my eyes well up thinking about it. i gave myself a minor concussion last year after going face first into a patch of ice and have worn a brain bucket ever since; your story makes me feel totally justified in doing so!

anyway, back to the thread. had my biggest bail ever yesterday hitting a kicker at way too much speed. as soon as i got to the lip i knew i was going too fast and was pissed at myself for not speed checking like i always do. next thing i know I'm sailing through the air horizontally with my board in front of me thinking 'oh shit oh shit oh shit, just go limp!'

luckily i managed to come down flat to the ground with my back and tailbone taking most of the impact before my head snapped back and connected hard. I'm sure i heard a crack of some kind and after a couple of seconds lying there scared to move i managed to get up and ride off giggling away to myself probably more out of shock than anything else. the pain started to set in over the rest of the day which i coped with thanks to a hip flask of scotch, was pretty immobile on the couch last night and quite stiff and sore today. probably would've been a different story without my helmet on that's for sure!

Music Moves

I've definitely been in those unfamiliar landing scenarios, but mostly because either visibility was low or the surface didn't appear to be in teh condition that it was in. I hope you make it back out, Alaric and thanks for sharing.

Last season was probably my scariest fall to date. It was a 2* day and the landings in the park were hard all around and straight ice in many spots. I was riding the entire mountain and just going down through the park and straight air grabbing all the hits, including gapping all the way over rails and boxes. I had gapped a flat pipe rail a few times already that day that had a nice poppy approach to it. It was situated beside a booter with about 25-30 feet of flat, so the rail was probably about 20 feet long with a long steep landing after (same landing as the booter). Upon leaving the lip, I somehow clipped the end of the rail (I think it had just become worn down throughout the day), but the base of my board is what hit it... I just barely caught it but it was enough to spin me backside 90* so that now my back is leading and I was very slowly flipping. I was probably 15 feet above the table and dropped about 10 or so below the knuckle, landing on my back on solid ice. My neck snapped back and my head slammed onto the ice (BUT I WAS WEARING A HELMET), I bounced off the ground and tehn slid for a bit.

I was in a stupid daze but immediately tried to get up and about 3/4 of the way up, I just fell forward. At that point I realized I couldn't breathe, my vision was severely blurred and my entire left side from my back down felt immobile, but... I tried to get up again and just fell again, trying desperately to catch my breath. By this time, two of the friends I ride with were down and one said "dude, just unstrap." I was determined to ride it out because it has just become ingrained in my head that you ride stuff out after almost 30 years of skating and 20 snowboarding. But I couldn't. I just chilled for a while and eventually walked off but I was groaning/yelling with each step. I wasn't far from a sled though and I eventually was driven to the area of our parking spot, but not before I proclaimed that I was going to keep riding.. ha, so stubborn.

I also had trauma to my kidney and pissed blood for a while, though I only let my riding friends know this... def not my girl or my family because they already worry about me way too much. And that sucks, not knowing when you have to piss but thinking you always have too! I had a broken rib and a concussion EVEN WITH A HELMET. I'm a big advocate of helmets for certain.

yuhaoyang

What are your guys' takes on ASTM 2040 vs EN/CE1077? (since a lot of this thread is about helmets)

I bought my helmet (that I'm still wearing, and thankfully haven't taken any big hits except for getting whiplashed into ice from a very small kicker last year) about 2002? Maybe? It was a Giro something for like $30 new and it says ASTM certified on it.

I was going to replace it last year after that hit, but noticed that 95% of helmets in stores now are EN/CE certification and have useless stuff like earbuds built in, and ASTM ones don't start till about the $100 mark. Even considering inflation, that helmet was the cheapest thing I could buy. The OCD me doesn't like the idea of wearing a EN only helmet lol.

Ski Helmets- Maintain Your Brain With A Ski Helmet here is an explanation if you aren't familiar with those standards.

And sadly the standards are nowhere near good enough that you won't get a concussion from hitting something hard =[

Brigius

I have only been riding for one season, but the worst crash I have seen was some guy on ski's trying to teach someone on the bunny hill and showing off while he did it. Well, needless to say he lost control and decided to see how the snowmaker worked... head first. He was carried away with a broken wrist, broken collar bone, a concussion, and he broke a ski in half. It was the lamest crash at a slow speed but he certainly ruined himself.

Dysantic

Worst I ever saw had to be the first day of the season about two years ago. I was with some roommates at the time who are all about the park. I'm not a big park kind of guy, but I went in with them to watch them hit the rails. While we were there, I saw a guy try to jump on a box, but his nose hit the front of the box and he went flying face first into the top of the box. He must have smashed out every one of his front teeth on that box. He was a bloody mess. Pieces of his pearly whites were everywhere and he was still concious somehow. He got up and spat out an entire mouthfull of blood.

Needless to say, I'm sure that guys dentist was happy. Everyone wants dentures at 22 right? lol

Swifty49

Dude, that is a brutal story and I'm really glad you shared it. I'm just getting into the sport this year and bought all my gear minus the helmet.

I told the wife I would consider getting one once I start hitting the harder slopes and the park... however there is absolutely no way I'm going to wait to buy a helmet after reading this; there's going to be a bucket on that melon before I hit my first slopes.

Again, thank you so much for sharing your story and I hope you'll recover from everything you suffered from that crash.

alaric

Thank you sir! For the most part, I'm recovered. The hardest part now is getting the guts and confidence back so I can hit the slopes again.

I'm glad you're getting a helmet! I know the temptations of buying online for good prices is there, but if you have local shops buy your helmet there for a couple reasons. 1, it supports the local community and that's cool 2, you want to try on as many as you can to find one that correctly fits you. Try different brands, different sizes and all that jazz. Make sure it fits correctly, or else it's no good. Don't be afraid to drop a little bit more cash on it if it is the helmet for you.

I'm definitely glad that you're wearing a brainbucket due in part to me sharing my story. I've always had trouble talking about that crash. A few members I was close with here (killclimbz being one of them) got PM's and phone calls a few weeks after letting them know what happened and that was about it. I have never been comfortable talking about it, but knowing that you're willing to wear a helmet now makes me feel 100% better that I shared it. So thank you!!!

/endrant.

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Swifty49

Believe me, it's not going to be a cheap bucket. I play hockey every week and the second helmets came out as a 1-piece (instead of 2 pieces held together by screws) with the foamy/squishy inserts, I went out and bought one.

I'm not sure why I was hesitant to buy one right away, perhaps because I figured I'd look like a goofball... but for once in my life, I'm going function over fashion, in large part due to your story.

Again man, the thanks all go to you, not the other way around.

jjz

My worst accident so far has been really minor, i was in a group lesson and people were riding behind me in glades (which i now realize is stupid) and it was one of those shitty glades with a thin path and no other good path and i didnt want to speedcheck to much because of the people behind and i hit a patch of ice and i went flying and had to turn sideways to avoid hitting my head and i hit my ribs on a tree, bruised but not badly it wasnt so bad but ever since then i have been super hesitant and slow in glades.

corneilli

My worst accident was on my first snowboarding trip on the first day. I pushed myself a little bit to far by already trying to link turns on ice, hit the ice really bad with my knee :/ So, my knee was like totally blue but I had no pain so I just kept on snowboarding for the rest of the vacation. Back home, my mom like freaked out when she saw my knee xD We went to the hospital and apparently I had broken my knee xD Then I had a little surgery the week after (they sucked away the blood and cleaned the inside of my knee). But I was fine