killclimbz

Found a pretty interesting article in the Vail Daily today.

Skiers versus snowboarders: Who gets injured more? | VailDaily.com

So snowboarding has a slightly higher injury rate. I don't think that is any big surprise. The article is a summary not very high detail.

Still there is an interesting quote at the end of the article.

Fuel to the fire?

swilber08

id like to see some actual data and charts rather than just a summary

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killclimbz

It's all I got. I am sure there is more statistical data available from the doc and the group that did the study.

A lot of the data already coincides with the date from ski injury. So I don't find anything substantially flawed in it at a glance.

poutanen

SOOOOOOO many variables it's next to impossible to say.

What percentage of snowboarders report their injuries or seek medical attention? Same for skiers?

What is the typical length of time off from the sport for the average injury for each sport?

What are the demographics of the area in question? Could be more boarders than skiers, hence the higher percentage of injuries.

To me a more interesting study would be the severity of snowboard injuries vs. ski injuries given the same type of accident/fall. Some people feel scared to "have their feet locked in" to a snowboard, but I think this is what helps prevent many leg injuries in snowboarders vs. skiers. The legs support each other in a crash.

TBomb

That pretty much sums it up right there













Just kidding...not hating on the young ladies out there

killclimbz

I do believe these were injuries requiring medical attention.

Snowboarding has a long documented history of having a slightly more injury prone rate than skiing based on per user day. All that data you are looking for is contained within the ski injury site. I can only lead you to water...

AcroPhile

The article mentions that "22 percent of snowboard injuries occur in the terrain park while compared with 6.5 percent of ski injuries." but it doesn't account for, or mention, the percentage of snowboarders riding terrain park vs percentage of skiers riding terrain park. I think this skews the statistics and inflates the number of snowboard injuries. If terrain park were taken out of the equation, I wonder how the injury rates would compare. Beyond the initial learning period where wrist injuries are most common for snowboarders, I am willing to bet that most snowboard injuries are terrain park related.

ThunderChunky

I feel like snowboarders fall a lot more often and get hurt more, but when skiers do fall it's really bad.

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killclimbz

That is my general opinion. Skiers do knees. Fuck that. I'd much rather break a wrist or do a rotator cuff. Of course head injuries do tend to be higher with snowboarders, that is no bueno.

The terrain park thing, that is a tough one. I'd be interested to know how they were comparing it. The only real way to do it is by skier days spent in the park, not on a percentage of users.

poutanen

Looked all over the article and google searched the Journal Article mentioned but found no data. Nevertheless, even if you have a high injury rate per user day of snowboarders vs. skiers, there are still too many variables to say snowboarding is more likely to injure you.

I'm guessing that the skier demographic is on average older and potentially more conservative than snowboarders.

What I don't like is that someone may reach the wrong conclusion reading these stories. If you're just looking at getting into snow sports, and see these articles, you may be inclined to think that you're more likely to get injured learning to snowboard than learning to ski. But this article, and none of the stats I've ever seen can reach that conclusion. I highly doubt there's ever been a controlled study, of an equal sample of people learning to snowboard vs. an equal sample of people learning to ski (ie. same age, physical ability, comfort with risk taking, etc.)

The articles can't say that "person X" is more/less likely to injure themselves in one sport than the other, all they can say is that the average snowboarder is more likely to injure themselves than the average skier. It's an interesting statement but at the same time doesn't really say anything.