Water Mishap

[Malibuman]

Well heres a new one for ya. One of our young friends (25 -165#) got his wakeboard on as usual on platform and went to hop off into water as usual and grabbed rope as usual only this time rope got a loop in it some how and we guess his weight tightened the rope and it removed the end of his thumb at the first joint. Motor was not running and boat not moving! Looked for it for 30 minutes (his idea), then took him to hospital. Lesson learned, beware of rope!

Edited June 15, 2009 by Malibuman

[Faceplant409]

OUCH!

I'm always scared of that kind of thing...

Patrick

[CrazyTegger]

OUCH!

I'm always scared of that kind of thing...

Patrick

Holy crap. That's crazy.

[woody]

That is crazy!

We are alway mind of the rope and watch to make sure no ones toes/feet are in tangled up in it.

You never know when a freak accident like that will happen.

[Bill_AirJunky]

Wow, that really sucks. Hope he's OK.

The rope is probably the single most dangerous piece of gear we use. Yea, it's not sharp like a prop blade, foil wing or board fin, but it'll cause a lot of damage if your not careful. I use a CinchMax quick release for just this kind of thing. It's small, lightweight & doesn't require anyone to be really paying close attention.... just releases on it's own. I'm not sure if would release before a thumb gave way, but I know it's released when arms & foils get hooked in the rope/handle.

Years ago I had a friend in TX who had his two middle fingers taken by the rope. The story was he cut out to do a big laid out gainer, came around to regrab the handle & it got coiled up around his fingers & snatched them off a the first knuckle as the rope went taught. Word at the time was he never crashed, just let go of the handle & coasted till he sank. Come to find out his handle wasn't in the best of shape & was missing some of the plastic side pieces.

CompTech makes a really good release that is both manual & automatic.

Whatever you use, be careful with the rope. Inspect it for missing plastic protective pieces, and be aware of it at all times out on the water. It really sucks when someone gets their arm or leg caught in it.

[UWSkier]

What kind of rope was it? Spectra?

[MalibuNation]

Wish him the best of luck.

Seems like a lot of newbies and kids like to grab the rope just before someone is being pulled out of the water ... thinking they are helping ... no, no, no!

[Nicvtx]

last year the boat came round to me the rope got caught round my ankle and cut like 5 mm deep and ive got a massive scar their

not the best shot but you can sorta see it on my ankle

[wakeup]

Sorry to the person with the accident. That puts a big damper on the day. When you leave the platform with a wakeboard you sink pretty slow so that was really crazy. Plus typically the people in the boat normally hand you the handle right before you enter the water.

When we run wakeboard camps/events, we keep the rope coiled up on the sunpad and hand the handle to the person getting ready to slide off the platform. People in the boat should be the ones working out any problems with the rope, not the rider.

I mentioned this in several old posts, but we had a guy on our lake that was 16 years old at the time. He was coiling the rope around his arm while he was bringing it back in the boat. Motor was running, prop was turning, took his arm off.

Got to treat the rope with a lot of respect. Been many accidents surfing before surf type ropes came on the market.

[CedarLakeSkier]

Ropes are dangerous,

I'll preface this story with.. I hate tubes, but the things I do for my daughter....

She wanted to ride double tubes with me. Two ropes, two tubes. My wife was driving and wasn't familiar with pulling tubes. She was trying to wip the tubes out and made a turn... a sharp turn... The ropes went slack and I saw my rope cross over my daughter. Luckily I saw it happening and ditched my tube, but it started pulling tight just before I did. Small rope burn on my daughter but no major damage luckily.

My daughter got me back just recently (about a week ago), Playing basketball outside she broke my finger.... too long of a story for this thread

[beef]

Sorry to hear this. Same thing happened to a friend of mine last year while surfing. He was about to throw the rope but fell into a loop of rope - lost the thumb from the first joint up. (Didn't find his, either)

[arsenuts411]

Sorry to hear about this I amg lad that I read this though had no idea that such a thing could happen from the rope will be way more careful now and let everyone else know about the dangers of the rope

[Sixball]

Sorry to here it. with the rope being one of the biggest concerns in water sports. Three deaths in the last two or so years in slalom skiing that I know of.

I will say I do not jump off my swim platform or let any one else either. A larger person jumping from the swim platform puts a tremendous load on the mounting brackets and I don't want any stress cracks in my boat from that. It is also much safer to lower your self into the water for reason that are very obvious in this thread.

We had a foot amputated on our lake last year from a rope around the foot of a tuber slack rope and driver hits the throttle. I always take all the slack up very slowly.

[Bill_AirJunky]

I had a friend in the midwest who had a rope mishap a few years ago. They had just gotten done with their sets & were heading back to the marina. They had a SkySki sitting on the back of the engine cover. The rope was coiled up on the floor with the handle sitting by the SkySki. They must have gone thru some waves, bouncing around & no one noticed that the ski shifted back. At some point the ski dropped off the back of the boat while they were at speed. The handle must have been tangled up in the ski & took off with it. When the rope went taught, it snapped his big toe right off.

Of course it was complete mayhem at this point. Blood everywhere. Don screaming his fool head off. Trying to figure out what the heck just happened, and getting Don's foot wrapped in a towel to try & stop the bleeding. They got back to the marina & took care of Don. In the chaos they never found the toe.

Weeks later Don had the guys at the marina service dept get the boat cleaned up. In the process, they found the toe. And now they call that boat the "Official Toe Boat".

In the end Don is fine. Obviously he lost the big toe, which effects your balance. But other than not wearing open toed sandals, he doesn't let it slow him down. Still rides SkySki, slalom ski & snowboards. And walks with little or no effect.

Careful with those ropes boys & girls. There are more freaky rope stories to come.

[Sixball]

I had a friend in the midwest who had a rope mishap a few years ago. They had just gotten done with their sets & were heading back to the marina. They had a SkySki sitting on the back of the engine cover. The rope was coiled up on the floor with the handle sitting by the SkySki. They must have gone thru some waves, bouncing around & no one noticed that the ski shifted back. At some point the ski dropped off the back of the boat while they were at speed. The handle must have been tangled up in the ski & took off with it. When the rope went taught, it snapped his big toe right off.

Of course it was complete mayhem at this point. Blood everywhere. Don screaming his fool head off. Trying to figure out what the heck just happened, and getting Don's foot wrapped in a towel to try & stop the bleeding. They got back to the marina & took care of Don. In the chaos they never found the toe.

Weeks later Don had the guys at the marina service dept get the boat cleaned up. In the process, they found the toe. And now they call that boat the "Official Toe Boat".

In the end Don is fine. Obviously he lost the big toe, which effects your balance. But other than not wearing open toed sandals, he doesn't let it slow him down. Still rides SkySki, slalom ski & snowboards. And walks with little or no effect.

Careful with those ropes boys & girls. There are more freaky rope stories to come.

Not laughing at the incident but. Official Toe Boat!!!!!!!

[Hack]

Every time I read something like this it gives me the chills. We have two little ones that are too young to know better (5 and 3) so we're constantly on the look out. The three year old rides between my legs and the 5 year has been going by himself since he was 4. I still worry everytime he's in there....

Anyway, thanks for sharing and my thoughts and prayers go to you and your friend.

[D-GOOSE]

A local wakeboard school is teaching people to jump off the boat with the rope wrapped around there hand as seen in the pic below. This story ran in the Sac bee and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Dustin Auger, 19, of Shingle Springs jumps into the water off the Launch Wakeboarding School boat at Folsom Lake before he takes his run.

http://www.sacbee.com/photos/gallery/18792...ylink=lingospot

[WakeGirl]

It's on Folsom....need I say more?

[Maddox]

It's on Folsom....need I say more?

This sure beats mine. I was boarding, decided I was going to bite it so I tossed the handled forward. When I did it, the grip of the handle caught my fingernails and peeled 2 of them all the way back. Never been in the water without gloves since.

[obski]

I could tell some rope stories and what I had to put back together, but I will spare everyone.

We always take only the handle with us when entering the water with the rope coiled up in the boat.

[mellen_mpz]

Yikes......thanks for the stories guys. I have only been boating for about 3 years and never really thought about all these rope dangers.

My buddy went out on this past thurs, crashed doing a backroll and hit his face off his knee. Sent his bottom teeth right through his bottom lip! yikes Sucks that life is full of so many "Gotchas"

[JasonK]

Mellen, I had the same accident, same trick. Tooth thru my lip, chipped a tooth, cut my chin, and bit both sides of my tongue. But I don't remember what hit me.

[Sixball]

I was out Sunday morning with my neighbor and his son maybe 10 years old. The son is on a knee board having a great time. I saw he has his tongue out most of the time. I did suggest to the neighbor he may want to talk with his son about his tongue. I am thinking It is only time before it gets bitten.

[Jimmypooh]

There was an incident when I was younger that a guy was tubing with his family in the boat. He was was riding in the seated position and pulled himself closer to the boat while coiling the rope in his lap. He hit a bump and it went around his neck. I'll spare you the gory details unless you think they will help. Lesson learned early; don't mess around with that stuff. PM me if you want the full story.

[WakeGirl]

My only question is, did he survive?