Possible Injuries from Wakeboarding?

[Afun]

Well some estrogen and lots of testosterone in this thread. You have to crawl before you could walk. At 37 years of age, I now analyze the the things I do before I do them. Maybe a bit too much now that I am a father. Some people immediately questioned my courage by saying "if you are too worried" etc... Thanks for the good responses. I will give it my best shot, or maybe not at all.

[windy1]

50+ years old. I ride at 22mph. not that big of a stud

[tinman10]

I have a ripped out ACL. My ACL pulled away from my top bone and is not connected anymore. (Not rip or torn from the center) Tore both the medial and lateral meniscus also fractured my femur. Oh there's more... Tore my MCL and blew out my articulating cartridge on my femur all from taking a nasty hit wakeboarding. Yea me... Knee surgery is the only option. I was riding at 23mph 70 feet back just jumping wake to wake and not doing anything crazy. Just warming up for a day of riding. Anything can happen and everyone knows the risk from wakeboarding. Will I quit riding.... Don't count on it.

[Daren]

Significant wakeboarding injuries are not that common for people who don’t push their limits. You are only hearing from people that have gnarly stories to share or want to make the sport seem more extreme than it is. If you are just riding around doing small jumps, it’s probably no more dangerous than casually participating in any other outdoor sport (skiing, hiking, mountain biking, soccer, etc.). Don’t let people scare you. You probably won’t die, you will not likely lose your ability to provide for your family, and don’t worry about your wife - she is already angry.

[Deven]

You asked what could happen. All these things can happen. Do they happen all the time or very often? No. Do you need to be aware that there is a change it will happen? Yes.

[Afun]

Significant wakeboarding injuries are not that common for people who don’t push their limits. You are only hearing from people that have gnarly stories to share or want to make the sport seem more extreme than it is. If you are just riding around doing small jumps, it’s probably no more dangerous than casually participating in any other outdoor sport (skiing, hiking, mountain biking, soccer, etc.). Don’t let people scare you. You probably won’t die, you will not likely lose your ability to provide for your family, and don’t worry about your wife - she is already angry.

The first post that makes all the sense in the world. I agree, they may be some gnarly stories. No hard feelings with anyone. I love this forum.

[Levi900RR]

Only thing significant that has ever happened to me...

[Afun]

Only thing significant that has ever happened to me...

Take it easy out there. Hope you are OK

[Levi900RR]

I wear a helmet now

[footndale]

Ha, almost makes me not want to teach my daughter to wakeboard. All disciplines of skiing require proper dryland training. Most people don't do it.

Worst accident for me, kneeboarding. Nothing like taking a nose digger and your back snaping back.

My family show skis.Small injuries happen all the time. Key is good instrunction and athletic kids. Most of our kids injurys have been by bats and golf clubs.

[Afun]

Ha, almost makes me not want to teach my daughter to wakeboard. All disciplines of skiing require proper dryland training. Most people don't do it.

Worst accident for me, kneeboarding. Nothing like taking a nose digger and your back snaping back.

My family show skis.Small injuries happen all the time. Key is good instrunction and athletic kids. Most of our kids injurys have been by bats and golf clubs.

You have convinced me. I am going to hire an instructor using my own boat to teach me how to wakeboard. Why not. A couple of hours and a few bucks to teach me how to do things right.

Any Instructors in Knoxville....Please send me a private message. A Big Thanks

[tvano]

blood everywhere looks like a scene from Jaws.

hijack on.

reminds me of a tale i got a chuckle out of.

couple of the regular crew were out in mike's new boat with john at the wheel.

mike is on slalom, goes out the front, looses the ski and it hits him on the head.

gash, blood.

john won't let mike into mike's boat because he doesn't want blood in the new ride.

made me laugh out loud.

hijack off.

[Bill_AirJunky]

hijack on.

<snip>

hijack off.

OK, heres one.

Friend of mine in Indianapolis is a SkySki rider..... and an ER surgeon. Their out riding. His buddy is at the end of the rope, does a nasty scorpion where the foil comes back around & pops him in the back of the head. He's wearing a Gath helmet but the foil still manages to split his head open. They get him in the boat & do a little triage. Decide that he's going to be OK, stop the bleeding, bandage him up........ and then keep on skiing for another hour or so till it gets dark. Then they go into the clinic & put a couple of staples in his scalp.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Bill_AirJunky

[TrickyNicky]

I have to agree with most people here. Take the bubble wrap off. Yes you can get hurt wakeboarding just like any sport including tubing or surfing. You can also get injured stepping into your boat and slipping on the gunnel. But your aware of that so it probably hasn't happened. The term "you have to walk/crawl before you can run" is pretty dead on. So get out there and try wakeboarding, avoid going full ballast and throwing flips on your first times out and you'll be fine. Be warned your going to fall. To be completely honest your probably going to face plant and it will hurt. It happens. So you take a breather get out there and learn from your mistakes. I slalom, foot, wakeboard, surf, mountain bike, snowboard etc etc many at an advanced level including inverts and dropping big cliffs. Up until this year the only time I've had a hospital bracelet was the day I was born. And this year, my first serious injury was a slip playing hockey at the park with an 8 yr old which dislocated my shoulder. Basically, if you take the proper steps and know your limits, and be patient to advancing in the sports than you should be fine. Its the idiot that goes out on his first day and tries to be a hero that gets hurt the most.

[Simo]

A good instructional DVD like Detention helped me to not hurt myself. Well, that and now I don't wakeboard after drinking all day. But more importantly helped my 5 and 6 year old girls learn the proper mechanics and progression. I thinks Murray says something like " Don't try something unless you know you can land it"

BTW you and your children will probably get hurt at some point. Hurt not injured, hopefully. My oldest was doing a lot of side slides last year. She got a little compacent and caught an edge. It was a few days until she did another one.

good luck

[windy1]

we hacked around the first year, then took some good lessons and took off. I am all for good instuction at all levels.

[flapjack]

You have convinced me. I am going to hire an instructor using my own boat to teach me how to wakeboard. Why not. A couple of hours and a few bucks to teach me how to do things right.

Any Instructors in Knoxville....Please send me a private message. A Big Thanks

This is a good idea. Your kids learning proper form; you learning proper driving; etc. will make it more fun for all.

Injuries can happen, but they are lessened by good form. Good rope control, bent knees, etc.

[obski]

Tubing isn't a guarantee against injury. I've only had to leave the lake to make a trip to the emergency room a couple times in 20+ years of boating, and one of those trips was for a tubing injury.

I agree. I was the camp doctor for 12 yrs for our church HS houseboat camps at Shasta. We had up to 300 very active kids at a time. By far the most common injuries involved sewing up lacerations from tubing accidents. There were a few concussions from wakeboarding hits. A lot of other injuries happened just from being active around boats and on houseboats.

The key to preventing tubing injuries is to have responsible boat driving. Obviously injuries can still happen, but the driver can greatly influence them.

[edsvlx]

i'm 47 and all be up. but i'd rather face plant at 18 mph. Then to be back on a slalom at 32 -36 again. they both hurt so good

[nyryan2001]

john won't let mike into mike's boat because he doesn't want blood in the new ride.

made me laugh out loud.

hijack off.

I stayed on the platform bleeding everywhere till my buddy threw me my Tshirt to bleed on.... I took 1600mg of IB because my head was pounding... Drank a few beers and continued surfing. I texted a pic to my wife, she was furious, so then we went to party cove for the summer kick off party with a cool story and some street cred. Went to the dentist on Monday. Maybe that's why my lip is still not right.

[BlackBluMalibu]

50 MPH? Really? What a stud!

Yeah, I think he meant 50 plus years old... I'm in the same boat, but I love to wakeboard. Hope to be able to continue doing it until I'm 100 years old!!! :-)

Edited May 16, 2013 by BlackBluMalibu

[blakerea]

I tore cartlige in my knee wake boarding. Haven't had a serious injury skiing yet. Just gotten the breath knocked out of me. If you are worried about injuries maybe water sports aren't for you. I hear bananas are fun.

[Bosth]

You may be younger than me, but that's a simple question to answer. First of all, I am a father of two wonderful children. They are 5 and 2 years of age. I am also a husband to a 5'4 inches very angry only nice when she is sleeping wife. Also,I am the sole bread winner for my entire family. Anything that could interfere with the above, I seriously need to question.

Injuries go along with an active life style..

Try ice skating at the local rink for fun.. Slip, break a wrist, elbow, hip, ankle.. etc

How about bowling.. Stepped over the line into the lane.. slip, break a wrist, elbow, hip, ankle.. etc

Playing basketball with son in driveway.. roll and ankle, trip and break wrist, elbow, etc

Learning Ju Jitsu, broken nose, countless sore muscles and joints..

Or as I did.. slide outside the wake on the wrong side as the boat is circling back doing 15mph, wake rolls over front edge of wakeboard and twists knee.. Can't walk for a week and can't do anything for 5 months.

Only solution is sitting in the recliner watching golf. But who wants to do that...

[wakeparadise]

My worst injury to date is nothing to write home about but... Face plant HARD and semi-knocked out under water, when I came to I inhaled under water and basically was throwing up for an hour straight. Like someone else said... A few beers and I was back at 'er although still coughing up a lung for awhile.

[danadog]

Blew my ACL years ago landing out in the flats!