Wakeboarding hurts

[Cueball]

IDK, hope not for me. On vacation at Little Lake Shuswap in 2005 and on another vacation at Priest Lake there were these "old guys" probably 60s+ out every morning for their slalom set. Retired and skied every day of the summer. I am hoping that will be me when I get to that age. My buddies Mt. Bike guide in AZ for some guided riding were guy's in their 70's. Ride everyday, keep active, get to meet interesting people that like the same things you do. Riding the Gondola at Crystal Mt.I was with a whole bunch of retired Patrollers, in their 60's and 70's hitting the mountain seveal times/week. It's all in your attitude and risk management so you can go another day.

What I mean is............I always figured that I would be one of those "old guys" some day.............Out on the slopes in the winter and on a wakeboard or slalom ski all summer well into my 60's.

It's just been a rough summer for me. Arthritis in my spine causing a pinched nerve which has caused numbness / weakness down my right arm and into my hand. Then the busted kneecap. I just feel like if it's like this @ 45, I'm never going to be able to do it @ 60!?

[shawndoggy]

getting diagnosed with arthritis when I was 29 was the best thing that ever happened to me. Once we got the pain under control I wanted to use what I had left right now before it was gone.

[happypappy]

What I mean is............I always figured that I would be one of those "old guys" some day.............Out on the slopes in the winter and on a wakeboard or slalom ski all summer well into my 60's.

It's just been a rough summer for me. Arthritis in my spine causing a pinched nerve which has caused numbness / weakness down my right arm and into my hand. Then the busted kneecap. I just feel like if it's like this @ 45, I'm never going to be able to do it @ 60!?

Getting older sucks!! And is not for the weak!!! I always think of the movie NORTH DALLAS FORTY with Nick Nolte..as he wakes up that morning, he has flash backs to the football game he just played in and the hits he took....thank God for aspirin, DMSO, Tylenol, etc.

[Fman]

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I'm not doing the same thing any more. I finally got smart & started doin it right & stickin my tricks!

And thanks to guys who rode the old equipment, and proved it wasn't strong enough, the equipment sold now days is far stronger & doesn't break.

No pain, no gain.

lol, not sure what you do for a living, but I already abuse my body enough at work. And unfortunately I get to see many accidents while working that involve people doing hobbies and having fun... you see enough injuries from them and realize we are all prone to injuries and nobody is super human. I think its all balancing your life and knowing your limitations, and risk vs. reward.

Wakeboarding is a young mans game, surfing is definitely for all ages to enjoy. My youngest son always wears a helmet wakeboarding, he is peogressing and inverts are coming soon... ahh, to be 10 years old again!

[isellacuras]

I'm looking forward to my 60's and being "one of those guys. I have been a "fat guy" for a long time and a "fat kid" before that. Heck, i was born at 12lbs. They called me 6F. Fairly fit fat f*#%er from Folsom. 2 years ago I was over 325 pounds, still jumping w2w mtn biking, snow boarding, kite surfing and more. September of 2011 I got my s*** together cause I was tired of being tired. I've been able to get down to 245 and now stuff doesn't hurt so bad. Looking forward to get inverted next weekend for the first time at 41. I feel better now than when I was 30.

[Big Jay D]

Because when you start jumping on a foil, the falls are exponentially worse than they are on a wakeboard.

BS!!!

[dalt1]

BS!!!

I agree Bill, I have had more people hurt surfing than foiling! 3 Surfing (Boated and bleeding) than foiling injuries. (Maybe 1 boated, me,no blood, back tweaked).

[shawndoggy]

LOL, how about tubing. I explain to my kids' friends' parents when their kids come home with fat lips that tubing is like sledding... you know it's time to go home when someone is bleeding.

[Lance B. Johnson]

I agree Bill, I have had more people hurt surfing than foiling! 3 Surfing (Boated and bleeding) than foiling injuries. (Maybe 1 boated, me,no blood, back tweaked).

Wow dalt that's not a very good surfing record. After all this time surfing 3-4 times a week many weeks starting in April ending in October there's been one injury on our crew. That was me of course. And that injury didn't even ruin the week end.

[WakeGirl]

BS!!!

I agree Bill, I have had more people hurt surfing than foiling! 3 Surfing (Boated and bleeding) than foiling injuries. (Maybe 1 boated, me,no blood, back tweaked).

Guys, notice what I said: when people start jumping on a foil. Learning to jump a foil usually results in pretty epic crashes that are much worse than wakeboarding crashes tend to be. Learning to ride a foil is a different thing entirely.

[petrie141]

Background - I've got a crappy shoulder (which is what lead me to start surfing 99% of the time). A random injury when I was younger lead to a life time of shoulder subluxation instances which pole vaulting and wakeboarding definitely didn't help.

We're opening a new campus soon and I had the duty of ordering new classroom equipment. Once the items started to arrive I would use a pallet jack to move them around in our current building. One random Wednesday, a load of tool chests arrived at our door. Once they were on the jack they felt pretty heavy (2,500 pounds I later found out), but I managed to move them around without any injury. And then... it happened. I had used a heavy rug to hold open a door so that I could move the jack around easily. Once it was time to put the rug back, I took it outside to shake it off. With one big shake I not only got the dust off the rug but also partially dislocated my shoulder... ONLY ONE SHAKE!!! How did I manage to move around tool chests that weighed just over a ton, but I can't shake out a stinking rug???

Brother in law's story:

Rocking out one night he decided to jump over the couch. He landed on the hardwood floor and dislocating his shoulder. A few years later he tried a jumping jack with the same result.

Edited August 3, 2013 by petrie141

[Fman]

LOL, how about tubing. I explain to my kids' friends' parents when their kids come home with fat lips that tubing is like sledding... you know it's time to go home when someone is bleeding.

We had the most injuries on the boat this year from tubing! Its basically a legal way for parents to brutally punish there kids and friends!

[Bill_AirJunky]

lol, not sure what you do for a living, but I already abuse my body enough at work. And unfortunately I get to see many accidents while working that involve people doing hobbies and having fun... you see enough injuries from them and realize we are all prone to injuries and nobody is super human. I think its all balancing your life and knowing your limitations, and risk vs. reward.

Wakeboarding is a young mans game, surfing is definitely for all ages to enjoy. My youngest son always wears a helmet wakeboarding, he is peogressing and inverts are coming soon... ahh, to be 10 years old again!

I agree that balance in your life is key. I'm a computer geek for a living. The most strenuous thing I do is pull a monitor out of the box & install it on someone's desk. Actually I did a complete office swap last week.... used some of my old furniture moving skills from when I was younger to move a pair of 72" double ped desks.... solo. My help didn't arrive till later & the girls wanted it done ASAP. So I dig up a dolly from the warehouse & busted the desks out by myself. I must have had 8 people ask me when my job description changed.

Wheres Chance or Smitty when you need them? A couple of old buddies of mine are well into their 40s & doin big board tricks all day long. We all agree that surfing is OK, but has no excitement in it.

[isellacuras]

We all agree that surfing is OK, but has no excitement in it.

Amen!!! Most excitement in my crew while surfing is when someone gets close to getting sucked out the back and works their way back into it. Fun but not exciting.

[Cueball]

I guess I am officially feeling like an "old guy" @ 45.

I've always gone 110% with whatever I am doing...........trying to advance my skills or ability etc. He77, I can't stand my workplace because management is happy to shoot for mediocre and accept half-a**ed.

It appears that I either need to tone down my enthusiasm with wakeboarding or start a serious intake of painkillers, and so forth. Or take up surfing or fishing, or bridge, or bingo..............??????

[UWSkier]

I agree on knowing when to let go. Having held on to some out of shape turns on the slalom ski in my early 20s only to look like I skied over a floating mine when I hit the wake has taught me when to bail. It's just a feel thing. I don't even have to think it anymore.

[Big Jay D]

Guys, notice what I said: when people start jumping on a foil. Learning to jump a foil usually results in pretty epic crashes that are much worse than wakeboarding crashes tend to be. Learning to ride a foil is a different thing entirely.

I still disagree. I can imagine that self learned jumps on a foil can be hard at first. A few face plants are going to happen but any wake jump to toe side whip splat on a wake board will trump that. I go VERY big on a hydrofoil and I will still take falling from the sky at 15 feet over a hard cut, wake to wake edge grab whip splat any day of the week. For the most part if you get to the point that you can land with the foil between you and the water it's not going to hurt too bad. The wings act like shock absorbers. The other thing about the hydrofoil is you don't come out of it when you crash. It's darn near physically impossible to get hurt from the hydrofoil when crashing. How many head gashes do you see from wake boarding and surfing? LOADS! Not to mention the multiple ankle/knee injuries that just don't happen on a hydrofoil. I know everyone has heard of the random femur snap just from getting up on a wake board.

Now I'm not saying that the foil can't bite you. But learning to jump a foil at 18-20 mph is not going to hurt near as bad as learning to jump a wake at the same speed. I had a very short wakeboard career because of whip splats.

Now lets talk about what it takes to go BIG on a wakeboard and compare that.

Can you tell I'm a little biased? Until I picked up a foil I was wakebored. Yes I spelled that right.

[obski]

One of the best, but most painful, experiences of my life was the week I spent at The Boarding School in Florida 5 years ago when I was 50 (just short of 51). I have never been so beat up in my entire life. I had a great time and came away feeling confident with some basic wakeboarding skills. I also came away with the realization that I will never be able to land inverts. I am no longer willing to have my body pay the price to progress. I am ok with that. I still enjoy boarding, but now as a relaxing diversion from my real passion, slalom skiing.

I keep pushing myself on the ski, but even with that, I stay within my skill level, because I don't want to have to recover from an injury. Been there and done that, and it doesn't get any easier with age. I am skiing better now than I ever have. Same with snow skiing. I manage risk and ave a great time.

[Pnwrider]

I crashed pretty hard yesterday. New wakeboard, took a couple easy cuts before going for it and paid the price. One of my worst falls and my wife didn't even get it on video! Because of that crash I decided not to take the boat out today. Not sure if I had a concussion, but definitely pretty bad whiplash. Ended up surfing the rest of the day after that crash. Seems like everytime I'm on a wakeboard I get whiplash. I tend to agree in that surfing isn't exciting, but it definitely doesn't hurt like wakeboarding.

[Michigan boarder]

I guess I am officially feeling like an "old guy" @ 45.

I've always gone 110% with whatever I am doing...........trying to advance my skills or ability etc. He77, I can't stand my workplace because management is happy to shoot for mediocre and accept half-a**ed.

It appears that I either need to tone down my enthusiasm with wakeboarding or start a serious intake of painkillers, and so forth. Or take up surfing or fishing, or bridge, or bingo..............??????

I'm with you on all of that, it's my life's story. Our company enjoys putting me in ridiculous situations to manage because they know I'll get too bored otherwise. I've gone to my boss, during peak activity, and said "This is great, but I've got X, Y and Z covered with A, B and C. D, E, and F and the variables that will be managed by me, G, H and I. So, I'm kinda looking for something else..do you have anything else for me to do?" I can't imagine not applying the same enthusiasm towards everything.

Rather than tone down your watersports, ramp up your workouts instead, that's my approach.

[shawndoggy]

One of the best, but most painful, experiences of my life was the week I spent at The Boarding School in Florida 5 years ago when I was 50 (just short of 51). I have never been so beat up in my entire life. I had a great time and came away feeling confident with some basic wakeboarding skills. I also came away with the realization that I will never be able to land inverts. I am no longer willing to have my body pay the price to progress. I am ok with that. I still enjoy boarding, but now as a relaxing diversion from my real passion, slalom skiing.

I keep pushing myself on the ski, but even with that, I stay within my skill level, because I don't want to have to recover from an injury. Been there and done that, and it doesn't get any easier with age. I am skiing better now than I ever have. Same with snow skiing. I manage risk and ave a great time.

This was my experience from the boarding school too. It was like I got my butt kicked by a pack of ninjas for a week. And it also confirmed I will never ever be considered "good" after watching the instructors ride.

[shawndoggy]

I have a SERIOUS case of old man disease this morning. We changed the ballast configuration on our boat a bit this weekend and I was getting a lot more air than usual. Crashed a few and I'm feeling it today!

[Fman]

^^^ Nice air!!! did you land it? Hopefully on the downside of the wake!

[shawndoggy]

^^^ Nice air!!! did you land it? Hopefully on the downside of the wake!

Landed both but crashed on a few others. Sore Everywhere today!

[JB-FOOT]

Took one of the worst falls of my life on Monday. Why does it seem like you get racked the worst on the easiest tricks? I never take bad falls doing 3's 180's, backrolls etc. Simple healside wake to wake got off axis and caught heelside edge on the landing and pulled muscles in my neck and my insides hurt, I am sore all over. I had a headache so bad I threw up. I am seriously thinking about hanging up the wakeboard and just surfing. I still enjoy it but now have a two year old and grown up stuff to think about.

This why I quit wake boarding and still barefoot....falls are not nearly as bad.....yes I am serious about that statement. ....