- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- home style today articles
- home style today q&a
- traveling today articles
- traveling today q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Snowboarding Thrills, Chills and Risk
U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Doctor on Prevention of Common Injuries
Snowboarding is America's fastest-growing winter sport, with participation levels doubling over the past five years alone. But with so many winter sports enthusiasts becoming first-time snowboarders, the risks of snowboard-related injuries are rising just as rapidly.
"Snowboarding is perhaps the most mainstream of any 'extreme' sport, and certainly the biggest trend in winter sports for the past 10 years," says Dr. Kevin Plancher, official orthopedic surgeon for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard teams and a leading sports orthopedist in the New York metropolitan area. "It is also fraught with injury risk, for a number of reasons," says Dr. Plancher.
According to the National Sporting Goods Association, snowboarding participation rates doubled over the past five years, from 3.3 million Americans in 1999 to 6.6 million in 2004. At the same time, alpine skiing rates declined more than 20 percent, from 7.4 million people in 1999 to 5.9 million in 2004. "Skiers may be moving on to snowboarding as their next winter sports challenge," says Dr. Plancher. "Often, expert skiers assume that they can easily make the transition to snowboarding with the skill-set they already have, but this thinking can lead to injury."
That's because the biomechanics used for each sport are completely different. "Skiers have free use of both legs, and most amateur alpine skis offer self-release bindings," says Dr. Plancher. "Snowboards require both legs to be bound to one board, and most of them do not offer self-release bindings. That changes the areas of the body that are at highest risk for injury, as well as the types of injuries that are most likely to occur."
For example, while knee injuries – particularly to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) – represent a significant percentage of serious skiing injuries, hurting a knee while snowboarding is uncommon, simply because the range of motion in the knee is limited when both legs are bound to the board. Instead, Dr. Plancher identifies the following areas of the body as high-risk for snowboarders:
