Snowboarding Injuries Snowboarding is a world-wide, fast growing Alpine sport, and the progress of aerial maneuvers qualifies them for consideration as an Olympic sport. You strap your boots onto the board and simply take off down the slope like a surfer riding a wave. But this sport may be the most hazardous to the rider since horse racing was invented. This is a relatively young sport, and it is proving to be a dangerous one, according to surveys from Loma Linda and San Diego in California, Australia, and Austria. The majority of the injured are men in their early 20s, and the injury rate is about double that of downhill skiers.
Broken wrists are the most common injury, and ankles are hurt more often than knees.
Snowboarders are not only dangers to themselves. Clearly there is a need for first rate protective equipment for the upper body and stable boots. Ski slope management and safety programs can learn from the newly emerging data collections on snowboard injuries. Copyright, American Running Association.