First Major Crash Today
 

So me and a couple of buddies loaded up after work today and headed down to the river to get some sets in. We have only been riding for a couple weeks and I was really trying to work on my heelside w2w's today. I had got to where I could get half to three quarters of the way and land them pretty consistently, but I was getting frustrated with not making if so I pretty much said "F it" and hit the wake as hard as I could.

Now I've had some pretty good slams in the past with catching an edge and stuff like that, but I've never taken a fall like I did today. I launched myself waaaay out into the flats but apparently had my weight too far forward and just never could get the board under me. I landed with the board nose first and basically cartwheeled through the water, or so it felt. I instantly felt my knee give and I thought I had blown an ACL for sure, and on top of that I felt like someone had dropped an anvil on my head.

As I sit here typing this probably 5 hours later, my knee has shown great improvement and no longer feel like I have any major injuries, just tweaked it pretty good. Don't get me wrong, it is very sore and I will be taking a few days off before strapping up again, but it's a relief that I don't have any major damage inside there. I'm still frustrated that I haven't nailed a w2w, but I think I may go back to working my way up to it instead of taking the "all balls" approach again :eek:... Anyways, I just wanted to share my story with you guys. Anyone else with some major crash stories, I would love to hear them.

Knocked myself out cold on an ollie 180........ sounds dumb right
But I'd just landed my first one maybe 2 sets previous, and there was a loose wire on our perfect pass, the rollers on one turn knocked off perfect pass and the boat was doing in excess of 45kmph (28mph) (boat driver was chatting up a girl, not paying attention). I over thought the trick, did not ollie properly and caught my toeside edge and BOOM, out cold, no vision for a minute or two, serious headache. The boat came staright back and said I was just lying there face down like a starfish!

I spent the day in the hospital after getting KOed from catching front edge on a heel 3 Mother's Day this year... forgot 2 weeks of my life because the swelling in my brain was so severe... still don't remember even waking up that day.

Last weekend my buddy caught front on a toe back 1... was unconscious for almost 10 minutes, not breathing for 2 or 3.... had to have compressions on the sundeck to get the water out of his lungs before he started breathing again.

Scary stuff.

Wow, yea I thought mine was bad but it wasn't anything like that. That's pretty serious there... I'm determined to get these w2w's down. I've been struggling with them so far. That was really only my third time out riding though so I guess that's to be expected. I just want to get to where I can jump and clear the wake consistently without my landings being so sketchy everytime. Then I can stark working on grabs and stuff.

Ya, been there a few times. Gotta take your bumps and bruises though to progress.

Sounds as if you had to much weight over your front foot when you came across. I did that the other night and wasn't sure if I would be able to get the board back under my feet but I did. It sure hurts the front foot/leg when you do that....usually followed by a good slap of the board on the water.

Yea it was rough. My knee was really sore and stiff when I woke up this morning. I think what I did was I let the handle get out in front of me on the takeoff and kind of got hunched over a little bit instead of standing tall and stiff and it just pulled me over the front. Then when I hit the water the board kind of flipped over me and twisted my knee a bit. It's all good though. I'll be ready to hit it again this weekend.

Every good rider I know has been crushed on more than one occasion. Be ready for more if you want to improve. Wakeboarding is definitely the "school of hard knocks" to get good.

I've had multiple concussions on various levels, sprains to knees and ankles, arms through the handle, stitches on various parts of my body, broken ribs, strains to shoulders and back.... The list goes on. In the end it's worth it. Luckily once you get better it happens a lot less. Unfortunately it'll still happen if you get lazy or just at random.

Good luck man... Wake to wake is more technique than speed. Once you figure it out you'll wonder why it was so difficult for you. My best advice it to ride with better riders. Have them dial your boat, speed and rope length in. I had a friend that was really struggling. I rode behind his boat and was like "DUDE, this wake is all jacked up. We had to shorten the rope, move weight around and pick up the speed.

did my first couple raley attempts this year! :)... all went well when I wasn't strapped into bindings!... landing super clean on my feet every time!... strapped the board back on... sketched out like a mad man... came up short on two attempts... once catching my back edge and ripping my board off... and once catching my front edge knocking the wind clean out!... still trying to balls up to try again :) ha... why do I wakeboard? :)

Yea I guess that goes with any sport. I've raced motocross my whole life and have certainly taken some beatings to get to where I am today. Like you said though, it's all worth it in the end... I just REALLY want to dial in this w2w. Once I get that dialed it will open up the door to a lot more things.

Crashing = Learning!

Well I learned a hell of a lot yesterday then...