Got caught in the rope...
 

On my last session for the season, I end up bailing and somehow got caught up in the rope. I'm using a basic surf rope from inland surfer. I'm not sure if it's because I was surfing backside with my heels to the wave (didn't feel like moving the sacks). Probably got dragged for 5-10 seconds before the crew saw me signaling to kill-it. Luckily I had a wetsuit top on so that prevented rope burn. The rope got caught up almost in my armpit. My tricep is bruised really bad and arm swollen purple down to my elbow. I think what happened is I sort of slapped the rope with my back arm as I went down and it looped around once and got caught at the handle. As soon as the boat stopped I slipped out easy but my arm was in some serious pain. Anyway just a heads up and maybe we can talk about some tips to prevent this from happening again.

Was the rope and handle in good condition?

Also, do you choke up on the rope and then let go? If so, adjust the rope shorter so you don't have to choke up to let go, that helps a lot. We will also pull the rope slack up for riders, especially beginners so that they don't have to choke up, leaving that extra rope dangling where it can get caught in something.

Hope you heal quick. ;-)

Yeah it's a brand new rope and I probably pulled 4 feet up the rope, so that's a lot of rope to manage. I learned a lesson the hard way but I'm glad it was me and not one of the girls.

We have tried many ropes, but the best is the first one we bought. Using it since 2007 and its still in great condition.

http://www.amazon.com/2011-20-Surf-R.../dp/B005DHPLDQ

You can see there is foam padding around the triangle rope part about the handle, it also has removable sections to make it shorter as needed. Other ropes we have used, seen, including the inland rope, just don't hold up as well.

Sorry to hear about your incident, I take out all slack on mine. It aint worth coiling 3-4' of extra rope to get where you want to be. My rope is short but I aint coiling it, Ive worried about the extra length whipping around catching a leg or arm even when holding it. My crew and I now generally just toss the rope to the other side of the wave and let it drag on that side till someone can grab it and pull it in. Its not worth coiling it up and tossing it. Also, I love, love, love my Knotted rope for the safety factor. There is absolutely no chance of getting a body part caught.

http://www.amazon.com/Proline-Super-...2&sr=1-2-fkmr1

Just do slow starts and your hands will be just fine. If you hammer it...no es bueno :D

I have had the rope pulled thru my armpit a couple times and once had it wrap around my lower leg/knee. this is when we were just learning. Now our rope is shorter and I agree with the knotted rope idea. I would hate to lose a limb!

The knotted rope seems safer, we just prefer the handle. We haven't had any incident with the accurate rope. Just gotta watch out when people choke up. Good to be reminded of the issue.

Now that I think about it, I think the chances of getting tangled in the rope increased because I had my heelside to the wave. That meant the slack rope was dangling across and closer to my body. When your toes face the wave you tend to hold the rope farther away and it doesn't cross your body towards the boat.

everytime I got the rope burns, I was also riding heelside

This happened on our boat a few weeks ago, except we weren't quite as lucky. A buddy of mine brought his sister out with us for an afternoon surf session. On the last run of the day she fell and immediately started screaming. It was probably one of the worst feelings I've ever experienced, I could feel the boat hesitate for a second, almost like someone was pulling hard on the rope while cutting outside the wake on a wake board. Anyways, by the time I got turned around and pulled up to her, she had her hand sticking up out of the water and it was covered in blood. We got her up on the swim platform and had her wrap it up with my shirt and told her not to look at it. We got her to the hospital about 30 minutes later and she ended up having surgery the next day. Luckily it was only her thumb that got caught up and not her whole hand or arm. It ended up taking about a half inch of skin/bone/fingernail off, but she will make a full recovery. I have a picture of it after the surgery, but it's still pretty nasty looking.

We were also using a regular wakeboarding rope to surf, which in hindsight, was a horrible decision. I just hate that it took something like this happening for us to realize it. I ended up going out and buying a real wakesurf rope the next day, which is much more comfortable than the wakeboarding rope anyways.

Man that really sucks to hear. It must have hurt more than my experience. Wakeboard rope definitely is more dangerous.