Broken Leg (femur) Trying to get up.

Long story short. A newbie/aquaintance broke his right femur yesterday while trying to get up. This was only his second time ever trying. He said he heard something snap and thought the binding broke off the board, then felt a slight, sharp pain. Anyone ever seen or heard of this?

What!!!!!!

That's insane, never heard of that before, he might have had a pre-existing condition or just really weak muscles and bones.

Hopefully he makes a speedy recovery, wish him well.

Wow...makes me want to hit the Gym and start stretching and strength trainning!

he is 180lbs and all muscle.. very tone.. but htat was sorta my thoughts, he must have a pre-existing condition......

I have heard of this before. The guy that told me he broke his femur trying to get up said the driver punched it hard and he felt his leg snap. I didn't believe him at the time, but I could see how that could happen if you are jolted hard enough through the water.

Wouldn't it be more than a slight pain?

should have told him to "walk it off"

"GOT MILK"

Damn that sucks, I broke my fib. I tried to walk it off on the swim platform, this resulted in me falling back in the water. The next year when I broke my other leg I knew better and crawled in the boat.

I've heard of it before also. Very strange, but apparently possible. It's always the newbies that do it. Likely a result of trying to muscle it to get up instead of having proper technique.

osteoperosis? Holy smokes that is terrible, and I thought breaking your femur was supposed to be the most pain ever, if any of you have heard brian regan's comedy routine u would know what i am talking about

I have heard of it. Same exact thing a first timer trying to get up. He was a bodybuilder too in great shape.

Those huge guys often have put their bodies through significant stress working out and are more prone to load related injuries of the skeletal structure also tendon tears. No offense to anyone but steroids also have been shown to cause bone density problems. It could have also simply been a bone lesion. To all those injured I wish you a speedy and successful recovery.

Someone here posted that their orthopedist told them if you land with your weight behind your knees in a somewhat sitting position the force of that leveraged position makes it very easy to break the femur. If you visualize someone strong in that sitting position on a wakeboard in the water trying to muscle it up like a slalom ski you can almost see that happening. This is the second time I've heard about someone breaking their femur trying to get up for the first time on a wakeboard.

When Chris broke his he was somewhat in that crouched, sitting position, casing the back side of the wake, with all his weight on his front leg/heelside edge.

So it sounds like the force that occurs when one is in that position concentrates on the femur. If anyone has a more scientific explanation I'd like to hear about it. It's a nasty bone to break with a long recovery time unfortunately.

Well since I broke my leg a few weeks ago, I can attest to the slight pain. When it gave it sounded like someone breaking a broomstick over my leg, except it was my knee (Tibia fractured in six places). I knew instantly it was broken, but didn't know what part. At least I can say I did it going big on a Tantrum. When I was 16 I broke my femur and it was not very painful either. Come to think of it, every bone I have ever broken was not that painful. The pain comes during rehab...and speaking of that I need to go and ride my MTB up a big hill.

HAHA innov8, you beat me to it. Good one.

Scott- actually those big guys you refer to MAY have some of the strongest bones, tendons, and ligaments in the world. If they are training properly, the increased stress from lifting and training has been PROVEN to increase bone density as well as increase tendon and ligament size and strength. This is because when a person strength trains, the body becomes stressed in the area that is being worked, thus it increases protein synthesis to build muscle, increases calcium deposits on the bone, and stimulates collagen production to build up tendons and ligaments.

That is my scientific explanation of why he DIDN'T break it because he was too strong. My guess is that there was a pre-existing condition. Don't let this story keep you out of the weight room, strenght training will help prevent injuries, not cause them.

The same thing happened to our neighbor. She broke it and had a metal rod in it for a while

We brought a guy in 2 years ago that broke his trying to get up. We were out with Nick and Julz when they were up here in louisville. He was in some cold water for about 45 minutes and we thought he was going to die when we picked him up. He made it, but it was pretty scary. He owes Nick and Julz for probably saving his life.

steroids suck!

Cade- You hit the nail on the head man. "training properly" which is not that many. I am not going to argue that proper training will help prevent injuries. I work out a couple days a week and have maintained the same body fat and weight for over 10years. I will argue that there is more "scientific" data showing larger lifter have decreased bone density and more degenerated tendon fibers. You can make what ever correlations needed. I can also asure you my post doesn't come out of thin air(not saying yours does at all not slinging mud) It has very good schooling and professional experience behind it.

Scott, could you please share what your "very good schooling and professional experience" is telling you? I am definitely someone who works a desk job is 35 and probably wouldn't be doing the things I am doing unless I worked out. So I am curious, because you claim "not that many" are "training properly". Your first comment almost shouts, don't go to the gym or you'll get hurt.

I know this is a little different, but from the same type of force.....
Last year my wife tore her right hamstring completely, when trying to get up on double ski's. I was driving and when I eased into the throttle, she started up and then came forward over the top of the skis when she was half way out of the water. Her ski's were not really that far out of position when it happened, and she said her hamstring just popped. She handles pain extremely well, but she obviously thought her leg was broken when it happened. Its been a long recovery and she won't ever being skiing doubles again, so hopefully she can learn to wakeboard without a related type of injury while learning.

As I said there is nothing wrong with going to the gym. I would encourage everyone to strength train and stretch. It is when you try to get huge that things go wrong.At 30 myself you will find me working out too. A large part of that is attributed to chemical use and or abuse. I will also say that I am just as quilty with improper training. Having suffered a stress fracture to my tibia from over training. It is often the passion or greed that makes us lift more weight then we should do that extra set. As for experience and schooling. I was a semi professional cycle rider for 6 years and trained and some of the best facilities in CO, SC, GE. I was an AFA certified trainer. Schooling is via my girlfriend who read my other two post first Emory University for Physical Therapy and Athletic training. As like everything else on here though I think people take things to the next level. Again I am not in anyway saying don't go to the gym. I am simply saying don't use the juice and don't try to be a meat head.

...got injured more when I was lifting heavy weights....I think my body was over trained at that time.......in any event if you wakeboard alot I recommend easing up on the weight lifting....your body needs to recover at some point.....but if you keep slamming it something is going to give.

A friend of mine broke his leg 2 years ago on a w2w jump. Broke it on take off. As he was going up the wake a roller came accross at the same time got the nose of the board and created a suction that broke his fib and fractured his tib. It was very freak. You can work out every day and be in the best shape and still break a bone in the weirdest way. I would just call that plain bad luck breaking the strongest bone in your body trying to get up. Something had to be wrong before the femur is like concrete.

He went through surgery yesterday and had a rod installed... He should get to come home sometime over the weekend.. The hospital is running some tests to verify there was no pre-existing conditon...

Rob
I was pulling my neighbor up on two skies and the exact thing happened. He also thought he broke his leg. He was wearing my comp vest and almost drowned by the time I got back to him. Then we had to get him in the boat and he is 6'4" at 240 pounds and it was me any my 105 lb wife. It was pretty scary.

Just got off the phone w/ him.... Doc says it was a spiral fracture.. the bone twisted to the point of breaking.... HOW?

I had a friend break his femur trying to get up on a wakeboard. He had got up the day before and rode for a ways. Luckily, I wasn't there the next day when he broke his femur, but a couple of real close friends were. He had to be careflighted to the hospital. This was on Possum Kingdom Lake about 4-6 years ago. It was a spiral fracture as well. The guy was in good shape. Skinny, but toned. Rode mountain bikes all the time. We thought it was a freak thing.

drink more milk

crazy... makes me worry about myself but definitely isn't going to keep me out of the gym strength training. I tore my MCL 2 years ago, since then I've beefed up my legs, and overall entire body, no injuries... whereas friends seemingly consistently tweak knees and the like who are much weaker... obviously I stay away from the juice but take protein supplements and some creatine... also I can agree if you are heavy into the weight room I wouldn't advise going and wakeboarding when you are fatigued, thats just dumb, but if you space out your workouts and riding properly, the results can only be good IMO... look at rusty, kid is jacked and hes on top right now and healthy, and how many 10s in the past year? Can't be weak bringing around for those landings and wrecks he's prolly taken...
my .02
hope everyone gets better!

leafy green veggies are a good calcium source, too.

My husband broke his femur 2 years ago. Here's a picture the day after he had the rod installed.

Oh man!!! You're killing us!

re the weightlifting thing, i wonder if you could stress the bone so much that you have a stress fracture and then a smaller amount of pressure would be required to extend that to a full break. as for a spiral fx, my guess would be that the water grabbed the board when he was getting up and he fought that motion ("muscled it") which resulted in a twisting motion of his femur.

I am fairly confident that my compound tib/fib fracture wakeboarding was from a pre-existing condition, likely a crack in the bone from hitting kickers too hard the week before. My leg was sore all week, so I took the week off from riding, and next time out....SNAP

why would you post that?

man at least it wasnt some girl you were trying to hook up with. or maybe even worse, a girlfriend that wouldnt try wakeboarding forever until you finally convinced her?

I brought a buddy out and on his second attempt to get up the same thing happened. He thought he'd hurt his knee and then found out he'd broke his femur when he went to the doctor.

It was especially wierd because he'd been a skater and was in really good shape. Stuff happens I guess.

Kerry, I wonder if your husband would object to having his uncensored arse posted on wakeworld...

I broke my femur on a wakeskate when my right leg went into the water and my left leg stayed on the board. Got pain?

The good news is I recently started running again, not record time and hurts like he** but promising.

BTW,that guy could crack a walnut!



(Message edited by breadbutta on July 21, 2007)