arm caught on rope handle during crash

due to my own fault, and im really just posting this so someone else can learn from my mistake. i was attempting a 3 and tried grabbing the handle with my free hand palm facing my back and my arm a good distance from my back rather than my palm away from my back and planted in the small of my back. (if that makes any sense). anyway i got off axis and dropped the handle and the above combination created the perfect hook and next thing i know im below the water with the handle now above my elbow. the handle got ripped off and it hurt like heck. im getting back to normal. went it initially happened i honestly thought i lost my arm. anyway happy riding.

dude that sucks. thanks i'll remeber not to do that this weekend.

one of my friends got the handle stuck on his arm once and it ripped his muscles apart. it wasn't pretty.

I did the same thing last summer. I now have two metal plates in my right forearm. I was attempting a wrapped 3. Needless to say, my wrap handle does not get used anymore...

My arm has never been the same but it feels better than my knee which just had ACL surgery a month ago... my luck has to turn around, right???

Been there, done that... Wish I hadn't!

I was trying a raley, but knew I wouldn't make it, so I threw the rope away. Well, as I stuck my arm out in front of me, my left arm happened to fall right through the center of the handle. I was hung up for about 3 seconds, but those were the most painfull 3 seconds of my life. Like Alan, I thought my arm was gone, or at least broke. It hurt so bad that I was affraid to pull it out of the water to look at it. When I finally decided that I needed to look at it, my friends and I assumed it was broken, due to the large knot near my elbow. Lucky for me, it turned out to be just that, a very big and unusual knot. The next week I sported a bruise from my armpit, to my thumb. My recommendations... Stay away from the rope when you fall!

-Blake

We were pulling 4 tubes last summer basically trying to beat each other up back there - kind of playing last guy on the tube wins. I was in the middle. My tube was in the air, upside down when the guy to my right kicked the tube and flipped it around sideways. The rope went under my arm at the elbow and although I let go of the tube handle, the pull of the rope kept my arm snug to the tube. I was kind of trapped there for a moment. Anyways, it tore up my rotator cuff. Had surgery in Feb/04.

Four weeks ago I caught my heelside edge and came down hard on my back and the side of my head. The tail of the board somehow dug into the back of my left calf. Results: Mild concusion, 3 weeks at the chiropractor realigning my L2, and two blood clots in my lower left leg. Will be on blood thinners for 6 months.

I'm thinking about selling my boat and taking up something safe like Bull Fighting.

Yeah, I'm think bull fighting might be the safer choice, in your case!

-Blake

I'm still recovering from my little arm through the handle a month ago. Luckily it didn't do any serious damage but I put my arm through the handle all they way to my arm pit. My bicep is still pretty wimpy and it's going to take a while to get it back up to the strength of the other one. I just fell forward off a skate....go figure! At least the people in the ER were impressed. Well....good luck and heal fast! Oh...at the bruise from the arm pit to the finger tips was pretty interesting.....not too mention the fact I thought my arm was going to eventually pop from the swelling.

Everyone should invest in a Cinch Max release from Lonnie Marchand in Baton Rouge. I'ts a velcro release that you can set to the desired breakaway tension. It's save a lot of hydrofoilers' arms. I don't ride without one. Go to www.cinchmax.com

Blake,

Here is a pic of your arm to remind you of how it felt.

about a month ago i was riding and let go of the handle but had more speed than the rope and my arm got stuck in the rope and i was drug under water for a good 50 feet, arm is still healing, can't put my arm past my head more 90 degees, no tricep work can be done... it sucks, i can feel the knot or whatever it is in my arm... don't let this happen to you

i had a friend out on the boat earlier this summer, and he was tryin a backroll, even tho he had no idea what he was doin, and he olayed it or something and he ended up gettin the handle over his head and when he fell the handle caught his neck and we felt the entire boat jerk. luckily it was nothign serious and he came away from it with no injurys except for an intensly sore neck the next day. but the entire boat jerking thing was crazy because i had never experienced something that jerked a couple thousand pound boat moving at 23ish mph. we were all scared for him but he was out riding another set about an hour later

the day before my friends and i showed up for darin shapiro's camp he had done something similar. came off the slider and somehow fell forward and put his head thru the handle. the boat drug him under until amazingly, the rope broke! crazy things can happen even to the best.

We've got some footage, from one of our video shoots earlier this summer, of Dan Klopp throwing a HS Off-Axis 5 and the handle goes all the way up to his shoulder then his arm pops right back out to his hand and he rides it out. Pretty amazing that he wasn't injured and it'll be in our next film for sure.


Ron Mart
NumbSkull Productions
www.numbskullpro.com

Which video is it. Nice web page by the way.

Micheal,

The shot of DK will be in our next vid, "Revolution", due out next spring.

Thanks for the compliment on the website and you can get our first vid, "Off-Axis" from our site or from Sidewayz.com. It's on Boardflix too.

Ron

My sons friend tore his bicep muscle off the bone and it rolled all the way down to his elbow. After 6 monbths of working with it the doctors said it could not be fixed and now does not have a bicep. Looks pretty freaky. The other mucsles around it make up for it so he has normal function. Downside is his parents won't let him wakeboard anymore.

Just read this thread last week for the first time, and thought Oh, this sounds f...ing terrible, hope that never happens to me.
Well, this weekend, crashed a landing, fell forward, left arm went through the handle that I had already let go of and Whap! Thought I lost my arm.
Turns out nothing is broken or torn, but its black and blue from armpit to wrist and about double it's normal size.
Got lucky, no bad damage, and a lg bottle of Percoset for any "serious injuries" that I might incur in the future.

Thrall,

Sorry to hear that....you're description sounds exactly like what happened to me. I'm now trying to get my arm's strength back up. My last trip to physical therapy several weeks ago had my injured arm's grip strength at about 50% of my good arm. It's getting stronger now though. Good luck!

It was said before but I will repeat it: CHINCH MAX. Everyone should get one.
www.cinchmax.com

Airfreak...just ordered one last night.

Thanks Levi.
Yeah, I'm Seriously considering getting one.

Here is the clip of Dan's near miss.

http://photos.wakeboarder.com/showphoto.php?photo=5682&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

This could have been alot worse.

Ron Mart
NumbSkull Productions
www.numbskullpro.com

Hey i was out wakeskating a couple of weekends ago and the board slipped out in front of me and some how i got my foot caught in the handle. It jerked the boat and it hert pretty bad. now my ankles swolen and bruised all around but it seems to be workin ok. has any one ever done this

I'm sure some of the trick skiers and barefooters have heard of this...but it's a new one for me! Get better quick alright!

i dunno if those things would work. im skeptical about it adding stretch to the line. also what about throwing a raley and having this thing break loose.

Hey, Alan:

Last year somebody posted that they stretched a section of panty hose (serious) around the opening of the handle, left enough room to hold on but had the rest covered.

Alright, I've got get out now and nail some S-bends.

Yep, you have a better chance of suffering a serious injury wakeboarding than riding in a Humvee through Baghdad.

you know i was thinking of something along those lines but it was my fault. proper technique can go along way in the prevention of injury. i just got mentally lazy. good luck with the s bends !!! have you or christian been riding?

you guys should try a trick release and make sure when you're tryin tricks that you have the chance of getting wrapped in the rope that your driver knows this becuz he has the ability to throw the boat in reverse and prevent alot of injuries from happening