Tantrum Ankles

Anyone have any tricks to prevent this syndrome. (other than landing clean all the time) The flex motion when your big toe is brought toward your knee is killin me right on the top of the ankle.

Its like when I land the toe edge of the board catches and jams/overflex's my ankle...then it's a few days before it feels normal again. I've been just brushin it off and trying to ride though it, but its starting to become a problem.

I'm ridin Ronix Cells which are pretty stiff laced as tight as I can get them.

Any suggestions?

what happened was you prolly sprianed it once before doin a tantrum and its just never really healed right. everytime you dont land perfectly you prolly tweak the injury. there's not much you can do but not ride until its all better.

Possibly. I've beat my ankles up in basketball as a teen, so there's probably some long term damage there, but they feel strong coming into the season and then slowly deteriorate right about now (july-ish) and I ride in pain for the remaining 2 months. I shy away from toeside's and heel 180's due to this threat.

Wondering if anyone has had any luck jamming a brace in a boot/binding.

you could wrap it. i've seen friends rock ankle braces before but they usually had to rock bigger bindings.

get a 2x4 or little taller board, then place the ball of your feet on the wood, to where you can drop your heels toward the ground. flex up and down, dropping and raising your heels. This stretches and then strengthens those muscles effected in your foot. Same can be done to prevent turf toe by shifting your feet even farther back.

The other thing you might consider is adjusting your stance to put your feet in a position they don't get as "grrr" with you as you do this trick. Slight angles in your feet can do much to alleviate pressure points on your joints as you ride.

Good thinkin. I'll check it out...I think they're ducked a fair amount currently.

A-dub...I'll be doin some ankle workouts now too. thx.

for me, my tantrum ankle was anterior impingement. it is when the bones hit in the foot and leg when the board jams your foot towards your shin and get bone spurs from the impact making the gap smaller and more likely to happen. The soft flesh can also get swolen in that area and make it more likely to pinch it between the foot and shin bones. I had the bone spurs ground off and scar tissue cleaned up and there was no cartlage or tendon damage but it still bothers me.

The funny thing is that this is a injury related to soccer players and balerinas and now in my opinion, wakeboarders.

I had something like that, never from a tantrum but the first time I tried a ts 180 with a nose grab I got it all wrong, thinking about the grab too much, before I'd even hit the wake, and came down with the board pretty much square on to the water, that was my last pull for the day...

It's better now though, my ankles are pretty stuffed from Tae Kwon Do and all the other sports I was involved in when I was a kid, I can walk around on the edges of my feet with my ankles touching the ground, no pain, no problem.

Taping your ankles might be better, or cheaper, than braces, especially if you don't want to buy bigger bindings. Start off wrapping over your foot just before the ankle joint then do a couple of figure 6s starting from the same point go around your heel and strap around above your ankle to hold everything together. You can probably find a better explanation on how to strap it that is more specific to your injury on the net though.

I went through the same thing back in 98'. The best remedies i found were;

-cleaning your legs legiments from scare tissue build up everytime I rode by:
pushing your fingers around your sheen bone as you flex your foot up and down. Your want to start from your ankle and move your fingers up to your knee (and repeat). This cleans up scare tissue buildup - which would start bothering your knees in the next few years if left alone.

-Also, constantly work on ankle strenghting:
grab some rubberbands and do some workout with them every chance you have. standing jumps really help, and also leg curls. Run, Run, Run

Building up the muscles around my ankles was truly the only long-term remedy.

I wear lace up ankle braces inside my boots. I have done it for years so my boots fit fine with them in there. I won't ride without them but if I did my boots would probably not be tight enough. That being said if you can find the ankle braces that don't have padding inside and you get them nice and tight you could probably use the boots you have now.