OK, I know somebody will eventually put the safety police icon in this thread, but wanted to know if anyone is riding with mouth guards. Last year I tried an inside out backroll that resulted in knee to chin, a few stitches and that great white flash of light. The geometry in mouth was off for a couple of weeks and was on the milk shake diet for a little while.
Fast forward to yesterday and my son landed short on a tantrum with knee to face (guess it is a father son thing) and he was concussed for almost the entire day, cracked a tooth and has another that is loose, and his jaw looks like he just lost a match in the octagon. Still waiting to see what the dental bill is going to be.
He must have asked a 1000 times how he ended up in ER, where is brother is, and if he is still going out with his ex-girlfriend. The fog has lifted now and he can now remember just about everything up until he rode.
It seems a mouth guard would have been a useful ounce of prevention and not that I'm not capable of marching to my own drummer, but wanted to see what others are doing of if anyone had data on the usefullness of mouth guards when riding behind a boat. I have never ridden with one, but am thinking of using one and requiring one for my kids at least when trying new inverts.
It is one thing to knock yourself silly, but all the more scary when it is one of your kids. Safe to say my son will be taking all the head precautions for the next 2-4 weeks.