Worst injuries

So I'm pretty new to the sport and I'm quickly falling in love with it, but I am a bartender and server and have to use my arms and legs everyday to survive. What are some of the worst injuries you've had/heard of that i can look forward to? :/

my dad fractured his shoulder once, then blowing out your knee is another common injury

Knee and ankle injuries are usually the most common but compared to most any other extreme sport the injuries are a lot less frequent and small day to day injuries in wakeboarding aren't that bad. a bad fall on a skateboard can slam you into concrete which in my opinion is probably worse than getting slammed into water. You should probably expect a few headaches and a lot of soar eyeballs, especially when you first try your surface 180's. Just slow the boat down when your trying new stuff and the falls won't be as bad.

watch the knees....they will get ya

my sisters husband got 5 concussions in one summer, he got owned

Torn ACL..., mild whiplash, and the odd muscle strain. Would I ever think of giving wakeboarding up? Nope.

Dislocated hip, but don't think it's very common. I think I was too tired to be riding, when you know you shouldn't but it's all butter at the end of a long day, and I just fell weird.

Not at all common, but a former co-worker of mine broke his femur wakeboarding. I wasn't there to see exactly what happened but I did see the aftermath. He was in a wheelchair for quite a while but he was lucky he didn't bleed to death internally. He recovered fully (as you can from that sort of thing) and last I saw him (about 4 years ago) he was boarding again. From the people I go out with regularly the worst we've had is a concussion and that was about 10 years ago.

"my sisters husband got 5 concussions in one summer"

woah. That's not good.

Yeah, five concussions in one summer is not good at all. Unless you hope to be able to hide your own easter eggs one day.

most were just minor take a day off of work and stay awake for awhile, but 1 was a full on concussion, after that one my sister made him sit the rest of the season lol

Man I got a good list. Riding since 92 will do that to you. Beside all the aches and pains that come with getting slammed

Broken Ankle
Broken Tibia
Dislocated Shoulder
Dislocated finger
5 Concussions
Knee to Face
Knee to Chin


The worst pain I have ever had was in 2003. We mad a gap slider. 24 foot up bar about 6 feet out of the water, to a 6 foot gap, to a 48 foot flat bar that was 6 feet out of the water. Anyway, after dialing in the slider, I Ollied onto the up bar, slipped out at the top, got pulled off to the left that caused me to slam into the top of the Flat bar slider with my left thigh. My thigh hit one of the 3, 4 inch PCV pipes used as the slider surface I was moving fast enough to tear the PVC off. I thought that I busted my femur I was in so much pain. Anyway, the result was a perfectly circular cut from the PVC and a half football size bruise on my thigh. I actually had to go into the docs and have fluid removed from the injury twice. I took about 3 weeks before I could walk normal, over 2 months for the bruise to go away and I was back on the water.

to be in CIE do you need to have a certain amount of concussions?

I know this guy who had a compound tib/fib fracture. emergency surgery, IM nail, 3.5 days in hospital, 2.5 months on crutches, DVT, heparin/coumadin, pulmonary embolism scare.

Tim that sounds extremely familiar except it was 1 week in the hospital, 2.5 months on crutches, patella tendon tear and a compartments syndrome scare...

IT SUCKED.

1st pic is the original x-ray
2nd pic is my rehab board - LF Helix now wall mounted for life.




(Message edited by juniorhawk on January 18, 2008)

Skull fracture, wasn't wearing a vest, almost drowned. Staples and lots of stitches, brain hemorrhage, concussion of course. No permanent damage...but, no fun at the time. Haven't ridden without a vest since...and that was 9 years ago.

I dont quite add up to you guys lol.

Besides the obv twisted ankles and dislocated shoulder I've had stitches to the arm (hyperlite metal fins) stitches to the head (again hyperlite metal fins) and broken ribs.

Hopefully thats it.

"skull fracture"...damn that sucks, what were you throwing that caused that?

Cory, I was doing a whirly and came down wrong... somehow the water torqued the board off of my right foot, and slammed the underside into my head. The fin caught me just above my left temple. All I remember is being upside down underwater and not knowing which way was up... and sitting in the E.R. with someone tugging on loose flesh on my head.

blown knee

tryin a whirly with no vest? scary stuff...i wont try wake jumps without a vest :P

ok I am home so I'll post the obligatory pics. hehe

just dont put up that compound fracture w/ those byerly boots...thats harsh stuff...

uhhh what did you do ? damn that looks like it hurt ..