A warning/reminder to all hardbooters

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bluedevil_zg
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A warning/reminder to all hardbooters

Post by bluedevil_zg » Sunday 10 February 2019, 13:07

It was thursady and I’ve broken my ankle. It’ lateral process of talus, my right (front) foot. They say this king of injury is especially common in snowboarders.
To cut the long story short, I was enjoying a day in snow, and made a little pause, where I losened my hardboot buckles just a bit. I usually wear them very very tight, often they stop my circulation if I’m not moving (like on the lift) but I’ve always liked it that way. When I’m riding, it’s all right, when I’m resting they can stop my circulation a bit, so on half-hour brake I losened up buckles a bit.
And I forgot to retighten.

I then picked up some speed near the end of a run, put my weight on my front foot to start the toe-side turn, and I overdid it. Put too much weight on front. Nose dived in deep, stopped suddenly, and I was thrown in the air, landed on my head some 3 meters down the slope.

1st thing to learn - helmet. A must-have.
2nd thing, as my speed was suddenly stopped, and my 100kg came all on my front leg, and my boots were a little less tight, it was enough for the bone to break.

Mind you, I was able to finish the run and to do another 2 runs after that, thinking I just had a very hard bump but nothing more. Took off my boots, drove my car home, and when I got out of the car to walk from parking to my home, I could barely do anything with that leg.
Rested for the rest of the day and the next day, as I could limp arount without too much trouble, but then I had to go to doctor because I needed paperwork for my job since I didn’t wanna go like that and I wanted to rest. I was confident doctor would tell me it’s stressed ligaments, to rest my leg for a week etc, but after xray they said talus was broken, and suspected a piece of bone also dislocated, but they wasn’t sure. So I have to come in for another look in 10 days, and then we’ll see what happens next.

I’m just glad it happened towards the end of season and not at the beginning. I am, however, pissed off at how stupid I am - I’m on skis or snowboard since I was 2 years old, I have my instructor’s licence and tought many many kids and adults how to ski and snowboard, always stressing how important it is to have boots, soft or hard, tight.
And then I go and do the stupid thing myself. I wanted to shoot myself in the head just from frustration.

Let this be a warning to all of you fellow riders, especially on hardboots, that shit indeed does happen and to keep your equipment properly tight, checked and secured.

This hurts like a bitch, I will lose my muscle in the 6 weeks of cast, and I will lose 1-2 months of snow this year. All because I forgot to tighten up two buckles. Just two. A job that takes what - 5 seconds? 10 at most?

Be careful, people. Don’t be stupid as I was.

...and carve on 🤘🏻

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fivat
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Re: A warning/reminder to all hardbooters

Post by fivat » Sunday 10 February 2019, 17:52

What a terrible story. :-( Thank you for sharing!
We wish you a good recovery! :pray:

I often ride one foot at the lifts or on the ways between the lifts. I tell me I should not be too lazy, it's risky. :?

Patrice Fivat

phil_wi
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Re: A warning/reminder to all hardbooters

Post by phil_wi » Monday 11 February 2019, 11:21

I "broke my ankle" in a similar manner by augering the nose of my board into breakable crust.

Decelerating my 62kgs blew the boot apart and also fractured my ankle. In my case at least, the boot wasn't strong enough to prevent injury, but was just strong enough to ensure it.

bluedevil_zg
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Re: A warning/reminder to all hardbooters

Post by bluedevil_zg » Monday 11 February 2019, 17:31

Man, that sucks even more. I’d hate to think how I can’t trust the boot anymore...

slayer
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Re: A warning/reminder to all hardbooters

Post by slayer » Thursday 14 February 2019, 12:51

Sounds like you did something like this:



I did that on the Friday before the Zinal 2019 event...had to stumble through with very sore ribs for the next two days :oops:

Two weeks later I am ok though - lesson learned!

cheers,
Slayer
Soft: Dual 175, Burton Driver-X, Flux CV
Hard: Gen4 175M, UPZ RC10, F2 Race Titanium

bluedevil_zg
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Re: A warning/reminder to all hardbooters

Post by bluedevil_zg » Friday 22 February 2019, 19:51

Yup, pretty much the same thing, only from the looks of it seems you reacted faste enough to put arms ahead of your head, whereas I didn’t manage but landed on my head.
Anyways, it’s my front leg that got the worst of it.

And as of today they STILL didn’t decide what’s wrong with the ankle. They’re not sure if it’s broken or not broken or what is wrong. A total of 6 xray images of thr foot and they “can’t see clearly”. I’m off to another visit on tuesday, and if they still don’t decide on injury I’ll let them have a piece of my mind.

slayer
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Re: A warning/reminder to all hardbooters

Post by slayer » Sunday 24 February 2019, 21:07

Unfortunately, medical science is not an exact art, however much you pay for it. I hope you make a full recovery. If you need some specialist recommendations, I can provide a Swiss one (Zurich based) highly recommended from my footballing group, where such injuries are common.

Remember to buy that helmet, sir! :-)
Soft: Dual 175, Burton Driver-X, Flux CV
Hard: Gen4 175M, UPZ RC10, F2 Race Titanium

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