This isn’t good. I injured my right wrist while snowboarding last night, and it’s slightly swollen, kinda sore, and inconsistently “clicky”… Meaning when I rotate my wrist in different random directions, it makes a faint clicking sound that can be felt more than it can be heard. I’ve got lacerations on the wrist bone, too; I’m guessing that’s either from sharp flakes of ice grinding up on my skin during the crash, or they came from my wrist bending at an angle it wasn’t supposed to.
The accident itself played out like one of the crash scenes from the recently wrapped 2010 Winter Olympic ski events. I took the ramp hard & fast—faster than I’ve ever taken a jump before; a careless mistake on my part—tucked in for some clean air, and stomped the landing. But that’s where things started to take a turn for the worse. I don’t know if it was a newly uncovered ice patch (since I had taken this same exact jump with no problem several continuous laps prior) or just my uncontrolled speed that sent me fishtailing, but fishtail I DID.
I tried to recover, but soon I found myself facing up the mountain toward the ramp I just cleared, my back to the resort below. Now I consider myself to be a fairly experienced snowboarder, but I just haven’t gotten around yet to learning how to board BACKWARDS. In a split second, my heel edge caught clumped snow and sent me flying backwards through the air. I immediately began to tumble violently down the slope, my arms flailing and my beanie & goggles launching into the sky. It felt as if I was doing backflips on the snow, not unlike the moment when the nose of your surfboard dips beneath the water and sends your body crashing & wheeling under the rolling force of the wave above and behind you.
I tried to recover, but soon I found myself facing up the mountain toward the ramp I just cleared, my back to the resort below. Now I consider myself to be a fairly experienced snowboarder, but I just haven’t gotten around yet to learning how to board BACKWARDS. In a split second, my heel edge caught clumped snow and sent me flying backwards through the air. I immediately began to tumble violently down the slope, my arms flailing and my beanie & goggles launching into the sky. It felt as if I was doing backflips on the snow, not unlike the moment when the nose of your surfboard dips beneath the water and sends your body crashing & wheeling under the rolling force of the wave above and behind you.
And then my head punched the ground. The back of my head, to be precise. Somewhere between all the tumbling and my momentum-less body resting at a stop next to a slide box, the back of my head cracked into the icy terrain upon which Mt. High was built. The impact resonated throughout my body, tingling every bone that touched another. I don’t know which to be worried more about: my potentially sprained or fractured wrist or the bump on my head that could be a sign of abnormal intracranial pressure/concussion.
As much as my wrist is swollen, I can’t stop thinking about the possibility of my brain swelling even more inside my skull. Never again will I attempt jumps or jibs without strapping on a helmet; consider this lesson LEARNED. The only question left to beg is this: how do I know when it’s time to go into the doctor’s and get my head checked?
As much as my wrist is swollen, I can’t stop thinking about the possibility of my brain swelling even more inside my skull. Never again will I attempt jumps or jibs without strapping on a helmet; consider this lesson LEARNED. The only question left to beg is this: how do I know when it’s time to go into the doctor’s and get my head checked?
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*Taken from my Sweat365.com fitness training journal, which can be found by clicking on this button ↓
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