I saw this fellow fall yesterday on a snowboard, it was near the bottom of the hill. He was going quite slowly, he turned too far and caught the edge, then toppled downhill, turning his back to the snow and his head bounced off the ground. He lay there for a moment, then out of nowhere the ski patrol materialized, he got up and was “all right.” I was watching from the chair.
It seems that very low speed toppling over can be sometimes worse than when you fall with a certain minimum speed, because in the latter case you tend to slide instead of slamming into the ground. I think the same thing happens on a bicycle, which is why young children learning to ride a bicycle really need to wear helmets.
Nowadays when I wipe out it is typically when I try to hold my edges on a steep and icy patch and I am not strong enough, my skis wash out in the downhill direction and I end up sliding on my hip. Not very dignified but still kind of a controlled slide.
However above a certain speed, skiing more or less down the fall line, I don’t feel I would really “know what to do” if “something happened.”
Should we think about and even practice how to fall with the least danger?
It seems that very low speed toppling over can be sometimes worse than when you fall with a certain minimum speed, because in the latter case you tend to slide instead of slamming into the ground. I think the same thing happens on a bicycle, which is why young children learning to ride a bicycle really need to wear helmets.
Nowadays when I wipe out it is typically when I try to hold my edges on a steep and icy patch and I am not strong enough, my skis wash out in the downhill direction and I end up sliding on my hip. Not very dignified but still kind of a controlled slide.
However above a certain speed, skiing more or less down the fall line, I don’t feel I would really “know what to do” if “something happened.”
Should we think about and even practice how to fall with the least danger?