Trick skiing scare last night

[Chef23]

I was pulling my 11 year old last night and he was working on his reverse back wrap. He stepped on the tail and fell toward the boat and his arm went through the handle. I had pulled the throttle back immediately which I always do on trick falls and he didn't get dragged too bad. We did take him to the hospital and he is okay just a little sore.

 

 

He was using our trick handle with a harness on it but we didn't have a release on the boat. I am going to do two things. First I am going to get a release that we will use for all trick sets. Second I am going to get a separate handle for him to use for hand passes that includes some sort of handle guard.

 

 

He is hoping to be feeling better to ski in our state championships this weekend. The doctor said he should be fine in 3-5 days.

[Horton]

Good idea on the handle guard.

If I had ever been a trick skier I would tell you that I had done the same thing myself.

[skidawg]

Use a rope release!

[Chef23]

I am going to use the rope release for now. I need to put something together this week.

[skidawg]

Rope release is best alternative, skier falls, big load, u can't hold on, yanks out of ur hand!

[eleeski]

The toe harness is pretty good at keeping body parts out of the handle. Obviously not perfect, but you are one of very few through the handle injuries I've heard of in decades of tricking. Perhaps the setup of the toe harness is not right - there should be very little clearance to get the best setup for the toe tricks. I don't like separate handles for toes vs hands because it makes it harder to do toes. Nowadays everyone seems to spend way too little time on toes. I'd accept a bit higher risk on a very rare injury to advance his toes.

If you are going to use separate handles, get the Curmi harness (toe link). Kirk used it for a few years and it did help his toes. Reflex or Trick Systems or Travis Marine will get you in touch with Dave Curmi.

I would stay away from wakeboard handles. The smaller 12" handles teach better handle control which will pay off in the long run. Make sure it has an arm guard or a toe harness.

I hate rope releases. They are hard on the operators hands and they are slow to release. They might be the safest for really little kids when you don't wrap them around the pylon - but it is just too hard on me if I have to hold it all day. The Masterline Robbins release works on similar principles but is a more positive release and much easier on the operator. I have no problem holding on to it all day even for people doing flips or kids trying shaky toes. It is a fantastic safety product - but it is only as good as the operator. I also use the split pin Masaterline release with a foot trigger when I am forced to drive and pin. Stan prefers the ARE style bent pin. With a good operator, they all work well.

I always have my trickers on some sort of release. The common injuries from falling into the rope and getting wrapped up in it need a release.

Good luck with the recovery. It is a very rare injury so don't let him get freaked out by it. Solve the problem by always using a release.

Eric

[eleeski]

If you are going to use a rope release, here's how you do it:

Get a short 1m (3') section of rope with a loop on one end and absolutely nothing on the other end. Yes the rope will fray back a bit but do not use a knot, tape or burn at the end of the rope. Loop the loop onto the pylon, thread the rope through the end loop of the ski line and wrap the release rope around the pylon. Make sure you leave enough slack that any knots or bumps from the loop do not interfere with the ski line. For kid toes, I unwrap the rope completely from the pylon and just hold the release rope. This lets go pretty easily. It is slightly easier than directly holding the ski line - but I've done that too. For hands or big guys, a couple of wraps on the pylon will make it possible to hold on tolerably but the rope can take a bit of time to release.

Use the rope release until the Robbins release arrives.

Eric

[Chef23]

Eric,

For right now I think putting him on a different handle with a guard of some sort would make him feel more comfortable.  We are using a 12" handle for all the reasons you mentioned.

Can a child start with the trick systems toe harness?  How do they get up with it?

[MrJones]

Back in the day Patrice Martin and his dad trained alone almost exclusively. I seem to remember that he had a rope (for the release) going from the release to an anchor on the dash. If he fell his dad could just slap the rope and it would let go.

The rope release is cheap and is definitely the pros choice, but a pain to hang on to.

[Thomas Wayne]

 

Interestingly, Patrice Martin suffered a rather public arm-through-handle fall (slalom) immediately prior to retiring.

TW

[Chef23]

Well it was a happy result. My son is okay and was able to compete in the tournament this weekend. He had tournament PBs in trick and jump and tied his PB in slalom but at 15 off instead of long line.

 

In tricks he is still a little skittish about the reverse back wrap. Over the weekend he made his reverse full back and one surface O in both rounds. In the second round he came close on the reverse O.

 

I will have him out with a rope release until I get a Robbins type release for the boat so he doesn't have to worry about getting dragged and I have Arm Guards on the way.

[Jody_Seal]

I ski quite a bit a Cory's where they use rope release only. Shoot I keep a spool of rope for him and build releases by the dozen. Over the years I have seen numerous accidents atributed to a mech release and only one or two do to a late release on a rope. I think that most that say a rope release is hard to hold or difficult really do not set it up correctly. Most want to wrap it around the pylon two or three times. I release for some pretty heavy hitters and only half wrap it around the pylon. My daughter I dont even wrap just hold the other end.

I do think that with these youngsters learning new tricks they need to be on some sort of release. Handle well that is one prefrence Stephen uses a wakeboard handle more because he has more upper body mass then most men and really can not pass a 12" handle easily. Arm guard? could not hurt !

[rfa]

I was there, saw his arm bruises and indeed very lucky not to have significant injury...and yes, an amazing young skier who had a great tournamernt...and so did his Dad!

good to see you Chef

 rfa

 

 

[Chef23]

Good to see you too rfa. It was a great tournament. How did your son ski in his last round?