Protection

cycleschemie

Hello all.

I have a problem- I've fairly recently taken up both MTB (15 months or so) and, more recently, snowboarding (early part of this year).

The MTB'ing is coming on; I tend to stick to XC or red-grade trails, have a fair few miles under my belt now, have done some hairier things like The Slab @ Dalbeattie, and have only really had one injury this year- towards the end of Magic Mushroom @ Glentress I took a low-speed turn badly, rolled the bike, and dinged (don't know if I fractured them as I didn't bother getting x-rayed) the floating ribs on my right hand side. This took about 6 weeks to heal. PITA as its difficult to sleep etc.

During the healing time, I kept the cycling up- got away to Dalbeattie etc a few times, and took the road bike up Mt. Ventoux, which helped a lot.

However, as I live not too far from some of Scotland's ski resorts, and as its predicted to be a snowy winter again this year, I'm back on the board.

I'm dreadful. I got some lessons to get me over the basics, but haven't anything like any proficiency or fluidity yet. And!- I fell over at a dry ski slope the other day and dinged the floating ribs on my left hand side!

So what I'm looking for, if anyone can, are recommendations on lightweight but protective body armour. Ideally, something that I could wear for some more adventurous MTB (I won't need this as much I expect) and, more importantly, snowboarding (I'm going to need something for the first few days I get out there or I just know I'm going to get injured and miss another season.).

I've been looking at something along the lines of the 661 Core Saver, but I'm not sure how much rib protection it would offer.

Any ideas?

TIA-

CS

bennett_346

Tried snowboarding for three days on proper snow and its the most painful thing sport ive ever tried/ want to. I'm in the top grade at french ski schools and will do any run and most off piste thrown my way. If you're not clicking with snowboarding, give skiing a go and get some proper lessons

Armour wise, in my experience stay away from wrist protection, more harm than good as you cant make your hand into a fist. Go to a shop and try some armour on and try to imagine fitting it comfortable under your snow clothes. I don't know about you but i tend to wear only a long sleeve tee and base layer jacket thing on top and ski pants below. Kyle straight knee pads may work well, and for elbows, im not really sure. Anything you wear is going to make you warm pretty fast.

Failing that stay off piste and in the deep powder and worry not about painful falls

ddraver

Thread Hijack - Bennett_346

What is the fashion with ski pants these days, the old school, thick sallopette seems to have been dropped in favour of slightly thicker waterproof trousers....?

bennett_346

ddraver wrote:

Thread Hijack - Bennett_346

What is the fashion with ski pants these days, the old school, thick sallopette seems to have been dropped in favour of slightly thicker waterproof trousers....?

Oh i wear sallopettes, i just call them ski pants. Although theyre stupidly hot i like how they act like the michelin mans legs when i fall

cycleschemie

Thanks Bennett. Does hurt, doesn't it? I should have started with skis, I know that now. The trouble is: getting in some practice just now means going to somewhere like Xscape, and there's not much powder there! Its maybe just not my thing.

bennett_346

Try skiing, and keep at it, you'll get the hang of it. I'm the sort of person who only learns properly through lessons, you may be the same. It took me weeks and weeks of intense skiing to get properly good at it, once you've cracked it its a great feeling.

And i can tell you now that skiing hurts a hell of a lot less, mainly because you can only fall off sideways most of the time. This really stops you injuring your core.

ollie_lucas1985

How is the ski resorts in scotland? im assuming avimore?.. I want to go as this will be the first real snow experence on a snowboard for me, but I will be on my own!! Keeping it local seems the right thing to do!!

Northwind

Ribs are a bugger, because it's not usually what you hit that does them in, it's the rest of your body catching up with them. Same as collarbones, etc- momentum injuries, some call them. I'm sure my Assault Suit offers a little rib protection but I wouldn't want to depend on it

unixnerd

How is the ski resorts in scotland? im assuming avimore?

I live in Aviemore and I put the snow tyres on my car today. We had about 2" higher up at the end of September and it lasted for a few days. There's fresh snow higher up today with more forecast over the next few days and blizzards. It'll likely all melt again before we get the proper winter snow though.

It's normally late Novermber before any major skiable snow but I've seen it wait until early January before there's enough to ski on. Last winter was November until late May, in fact they were open on midsummer's day! We had -14 to -25C in the daytime for weeks in the village, it was warmer up the hill. I skied from Aviemore to Carrbridge and back in May on the cycle path. They had to shift 150,000 tons of snow to keep the ski road open.

If snow boarding is a bit painful try cross country skiing. I took it up last year and it's much safer :-) It's also a bloody good work out if you take it seriously. There are a few places where you can learn on artificial tracks (such as Huntly).

cycleschemie

Thanks all.

I think its looking like skiing might be the way forward (no pun intended). I'm not too unfit at present so it can only help, can't it? Boarding just seems too difficult somehow.

cee

i ski and snowboard....

The progression is very different...

with skiing, there is a rapid progression from not skiing to being able to negotiate a hill....then it slows until you get to parallel turns, then it slows down again...getting much better takes lots of practice.

with snowboarding....there is a very slow progression to go from falling all the time, to be able to negotiate a descent....but once you get the hang of steering first with your shoulders, and then just with your hips and forgetting about the legs...progression comes really quickly..then obviously it slows and getting much better takes lots of practice..

It took me 3 full days at Glenshee at few years ago just to be able to get down a run in one go!

As for scottish skiing....if you can ski/board in scotland....you can ski anywhere in the world....

Fresh dusting on a hard packed base my ar$e.....its a skittering of marbles on a totally frozen mogul field!

meesterbond

I do hope we're in for a snowy year this year... I'm booked in to go to Chamonix in early Jan and it's epic where there's some fresh powder.

As far as protection for snowboarding goes, I'd definitely recommend wrist guards (although try and fall on your forearms or backside if possible), knee guards (Kyle Straits work well enough), padded shorts (I've used 661 for years - the added bonus is that they keep your backside a bit warmer when you're sitting on the snow waiting!).... Helmet obviously... beyond that, I'll wear a spine protector if I'm having a big day out or in the park and I've also got a Forcefield Vest which is overkill for 90% of the time, but has rib, shoulder, elbow pads and you can't really feel it once it's on...

The Forcefield stuff is excellent as it's designed to spread the impact rather than just act as a barrier - always highly rated and recommended by motorcycle mags, plus it's reasonably thin...

Can't agree with the steering with the shoulders and upper body recommendation though. Turning should come from bending the board as it's designed to with pressure from your feet and legs, your body stays very still.
Pick up a copy of Neil McNab's book Go Snowboard and see what I mean...

cee

meesterbond wrote:

Can't agree with the steering with the shoulders and upper body recommendation though. Turning should come from bending the board as it's designed to with pressure from your feet and legs, your body stays very still.
Pick up a copy of Neil McNab's book Go Snowboard and see what I mean...

Any decent snowboard instructor will start to teach how to turn with the shoulders...as a way to accentuate the movement in the hips....

the same old rule....look where you want to go...and you will.

as soon as you start thinking about the legs...its too easy to start sweeping the rear foot backward to initiate a toe edge turn....bad news....

you are right...its about the board flexing....but this happens automatically when the hips face the direction you want to turn.

cycleschemie

Thanks again.

Meesterbond: the turning from the shoulders bit was how I was taught. I can't say the same for everyone else, but the idea seems to be that, as you turn your shoulders to look where you want to go, the rest of the body (and board) comes round with you. Great ideas on protection, though, cheers for that.

meesterbond

cee wrote:

Any decent snowboard instructor will start to teach how to turn with the shoulders...as a way to accentuate the movement in the hips....

That's a very alpine approach - BASI and CASI teach a more 'foot-pedalling' style where the torso remains in line with and over the board, the only real movement is up and down to dig into the turns. What angles do you have your bindings set as?

the same old rule....look where you want to go...and you will.

Agreed, but if you set your stance up 'correctly' you only need to move your head

as soon as you start thinking about the legs...its too easy to start sweeping the rear foot backward to initiate a toe edge turn....bad news....

you are right...its about the board flexing....but this happens automatically when the hips face the direction you want to turn.

But by keeping the hips level with board and applying pressure to the four 'corners' of the board with your feet you can control that flex and thus the radius of turn etc etc...

To be honest, trying to explain how to ride a snowboard on a forum is a futile exercise. It looks like we were taught very differently. Ultimately, the main purpose is to get down the mountain looking as cool as possible, otherwise we'd ski, so if you can achieve that, then it's all good...

Northwind

I was taught foot not shoulder myself. But then I fell over a lot

cee

meesterbond wrote:

Ultimately, the main purpose is to get down the mountain looking as cool as possible, otherwise we'd ski, so if you can achieve that, then it's all good...

agreed.

and lets face it...the beauty of snowboarding is that there really are only 2 moves.

1. Looking Cool 8)
2. In a heap