As Snowboarding Soars, So Do Injuries

Shelby Ganitch is hardly your daredevil snowboarder, her family says. The Irvine Valley College freshman was simply carving her way down the mountain three weeks ago at Snow Summit ski resort when she caught an edge and pitched head-first onto the hard-packed snow. She’s been in a coma ever since.

“She’s 18, but she looks like she’s 10 years old lying there with all the tubes sticking out of her,” said her father, Richard, who along with his wife and other daughter has kept a vigil at Shelby’s side.

Snowboarding injuries--many of them to the head or spine like Shelby’s--are on the rise in Southern California, where more young enthusiasts surf the slopes than anywhere else in the country.

At the four major Southland ski resorts, serious injuries from snowboarding increased to 134 last year from nine in 1996, according to a study by the San Bernardino County Medical Center, which serves as the major trauma ward for the resorts. The medical costs of treating these injuries has topped $4 million, hospital officials say.

Injury Rate Running at Record Level

The pace of injuries is increasing, not merely because of the skyrocketing popularity of snowboarding, but because the sport attracts risk-taking youths, emphasizes spectacular aerial tricks and often takes place on less-forgiving artificial snow.

“These kids come from a skateboard/surf mentality: Let’s go big; the bigger the better,” said Karl Kapuscinski, general manager of the Mountain High Ski Resort.

In the first two months of this year there were 57 serious snowboarding injuries, putting 1999 on a record-setting pace as ski resorts prepare for a final assault on the slopes during the forthcoming spring break.

Despite the large number of snowboarding accidents and calls from doctors and parents for tougher safety regulations for the sport, ski resort operators say there is little they can do, other than urging snowboarders to be more cautious. State legislators have so far resisted stepping in as well.

“You start requiring people to wear specialized equipment and institute a whole lot of government regulations, you’re going to take the joy out of the sport,” said Assemblyman Rico Oller (R-San Andreas), who represents the Lake Tahoe area, a popular snow sport destination.

That doesn’t satisfy doctors and parents, who note that snowboard injuries nationwide nearly tripled in four years, with head injuries increasing fivefold, according to a study by the U.S. Consumer Safety Products Commission.

“Catastrophic injuries are far too common in this sport,” said Dr. John Steinman, a spinal cord injury specialist, who is one of the doctors conducting the San Bernardino County hospital study. He says resorts should outlaw certain aerial maneuvers and monitor the angle of snowboard jumps.

Millions of people snowboard and ski each year, and to be sure, the overall number of injuries is minuscule compared with how many people participate in all downhill sports.

Many more people throughout the country ski than snowboard--about a 4-1 ratio--and so far more skiers are injured.

But the gap between skiing and snowboarding accidents is narrowing dramatically. Skiing injuries dropped 26% between 1993 and 1997, in large part because of better equipment, while snowboarding injuries tripled.

In Southern California, snowboarders account for more than 60% of ticket sales at area resorts. At San Bernardino County Medical Center, doctors tallied nearly 300 snowboarding injuries over the last three years. By comparison, only 50 skiing accidents required hospital care during the same period.

Snowboarding got its start in 1963, when an eighth-grader in New Jersey, Tony Sims, was credited with building a contraption for shop class he called a “ski board.” Sims eventually formed a company to manufacture the board. Three years after Sims, Sherman Poppen patented the “Snurfer”--two skis bolted together. The Snurfer became the first mass-produced version of the snowboard, retailing for $15. Today, a top of the line snowboard can cost $500 or more.

It is only within the last decade, however, that the sport has gained widespread acceptance and popularity around the world. Resort owners who previously banned the boarders now depend on them for an increasing chunk of their revenues and have even begun to court them.

The sport also is beginning to shed its young, counterculture image, attracting adherents from all age groups, industry observers say.

Snowboarding made a controversial debut in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The sport’s first gold medalist was temporarily stripped of his prize after testing positive for traces of marijuana.

With the sport now a fixture at most slopes, the ski industry is thinking more and more about safety.

Mountain High manager Kapuscinski is part of a group of California resort operators who have met over the last year to study how the industry might balance the increasing demands of the sport’s participants with the need for increased safety.

“There’s no question we’re grappling with the issue,” said Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Assn. “Building judgment into our clientele is an extreme challenge.”

San Bernardino County Medical Center began tracking snowboard injuries after treating a string of significant spinal cord injuries and head injuries among snowboarders in 1996.

No states mandate helmets or have any other restrictive regulations on snowboarders, and resort operators are reluctant to make such demands.

Helmets can give individuals a false sense of security, causing them to be even more aggressive, said Stacy Gardner, a spokeswoman for the National Ski Areas Assn., which represents ski resorts across the country. The ski association recommends only that skiers and boarders “consider wearing” helmets as one of many safety considerations.

But many are taking the suggestion seriously.

Helmet sales grew 267% during the 1997-98 ski season, with nearly a quarter of a million helmets sold, according to SnowSports Industries America. Overall, however, just 5% of skiers and snowboarders wear them, the trade group said.

More worrisome than head injuries, hospital officials say, is the growth in severe spinal cord injuries, typically suffered in attempts to perform acrobatic tricks.

Just a week before Shelby Ganitch’s accident, Brett Johnson, 32, a former professional snowboarder from Marina del Rey, went out to the slopes after a long layoff to “try to relive the glory.” He attempted a “backside 540,” an aerial trick that involves an extra half-turn beyond a full-circle 360, but ended up landing flat on his chest, fracturing his neck. He is recovering at home, wearing a neck and shoulder brace.

“I just tried to do something I shouldn’t have done,” he said.

As Sport Grows, More Novices in the Picture

Despite the number of serious injuries, Southland resorts have so far had no fatal accidents, although a 14-year-old boy died about a year ago from injuries suffered after he strayed from a Mountain High trail and became lost. Further north, at Mammoth Ski Resort, a snowboarder surfing out of bounds two months ago died when he hit a rock.

There have been 23 snowboarding deaths across the country since 1991, compared with 231 skiing deaths, a 10-1 ratio, according to a study by Jasper Healy, an industrial engineer at Rochester Institute of Technology.

The sport’s growth translates into more boarders on the slopes with minimal experience, said Jay Reed, a spokesman for Snow Valley Ski Resort.

“You have beginning snowboarders, and they’re trying to do stuff they aren’t qualified to do,” he said. “They’re getting hurt and paying the price.”

Helmets were recently mandated for all amateur competitions, he said. They also are worn during most professional competitions.

The trend toward helmets among competitive snowboarders provides hope that the entire sport might move in that direction, said Ken Martin, president of the Southern California branch of the United States Amateur Snowboarding Assn.

Richard Ganitch, Shelby’s father, wishes there had been such a law in California.

“I had no idea of the rate of head and neck injuries,” he said.

Had she been wearing a helmet, he said, “my daughter would be snowboarding today.”

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Downhill Dangers

The number of snowboarders treated by San Bernardino County Medical Center tripled from 1997 to 1998. The Center treats injuries from four of the Southland’s major boarding venues: Snow Summit, Snow Valley, Mountain High and Bear Mountain.

Patients treated

‘97: 42

‘98: 134

‘99: 57*

Snowboarding seems to be particularly hard on the head. How 1998 injuries divided:

Head Injuries: 30%

Fractures: 27%

Abrasions / lacerations: 21%

Strains: 10%

Internal Injuries: 7%

Dislocations: 5%

Nationwide Outlook

The increase in local snowboarding injuries mirrors a growing trend nationwide that has occurred while skiing injuries have declined:

SKIING INJURIES

‘93: 114,400

‘97: 84,200

SNOWBOARDING INJURIES

‘93: 12,600

‘97: 37,600

Sources: San Bernardino County Medical Center, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

*Through Feb. 28