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Carving skis seem safer than straight skis

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Injuries seems to be less common with carving skis than straight skis, according to research from Austria. Scientists at the Department of Sport Science in Innsbruck University looked at the effects of modern ski equipment on injury in alpine skiers. They wanted to see whether the introduction of carving skis and related equipment has altered the overall injury rate and/or the pattern of injury location. ...They looked at all injured skiers requiring evacuation or medical treatment in 70 Austrian ski areas in the winter season of 1997-98, when carving skis just started to appear on the ski market. They then collected data from a representative sample of 5 ski areas 5 years later, when most skiers were using carving skis. In 1997-98, there were 1.43 injuries per 1,000 skier days. Out of 17,914 injured alpine skiers, 29.5% of the injured men and 53.0% of the injured women suffered knee injuries. Five years later, the overall injury rate had decreased by 9%.

Gender-specific percentages of knee injuries did not change, however. Female carving skiers not using newly adjusted bindings had a higher risk of knee injury than those with newly adjusted bindings.

Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18614888?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Citation: Burtscher M et al. Effects of modern ski equipment on the overall injury rate and the pattern of injury location in Alpine skiing. Clin J Sport Med 2008 Jul;18(4):355-7.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I wonder if the difference might be explained in part simply by the reduced length of the skis.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
laundryman wrote:
I wonder if the difference might be explained in part simply by the reduced length of the skis.

Only two data points?
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Quote:
CONCLUSION: The maintenance of adequate binding adjustment is especially important for the prevention of knee injuries


So not rocket science then, but I think laundryman is right, a shorter lever to stress the knee in a backward twisting fall (the prime mechanism of ACL injury), plus the fact that carvers will naturally turn out of a loaded trajectory compared to a long skinny ski which just keeps straight on - Remember that feeling Shocked Shocked Puzzled
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I would have thought improvements in bindings was more likely to be the cause of reduced injuries.
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kevinrhead, Bindings haven't really changed during that time.
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Read the article (small paragraph) and it doesnt state..
Quote:
Injuries seems to be less common with carving skis than straight skis

The key point is that
Quote:
Five years later with the introduction of carving skis, the overall injury rate decreased by 9%
which for all of us is real good!

But like any stats it needs to taken in context, the short paragraph then points to bindings as being a key factor. Surley that where its always been? We know that straighter skis generally will have a wide turn radius, but surely binding technology and adjustment are the cause of improvement?

I also thought i'd seen a posting that said that carving skis (and a that have turn radius <17m) were not allowed a the instructor type ski course. Reason given was that of risk of injury. So how and where they are used will be a factor. I hope the 5 years of study didnt just result in that one paragraph!
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BMF_Skier,
Quote:

Reason given was that of risk of injury


I think that was just a guess wink
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The proposal about the overall injury reduction being related to the use of carving skis seems to be a propter hoc argument. If so (and I've only glanced at the abstract) is it possible that another contributing factor is a change in overall demographic - one injury prone group (young mad blokes) are now denting themselves on snowboards, instead.
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Quote:

is it possible that another contributing factor is a change in overall demographic - one injury prone group (young mad blokes) are now denting themselves on snowboards, instead.

Quite!

Or it might be they "just by accident" picked the year of 97-98 was just a year of abnormally high injury?
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Lets face it, these kind of studies are a good way for researchers to spend time in ski resorts!

The report seems to be saying that knee injuries have decreased.

Other studies suggest that overall accident rates have increased since 1998 with a greater % of more serious injuries because carving skis enable beginners to progress faster onto difficult pistes and ski at higher speeds earlier (rates of broken leg bones and head injuries have increased over the same period).

Of course you would need to factor in other things, like Pam says demographics and piste usage (more or less skiers on a given slope).

Overall, it is hard thing to measure - although it would seem logical that knee and ligament injuries would have dropped.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
with all those factors to allow for, the researchers will obviously have to spend a lot more time on a lot more slopes. Laughing The propter hoc argument as stated is pretty weak; they could almost as well have decided that because the change coincided with a move away from fartbags, they were the cause of the earlier higher rate of injury. I would hope the whole article looks at the statistical significance/reliability of the results, too.
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Looking at related articles published this year there is a concensus about falling injury rates, summed up by this quote:

Skiing is one of the most favoured winter sports, supported by the introduction of carving skis ten years ago. There's a close correlation between the design of the carving ski and a new skiing technique. Only a small number of persons is able to carve correctly. A special fitness program is necessary to be prepared adequately to the skills of carving. As proven by the latest injury statistics, the number of injuries has been declining over the last years. Due to the new skiing technique, injury patterns have changed. The most frequently affected injured region is still the knee joint. Prevention can be done by fitness training, watching instructional ski videos, and usage of well-fitting sports equipment. A new trend is the Telemark-technique, which shows different injury patterns than carving.

Another study from Japan published this year finds:

The injury rate, which was based on all purchased lift tickets, in snowboarding decreased gradually, although it was still 2 times higher than that of alpine skiing. Snowboarding and ski boarding had a higher fracture and dislocation rate. Both sports also had a 4 times higher rate of injuries because of jumping. The characteristics of ski boarding were a lower head and neck injury rate and collision injury rate than those of the other 2 snow sports, as well as a 2 times higher rate of fractures compared with alpine skiing injuries and a 1.4 times higher incidence than that of snowboarding injuries. Of the fractures caused by ski boarding accidents, 39.6% affected the lower leg bones. CONCLUSION: Injury prevention strategies should focus on jumps for snowboarders and ski boarders.

And for the racers: Anterior cruciate ligament injury rates (primary injury, bilateral injury, reinjury) among national competitive alpine skiers are high and have not declined in the last 25 years. Finding a way to prevent anterior cruciate ligament injury in this population is a very important goal. Crying or Very sad
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Quote:

Of the fractures caused by ski boarding accidents, 39.6% affected the lower leg bones. CONCLUSION: Injury prevention strategies should focus on jumps for snowboarders and ski boarders.

another reasonable conclusion could be that skiboards without proper bindings should be phased out.

Also, the conclusion that snowboarding and blading caused twice as many injuries as skiing has to be interpreted in relation to the sample. They may be comparing apples and pears? Is the injury rate twice as high if you compare young male snowboarders with young male skiers?
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Piste grooming & piste maintenance has improved massively. We are all skiing on better surfaces and we get caught out less. Another factor not mentioned is the huge improvement in the quality and base/edge condition of hire skis. T-bars & button lifts are becoming a thing of the past - skiers are arriving at the top less fatigued and the are less fatigued on the run too. All helps reduce injury rates.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Quote:

Piste grooming & piste maintenance has improved massively

Has it really improved "massively" since 1997? It's certainly good, but I would have thought there's not been a vast change since then. And although pistes are well maintained, there has been a big increase in park skiing, and non expert skiers going off piste - which could offset the impact of fewer accidents on piste.
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Quote:

A new trend is the Telemark-technique, which shows different injury patterns than carving.

Do you think I may have been a bit hasty fitting some non releaseable telemark bindings to an old pair of 205 Salomon P9s I've just found in our club hut Madeye-Smiley
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
pam w, oh alright then "improved quite a bit in my experience". The big popular resorts have been good at it since 97 but smaller resorts have caught on more slowly.
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