New Zealand Snow Sports Injury Trends Over Five Winter Seasons 2010–2014

Abstract

Ski patrol national incident data were analysed in New Zealand for alpine skiing and snowboarding injuries from 4 June 2010 to 9 November 2014. Over five winter seasons, there were 5,861,643 visitations and 18,382 incidents. The injury rate per 1000 skier/boarder days was relatively constant (3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 2.7, and 3.1, respectively). Falls accounted for the injury mechanism in 74.3% of all injuries. Four died after catastrophic falls (two skiing, two snowboarding). Overall, more knee injuries occurred skiing in soft snow conditions than hard (55 vs. 45%). Advanced skiers were 2.2 times more likely to sustain a knee injury with nonrelease of the ski-binding in hard snow surface conditions than when the ski-binding released. Despite increased helmet usage (42-83%), there was a very likely increase in concussion (1.29, 99% CI 1.06-1.57). Hard snow conditions increased wrist injuries for both intermediate and novice snowboarders (30 and 12%, respectively). Wrist protection was most likely to be beneficial in preventing wrist injuries (hazard ratio 0.65, 99% CI O.54-0.79). Good visibility compared to poor visibility led to a twofold increase in injuries. Increased slope congestion, changes in direction to avoid collision with others and speed were possible contributing factors. Collisions accounted for 9.6% of all injuries. Going forward New Zealand injury prevention initiatives need to be multifaceted. Recreational skiers need to ski on torque-tested equipment with release settings that are a match for current physical parameters, style, and the ability to ski in different snow surface conditions. Further research is

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Effect of surrogate design on the measured stiffness of snowboarding wrist protectors

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