Wristguards

The helmet topic got me wondering the views on wrist guards. Useful or just a reason to transfer the force to a broken arm?

I dont, but I would.
Never say never, ya know.

I know a family that all wear them, mom, dad and the 2 boys all 4 of them wear them about all the time.
When snowboarding, that is - not just walking to and from work or anything.

I wear them and sometimes find them annoying. Sworn by them since when I was a beginner and got a very nasty sprain.
A friend was wearing them once and ended up with a severely broken shoulder but I guess the force might have done
that anyway.

The old viewpoint was that wristguards transfers the force to the forearms. While that was somewhat the case with old type rigid wrist guards (Especially the ones with stiff palms) it doesn’t apply to the new wristguards our in todays market. Even wearing the old style wristguards, ie the Dakine ones, breaking the long bones in your forearm is still way better then breaking the small bones in your wrist.

The new Biomex and Flexmeter wrist guards/gloves are miles better then other brands at protecting from wrist injuries.

If i was heading to the park to try some new features, i’d probably chuck them on. I’d also put them on in the mornings cos im always dazed on my first run when its icy and all.

zhenjie - 06 August 2009 05:00 AM

The old viewpoint was that wristguards transfers the force to the forearms. While that was somewhat the case with old type rigid wrist guards (Especially the ones with stiff palms) it doesn’t apply to the new wristguards our in todays market. Even wearing the old style wristguards, ie the Dakine ones, breaking the long bones in your forearm is still way better then breaking the small bones in your wrist.

Exactly what the doc told me when i did my scaphoid.
I asked if i should wear wrist guards he said yes.
When i said wouldnt it just transfer the force up into my arm and i’ll break that, he said its a LOT easier to fix a break in the middle of your forearm than the little bones in your hand/wrist.
Basically he said that with a screw in it there was not much chance of breaking my scaphoid again, but there are plenty of other bones/ligaments i could injur.

That being said, ive still never worn wrist guards.
Touch wood i havent had any other problems.

Oh….. except a busted thumb last year. But a wrist guard wouldnt have helped that.

Wrist guards are a must for beginners. Broken wrists are such a common injury during the first few days on a snowboard. If you are starting out do yourself a favour and wear wrist guards. After a while you stop falling on your wrists and they become less important. I don’t wear wrist guards and I don’t think I ever will.

I have never worn wrist guards, I wouldn’t say I’m still a beginner but when I was I didn’t think it was necessary to have them. I hardly fell and still don’t fall very much at all and if I do fall it’s normally catching my heel side edge when I’m on my toe side and wrist guards won’t help when falling that way. I find they restrict your range of motion too much for my liking as well, I don’t like wearing things that stop the natural rotation of my body. Although I didn’t wear them I definitely recommend them for kids that are learning, it’s very important to keep their bones healthy for as long as possible.

i didnt wear them because i thought they were for beginners etc etc, then i broke my scaphoid, now im going to wear them. if i could go back in time id rather break my arm than this midget peanut bone that doesnt heal properly and turns your wrist into a noodle.

Plenty of pros break their wrist so its not just a beginner thing, once you start trying bigger tricks at more speed breaking your wrist becomes a problem again,

well i need my hands/wrist for work, so wrist guards are a must, hated them at 1st, but got used to them - have the dakine ones, fairly stream lined, don’t notice them at all now

i’m not a beginner, but i still wear wrist guards. The better you get at snowboarding, you will learn how to ride faster ... and then you will fall harder. I’ve broken enough bones to know that i dont want to be stuck in a cast for another 6 weeks just because i thought i was to cool to wear wrist guards.

I don’t wear them because I operate camera’s on the hill while boarding and they get in the way.

My good gloves have a heavy velcro strap around the wrist - it feels like it adds support and prevents my hands from bending to far without restricting the movement I need. When I fall I don’t land on my hands, even just sitting I go down on my fists, in a fall I clench a fist to prevent wrist injury. i used to carry and shoot with a hand held video, when I would board without it I carried a drink bottle, after years of this the practice using a fist is natural.

There has been the odd toe edge fall - it’s a natural reaction to use your hands, at the last instant I’ve been able to not take all my weight on my wrists and fight that urge, instead allowing my arms, chest and face to share the impact. The important thing is to not carrie keys, pens, mp3 player or even change in upper jacket pockets - they can hurt.

you have always been able to get form fitting wrist guards that arent completely rigid and are able to even fit under pit gloves etc but i cant find them in Australia? ive got a skanky old pair that i got in europe. Anyone know if you can get them here? ill try and post a photo sometimes.

Ive got a friend who is the Swedish boardercross coach and ex team member…pretty sure he isnt a begginer and he has broken his wrists over 15times and still doesnt wear guards…..weird if you ask me.

He may need to drink more milk.

I’ve seen so many broken wrists and tell everyone learning to wear guards, at least for the first few days. I’ve had occasions that I thought I’d broken one.

it might be easy to fix a forearm fracture, but its certainly not easy to fix a radial head fracture or elbow dislocation

you should try to learn to fall without supermanning your arms out to break your fall, you could wear a helmet, wrist guards, spine protector, knee braces, shin guards, mouthgards etc but at some point you need to accept there is some risk and learn how to fall properly/in a safer manner

I think that wrist guard are probably a good idea for learning especially in harder conditions.  Once your turning gets ok you tend to fall way less and hence the value of wrist guards decreases.  I always give my wrists a good warm up mind, i look pretty silly while i do it i imagine but sometimes you can just feel your wrists are brittle, especially on cold days.  I think this is the dullest post i’ve ever written, apologies….