SERIOUS Injury - R we beyond the limits of what we can do?

[Derek Yates]

Hey All, I just checked out NSMB today to find another notice of a rider who has injured themselves to the point where they will be left with serious and permanent damage to themselves. With the increasing number of Pro riders from Australia, Canada, Europe and the US becoming involved in serious accidents that they are not walking away from, do people think that we are reaching the limits of safety and what is possible on an MTB?
Every time I see a new video/photo shoot I am blown away by how far we have progessed as a sport and how big the moves riders are pulling. This is obviously pushing the envelope at the Pro level, but I think we all realise that it is raising the bar for the rest of us. I have been amazed at the skills of a lot of young riders, but are we pushing riders to ride in ways that could potentially endanger lives?
I'm not making a call to dumb down and bubble wrap our sport, but I'd be interested to hear what people are thinking about when they hear that another Pro MTB rider has potentially ended thier riding careers and put thier lives at risk. I know for myself it does make you think twice about what you do on a bike. I'm all for progression and going bigger and better than before but I'd like to hear if it affects how you ride or makes you think about trying something HUGE (even if it's only huge for you).
For me, half the draw of mountainbike riding is the fact that there is danger involves and the risk of injury is what makes you feel extra stoked when you do pull a new move without axing yourself. I'm not riding at even half the level of Pro riders, but I know a bunch of people who are damn good and pulling big moves. Even events like Red Bull seem to have gone right to the edge of what is possible and spit out bikes and riders broken and injured.
When a large number of the best of the Pro's are comming off second best trying to push the envelope on a bike does this mean we are reaching our limits as a sport? If not how will we know when we do? Do people have to die? It's a scary thought, but the next step beyond the types of injuries people are getting now is pretty serious stuff.
It's easy to write this stuff off as someone elses problem and not relevant to your life but in the end it could be you. Do we take the risk too lightly?
I'd be really interested in hearing what people think.

 

[donplayahate]

hey,
im 17 have been ridin for 2 years...only got cuts n bruises never had ne serious crashs(touch wood). i also have adhd which i think influences how i ride alot...adhd attention defecite hyperactive disorder its more than the stereo type 'always in trouble, cant concentrate, never works, causes trouble etc' and and becasue of his i have been kicked outta 2 skools'sorry off topic....when i ride i dont think aboutte risks just how much fun it will be...mountain biking along with any other 'Xtreme'sport are all about calculated risks, and thats wot makes it soo fun knowing everytime u jump, drop, up, somethin u know its gonna be a rush if u do it, no matter wht people say to you, you dont want to stop, i ride because i love it and im always tryin to find somethin bigger and better to do,
it is upsetting c;in pros crash hard and never be able to ride but it doesnt stop me going harder..thinkin ill could fill his place(which sounds bad but we all want to be pro)
Maybe we have reached the limits ofthe sport but i dont think ne 1 is goin to stop until we allreach the point, look at bender some ppl love him others hate him his is pushin the limits and snapping himself at the same time its a surprise he isnt injured for life.
i think alotof the problem is people riding beyond there ability thinkin they can do, and injuring themselves...i.e watchin super t' drop 40 ft thenthink oh i could do that find uselfa nice cliff and kiss your ass goodbye.
trivial topic i dont think there is definite answer but eh if u fall get back up if u land go bigger!!

 

[GSXR]

Mountain biking has only just started, how do we know what can be done on a bike? the progression of riding has been very fast over the last 6 or so years. Every new rider that comes into the sport looks at the top riders and see's the jumps there hitting rock gardens there smashing and speed there riding at and takes that as the norm, from there they step it up another level. Look how all two wheeled sports have developed over the last 20 years, MotoX and road moto racing are vastly different to the early 80's , the improvements to bikes are still in there infancy, mountain biking is going to go alot further . We cant stop it. Most riders only ride at 80% of what there bikes and equipment can handle. But in there mind they are at 100%

 

[Chilli]

Yeah dood. im 16 and have been riding for two years, heavily for about six months. i started on xc like i think a lot of us have and after one day up at the trails i found i liked busting big, going fast down rocky stuff and gapping thousands of times better than i liked pedalling up infinite hills. so here i am now at home with a shattered ankle, off the bike for six weeks( ) after throwing down an experimental one-footer-over-the-back-wheel- lookback on a sk8park hip. and as soon as the cast is off IM RIGHT BACK UP THERE BABY!!! injury is what separates us hardcore mtbers from the lycra clad endorphin-pumping sock tucking unenlightened pedal heads that we have since risen above. and i am oh so stoked to be back there at school hols :mrgreen: so get out there and get hurt!!! (bones heal and chicks dig scars -thanx simpsons)

 

[bazza]

i have neck problems all the time from a few major head crashes but thats my main problem nothing streching cant fix. its a pain in the ass and im only 16 and been riding for a year.

 

[Bender is CRAZY]

I think that a lot of the pro riders are nearing hte limit maybe? Look at Bender on that massive 50-60 foot drop, he just can't land it! But i don't know, i think all the non pro riders out there have a long way to go, and then we will start to raise the bar

 

[Simo]

i wont even begin to list how farked my body is with back problems and stuff like that but i've never had a major fall becuase of this. I limit myself and basically pussy out of pretty much everything! :lol:

 

[CHEWY]

its not just pro riders getting hurt... all types of riders get hurt. u just dont hear about it. u dont have to be dropping off a 50ft cliff to hurt urself, u could just be riding trails, fall off and hit ur head on a rock and u could have just as bad injuries as someone who stacks off a 40ft cliff...
luckily for me somehow i never land on my head and have never broken a bone ever. i think that my years of experiance stacking has taught me well in the art of crashing

 

[Guest]

advice to people this applys to everythin

if your confident do it
if your not do not do it cuz as your coming up to it (ie jumps) youll think and fuck up. and get hurt

 

[Carlin]

Making a big generalisation here:

Ignoring how well one falls, luck, and so on let's say that the average rider (pro and newbie allike regardless of terrain or move) may have an off 5% of the time when trying a move that is at the edge there limits.

The elite rider is going to be doing something that much harder, faster, when they do come unstuck, it is almost inevitable that they will hurt themselves more.

But within all this some prople crash more, some less. Some crash well some don't, and sometimes I suppose it is just luck, you can hurt yourself riding something really small/ easy. Mabye when you learn to ride bigger stuff you also learn how to fall off bigger stuff? I don't have the answers

Ride within your limits.

 

[lupine128]

few scattered points in no real order, feel free to argue.

i've hurt my self far worse on moto's (mostly road, pavement at 180+ really hurts!) than i have on MTBs, but i'm just starting again. sever accidents happen anywhere, anytime.
it might just be me, but i really don't think people like bender are a good examle of pro riders reaching their limits. as far as talent goes, people like kovaric or rennie have far better actual skills than the big droppers and improvments in equipment will continue to allow improvements in both speed and style.
injuries sustained by racers will always be more public than your ordinary joe. who saw the article in the paper last week about the guy who smacked into the car and died? that was a cycling accident as well.
advances in technology make it easier to go bigger, will protect you better when it goes wrong, and allow you kill yourself big time if it all goes really pear shaped. accidents that i have walked away from on my moto would have killed profesional racers 15 years ago.
ummm thats about it.....

 

[Simo]

ok, i cursed myself when i wrote that last post! Right after that I had PE at school, i know have a purple toe and a stuffed knee thanks to playing indoor hockey (thunder hoc! how radcore) barefooted!
yes, i have now made that appointment to see the sports physio for my knees and back!

 

[shwinboy]

......injury is what separates us hardcore mtbers from the lycra clad endorphin-pumping sock tucking unenlightened pedal heads that we have since risen above.

Some of us have more to offer the world than our busted bodies and brain damaged remarks. If you feel you're more enlightened than the rest of the world with your 16 years of experience and and go hard or go home mantra you should do us all a favor and start a suicide cult. Injury dosn't mean your more enlightened just unlucky or stupid or both. Keep it in perspective dude. Busting your self up may have been a spiratual experience for you but to the rest of the world it would have been a sad funiest home video rerun.

It may also intrest you that statistically road racing is far more dangerous than DH mountain bike riding. You are far more likely to end up seriously injured in a road race than you are in a DH MTB race. Quite a few pro's have died in recent road racing events. These guys go faster take more risks and all with out the help of our friend Mr Dianise. I guess that must mean by your reasoning that roadies are much more enlightened & hardcore than you're average gromit riding his dualie in a sk8 park.

 

[Kram]

^^^^^^^
Nicely said Shwinny.

I just have to differ on the One speed thing.

 

[Guest]

i rekon mountain biking as a sport will follow sumthing like moto X.
when some old mate started jumping a few cars at the local show, that was fully hardcore, that was 20 or more years ago.
thats when people started to realise things could be done like this on a motor bike, now old travis is pulling no footed back flips 50 foot up!!
mountain biking on the other hand is the same, although we have only just started to relise that we can do stunts like the moto riders on our MTB's although we only relised this, maybe, 10 yrs ago.
the way i see it we could have another 10 yrs of progression to go, at least. go out and prove me right!!!

 

[Rik]

Put it this way: we started pushing our bodies beyond what they could take when we started travelling faster than running speed. The way things are going now, we'll need titanium plated skeletons just to survive the progression of extreme sports :shock: