There are many new snowboarders who would want to know about protective gear. In this article, you would specifically find details about the most effective snowboarding gears which are found in the market nowadays.
Snowboarding as a sport has increased at a high rate over the last few years. Snowboarding jumps and rails are increasing in size each day. Even the slams are increasingly getting dangerous. However, you can protect yourself by wearing snowboarding protective gear. This in turn would boost your confidence when you are jumping on jumps and rails. Not only that you can protect your body from getting hurt and sitting through the entire season.
As every one snowboarding has its own set of risks but no one wants to get hurt while playing this interesting game. This risk of getting hurt and still playing the sport is what makes it so interesting. So how does anyone who plays the game keep them safe from getting injured? The first most important thing is to get the right snowboard and secondly get the snowboarding protective gear for yourself.
Is Snowboarding Risky?
If you follow the rules of snowboarding it is not that risky a sport. It is not that dangerous. However, there are many people who may get injured while snowboarding in the mountains. So, what these people should have got was the appropriate snowboarding protective gear.
Recent studies state that snowboarders mostly injure their wrist, the other parts which often get injured are the ankle, shoulders. They even get soft tissue injuries & ankle injuries. Some even suffer from concussions. Listed below are some of the snowboarding protective gears that should be used are:
- Helmet.
- Goggles.
- Gloves.
- Wrist Guards.
- Impact shorts.
- Snowboard knee pads.
- Back Protectors.
Wearing a Helmet
Let’s begin with the most important yet basic protective gear for snowboarding. You should always wear a Helmet. It would be life-threatening if you hit your head while snowboarding. In the earlier days wearing a helmet was considered to be uncool. However, with time this theory changed because of some very fatal accidents in the mountains.
Some of the names who had fatal accidents are Michael Schumacher and Kevin Pierce. These were very tragic accidents and had set things right for future generations. These accidents marked as examples of what you should never do while snowboarding. Hence, nowadays you would see many professionals wear all protective gear including the helmet while snowboarding.
You should consider certain conditions while buying the helmet. It should fit your head properly. Adjust it properly and check and see if it is a perfect fit. It should meet the minimum requirement of safety. The best part of wearing a helmet is that it keeps your goggles and beanie in place even when you fall.
Gloves
These are one kind of mittens which are very important for every snowboarder. They are good at protecting you from the snow and the cold environment. Ice or cold snow can be dangerous, as many suffer from frostbites and ice burns, and sometimes even cuts. So, when you are a beginner make sure to keep them on you, even during spring.
Wrist Guards
This is something that can be considered a good choice of protective snowboarding gear. Even a beginner would understand its importance. The reason is many a time snowboarders hit the edges and that really hurts. Let’s, say, if you hit the edge of your toe, you may fall forward on the ground which would result in a wrist injury. It is not a big injury but still, it still can instill fear in the snowboarders. Fear is the enemy of any snowboarder ass snowboarding needs confidence. If you have a wrist that hurts it would be hard to use the arms properly. It would be really hard to focus on the game and you would have to slow down the process of learning.
Wrist guards do tend to make it hard for a snowboarder to use their hand while checking the binding or taking anything out of your jacket pocket. However, buy a wrist guard of a minimum budget. There are new inbuilt gloves that are user-friendly. It helps you to move your wrists around and is found to be more effective.
Pads
All kinds of Elbow pads, Knee pads, butt pads & hip pads, help you from getting seriously bruised or injured on the slopes. Make sure that you protect all the necessary areas you want to protect. Make sure to get the correct pad for yourself. It protects the new snowboarder from getting seriously injured and if they fall it makes it a bit easier for them to handle.
Back Protectors
Back injuries do not happen a lot but if it does, it can paralyze you for life or even take your life. Most Back protectors come with padding on the shoulder, but they do create an inconvenience to move the upper-body.
Knee Pads
Snowboards who already are suffering from knee injuries must wear knee pads. However, it also restricts the movement for snowboarders to feel freedom.
Knee pads protect your knees from getting injured. Get a knee pad that fits you nicely. They should not be loose and must not be a fit that would need to be adjusted. The knee pads should be tight, snowboarders might feel uneasy but this is how they fit should be selected.
However, you need to know that Knee pads do put a lot of restriction on the knee flexion, it would be a hindrance to the knees to perform as it did when it was free. You would feel this during the jumps, or when you are on a low turn. They do affect the performance as you would find it difficult to move your knees.
Impact Shorts
Another type of injury that can be caused during snowboarding, is the tailbone injury. Many snowboarders do fall on their butt. This may be considered a part of the game. However, wearing impact shorts is a good thing to do. This suggestion is not only for the new learners but the professionals as well. If you wear the padded shorts you will save your tail bone from getting hurt during the fall in the snow park and would gain the confidence to learn new ways of learning tricks.
A nice pair of fitting impact shorts should not be visible in the snowboard pants. Never get shorts with too much padding made of plastic as it might hurt really bad when you fall.
Knee Pads For Snowboarding
People fall either on the toes or on their knees when they hit themselves on the edge. So, either they hurt their wrists or their knees. Some people fall on their knees, these people would need a knee pad. Mostly if there is too much ice you would need a knee pad. If you want to save yourself from bruised knees then you should wear a knee pad.
Knee pads can’t save you from serious accidents such as twisting or miscalculated landings which may cause ACL or damage to the ligament. However, they can save you from minor injuries. The knee pads should fit your well. Make sure you do not lose knee pads so that they keep falling off.
Back Protectors
As you already know back injuries are not so common but when it happens it is very serious. So, it is recommended that you wear a back protector that can save you from any impact on your spine. This protector would also need to be fitted well on your body. It cannot be too tight, otherwise, it would get pulled up due to the hand movements and your back may get hurt even during the smallest crash. There are many reasons to start wearing a back protector.
Protection from Impacts
It helps you to protect your back when your landing is miscalculated while snowboarding and may result in an accident.
- Falling in a proper manner: If you wear a back protector you will have the confidence to landfall backward. During landing, you will be able to relax and try and spread the impact of landing on the whole body. This would save your body from getting injured severely. However, if you don’t you might hurt your whole body.
- Protection from rocks and Ice: The back would be protected if you fall on a rock, ice or get hurt by the edge of the mountains. It would make sure that you are saved from getting injured, even if it is a minor injury.
- Collision with other skiers: Skiers are into a habit of crashing with each other. This is one of the largest causes of accidents. This happens mostly during the season of a holiday when the slopes are full of people.
To protect yourself from injuries that can be avoided, you need to wear snowboarding protective gear. This can help you be safe by the end of the game and can help you gradually learn the tricks of snowboarding and enjoy it a lot.
