Skip to main content
British Journal of Sports Medicine logoLink to British Journal of Sports Medicine
. 1996 Jun;30(2):90–93. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.30.2.90

Tournament water skiing trauma.

S N Roberts 1, P M Roberts 1
PMCID: PMC1332368  PMID: 8799590

Abstract

Tournament water skiing is an increasingly popular and internationally successful sport in Great Britain, despite the climate. The kinematics and injury patterns of the three disciplines will be unfamiliar to most clinicians and are described, with estimation of the stresses. Advances in equipment over the last 15 years have reduced the risk of severe injury in the tricks event, while high speed impacts are responsible for the majority of trauma in slalom and jump. There is a surprisingly high incidence of injury to the lumbar spine during the high impact jump event. Comparison with findings in other sports suggests that the spine may be damaged by overuse, particularly before skeletal maturity.

Full text

PDF
90

Images in this article

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Banta J. V. Epidemiology of waterskiing injuries. West J Med. 1979 Jun;130(6):493–497. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Horne J., Cockshott W. P., Shannon H. S. Spinal column damage from water ski jumping. Skeletal Radiol. 1987;16(8):612–616. doi: 10.1007/BF00357108. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Hummel G., Gainor B. J. Waterskiing-related injuries. Am J Sports Med. 1982 Jul-Aug;10(4):215–218. doi: 10.1177/036354658201000405. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Kizer K. W. Medical hazards of the water skiing douche. Ann Emerg Med. 1980 May;9(5):268–269. doi: 10.1016/s0196-0644(80)80387-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Mann R. J. Propeller injuries. South Med J. 1976 May;69(5):567–569. doi: 10.1097/00007611-197605000-00026. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Pizzutillo P. D. Spinal considerations in the young athlete. Instr Course Lect. 1993;42:463–472. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Rossi F. Spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis and sports. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 1978 Dec;18(4):317–340. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Stanisavljevic S., Irwin R. B., Brown L. R. Orthopedic injuries in water-skiing: etiology and prevention. Orthopedics. 1978 Mar-Apr;1(2):125–129. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Stanitski C. L. Common injuries in preadolescent and adolescent athletes. Recommendations for prevention. Sports Med. 1989 Jan;7(1):32–41. doi: 10.2165/00007256-198907010-00003. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Sports Medicine are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES