Foiling injuries - post them

I injured my knee while SUPfoiling with one front foot strap and to big of a foil for the surf size. MCL tear and was out of the water for about 1.5 months early 2023. All better now, but no longer using single strap in surf.

Other day I had one where I fell onto the rail of my board crotch first, like how skateboarders fall onto handrails. No problems but that was a scary one.

Last year my hand slipped off the rail and it came up and hit or stretched my left vas deferense(sp?), I was out for a few weeks from that.

For sale: all my foil gear

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This thread ought to be locked, so spouses and other non-combatants can’t stumble onto it. :slight_smile:

I’ve been foiling roughly 10 years, kite, sup, prone, wing, efoil. So many injuries.

– repeated whiplash and concussions, mainly from sup foil. I find you can tackle bigger waves and go much faster with sup vs prone, and now with the e. Winging too. Big hard shell helmets make those wipeouts hurt worse. Soft helmets lose some protection but lessen bucket effect.

– many wetsuit cuts from wing contact…scary to think what some of these might be without the 5mm suit of armour

– one foil to head resulting in 6 stitches … on the rare day I wasn’t wearing my helmet, of course.

– a freakish one where I fell butt first on the metal leash connection for my efoil, a nothing situation, where I tore a 3" hole in crotch of wetsuit and narrowly avoided some really bad potential issues.

Repeated lesson learned: injuries tend to happen when you are playing it casual and carefree, not on guard in serious conditions.

Which brings me to my latest, in line with comments above regarding shallow water. Easy fun carefree day, I was starting to come off foil while pumping so dove in. Thought I was in the deeper section, but was still over the reef, waist deep water, I dove face first into the bottom. Mangled my nose, snapped by head back, a week later still have some mild concussion symptoms and neck pain…gonna have to see the doc. I am embarrassed at my stupidity and grateful not have snapped my neck … as I know very well what can happen with shallow dives and have told maybe 1000 people to never do what I did.

The obvious lesson, reinforced, ALWAYS fall flat, not dive in. But the general PSA: be on your game, especially when it feels like you don’t need to worry about anything. Lifechanging injuries are right there waiting for you to do something so frickin dumb that its astounding.

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I was foiling once in Saint Augustine and had a super long ride only to find myself flying sky high in about 6 inches of water with a closeout bearing down on me, I was able to jam into the big foam and kick out and land safely but it would have been a very dangerous wipeout

Shallow water can be terrible, worst is obviously shallow reef. I’ve hit coral heads and been sent flying praying that another is not in my landing zone!

The foil, for the most part has left me alone except for one wipeout. The board movement because of the foil tho:

Nearly broke my leg from a board strike in the surf.
Broke my ribs from a board strike doing DW.
Bad wrist sprain hitting the board on tacks.
One reverse taco, backside tip breach, foil cut straight through my impact vest and across my back.

This is after about 250 foil sessions and every accident has happened trying something new or while pushing my personal limits. On everyday riding and while learning the basics, nothing ever happens.

I was walking my wingfoil rig out of some heavy shorepound when wind totally stopped and managed to get tangled in both leashes(foil and wing) and rolled up and down the steep sand beach a few times in the waves. Couldn’t move either arm. I felt super dumb. Only injury was to my ego, which can be much worse than many physical injuries.



Recent shin shave :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::call_me_hand:

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Ouch… Just Ouch… Damn… :open_mouth:

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Kite foiling for many years. No injuries to speak about. Prone for about a year.
Slice to base of thumb, probably needed stitches, just glued it, was back in water in a couple of days.
Many shin dings. A hard hit to leg has left my ankle partially numb. No cut.
A launch and hard hit to water I think a slight concussion.

Now I wear the soft Tommy Carroll helmet. Always wear the o’neil water shoe or booties, and gloves. Dakine sailing glove.

Failed a duck dive on a shallow slab, wave turned the board around and the heavy gong foil full force hit my shin with the stab, wetsuit was ok but my shin got dented, desinfected it’s but it’s got infected had to take antibiotics.

One guy had issue with the video for the reason mentionned above i had to put it in private ( it’s a surf shop owner that is fighting a foiling ban on his local spot).

On my inner lake, felt on a clam with my foot trough my boots 8 stitch, one week later another guy had the same predicament on a spike on the same location, recently another one, shit got infected too because i took a shower :expressionless:

Yeah got me a few stitches

Nasty ! I wonder what is the cost of this injury, in France we dont see the real cost because we dont pay much ( i just paid for my rool i stayed over night and one day 150 euros).

In the last prone session, I almost lost my eye. It was not the day to be experimenting with new moves and i fel on to the foil, hitting my eye.

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This fall scare me a lot, i found huge wingspan foil more dangerous for that reason, only solution is full grill helmet i’ve seen some people using them .in the future If i cut myself in the face i will probably go this route, however i think riding strapped will reduce the probably of self injury .

Close call

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I’m super duper annoyed. I was in the water over the weekend having a blast. Of course plenty of surfers around, but I know how to stay plenty clear of anyone else. A guy paddles over and lets me know that I should be really really careful because he heard about people getting hurt by foils. Oh really? He says he was on vacation in Hawaii and somebody in the water got slashed in their forehead by a foil. I asked which beach, when, etc and details were spotty. Clearly he was making it up because I think we all would have heard about it if that actually happened. I think chatting with him for a few minutes helped him realize this was all in his head so he could calm down, but seriously? I really wonder what he think he was accomplishing with this

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Ive been foiling for a while mainly towing, and the only time.i have had tacos were when I went fast into whitewater the water just stops my foil dead while I keep flying off. Pretty safe. But the other times are when I try to do a backhand turn and I go a bit too critical. That seems to be the most dangerous kind of move. When you’re turning and the foil comes out the back of the wave and somehow tacos

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I wear full protection while winging and a few days ago I manage to fall backwards over my boom hitting it with the back of my neck.I had a hard sell on so apart from some white light and pain it was fine.Had I wore a soft sell it would surely be way worse.

I am learning to prone and in a very small day in the beach break I tried to now duck dive on a hip high “set wave” ,the board pushed back and slice the top of my toe .A few days off the water.
Now I always wear booties.

I a curious about that people wearing grids , and have been looking even football or hockey helmets but it look too bulky.

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