British Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol 30, Issue 2 90-93, Copyright © 1996 by British Association of Sport and Medicine
Tournament water skiing trauma
SN Roberts and PM Roberts
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom.
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.
