kitesurfing = knee injuries

[gigi_sacrifici]

Guys,

I look at the kitesurfing pros and see they have all knee injuries or some kind of surgery done to their knees.
Besides that, those of my kite buddies who don't have a surgery yet, complain about "bad" knees.
Should I expect something like that for me too ?
Can we prevent knee trauma ?

Thanks for your help,

[hookedcook]

Every board sport has knee injures, comes with having fun, suck it up buttercup. It is what it is

[ham-er]

Yeah, I've noticed that too. Was wondering why most of them have knee braces, then when I look at the videos of the likes of Hadlow, Court, Lenten etc they all either jump high or freestyle. If you land bad from high jump all it takes is 1 crash to have a problem. Freestyle on the other hand looks like they all land hard all the time, but not very high. Which makes me less intersted in this discipline.
I try to take it easy and exercise a bit in between sessions to minimise the risk, but I guess it goes with territory...
It's all up to you if you push it hard you are more likely to hurt yourself. This is true for most sports, but even more so in so called "extreme" ones

[Boston kiter]

The pros are pushing the limits and will get hurt, just like every other action sport. TT is the most stressful on the body, strapless surfboard and foil are much less. We have local guys who jump up to 80feet which i think is nuts. Obviously it's awesome to jump that high but the risk of a serious injury IMO is very high.

[Vivo3d]

There are disciplines which are great fun and risk of an injury is low.
If you want extreme, you ask for injuries…handle passes and megaloops are the ones putting you into hospital.

So, choose carefully what will give you a great time on the water.

Also learn how to crash to avoid injuries…see my video here: https://strictlyhooked.com/viewtopic.php?t=2463

Good luck

[SMJ]

A few things ya can do to help prevent knee injuries is: stay away from wakestyle / freestyle, stay away from riding boots, and don't do kiteloop tricks. But if you want to pursue those disciplines a good CTI knee brace on your front knee certainly helps.

[edt]

Guys,

I look at the kitesurfing pros and see they have all knee injuries or some kind of surgery done to their knees.
Besides that, those of my kite buddies who don't have a surgery yet, complain about "bad" knees.
Should I expect something like that for me too ?
Can we prevent knee trauma ?

Thanks for your help,

you get knee injuries from boots, ankle injuries from straps and no injuries from strapless surfboard I choose them all! but you choose what allowed level of risk is. I do draw the line at megaloops in boots that's for pros only.

For beginners the highest level of risk is landing and launching because if the kite deathloops you get thrown into a building and can die.

ruben lenten is a case study. He broke his knee in boots wakeboarding when he was young, shattered his ankle into bits in straps during a megaloop, switched to boots because he couldn't move his ankle any more, then broke his leg into multiple sections during a megaloop when his quick release failed and opened at the top of a megaloop.

So he broke the ankle in straps, leg and knee in boots, and keeps on megalooping. Go ruben! I don't think he'll ever switch over to strapless surfboard.

You won't get bad knees from riding in straps. But if you are risk adverse take up strapless surfboard. All the old guys around here do it, and they never get hurt.

[SolarSet]

Mowing lawn and some jumps <10m surely have smaller risk
than megalooping in booths. Not to get any injury means not to doing any sport and probably dying from heart decease.
I notice that often riders keep their front leg straight and it should always be ever so slight bent to keep muscles damping chop not knees

[Toby]

ankle injuries from straps

make your straps big enough, and you won't get hurt!

[edt]

You can still get one foot in one foot out especially for a beginner. They aren't aware enough to know you're supposed to kick the board off when one foot comes out then the board twists and is cinched in place like a tourniquet and there's no way to get it off hard landing and that's a broken angle. Loose straps isn't magic you have to be experienced enough to know how to kick off the board which is something beginners can't do.

I agree though loose straps for board offs and tight boots for tricks you need the board locked in. If you're tightening the straps as hard as they go you should be in boots instead for that particular trick