Head Injuries While Skiing - Why It's Important to Wear a Helmet

I love to ski. I'm in my 50's and I may be the oldest "dude" who "goes for it" in the terrain parks. I love to jump, do the boxes, and especially do the big SUPER-PIPE at my home mountain, Mammoth, in California.

My guys my age have more sense than I do. Gradually, they slow down. First they stop doing Hangman's (the steepest, hardest, "marked" run at Mammoth). Then, they stop doing anything with bumps.

Pretty soon, they're taking long lunches and, gulp, drinking beers. After a couple of beers, going out again is a forgotten idea and where they're eating for dinner is the next thing on their mind!

Me, I am up there, suited up, coffee'd up, waiting for the lifts to open EVERY DAY I'm there, which is usually between 30-40 days a season. It would be more if my wife would cooperate since I can work from anywhere. But, you know women! Demanding you-know-what's (I love her and she's a GREAT skier, btw).

I've been jumping since before snowboards existed, when we went off ledges, built our own, or just jumped ski roads that had a lip, or rocks that were covered with snow. Heck, we'd jump a big mogul. I loved it.

But, I'm not a kid anymore. Yet, when snowboards came out and they began building those amazing terrain parks, I was spell-bound. But, the skis we had then weren't made for the half-pipes or the boxes, let alone the rails.

I still jumped.

Then, one season, I saw a young dude go off a jump backwards! I thought he'd made a mistake until I noticed his skis! They were the newly invented twin-tips! These skis allowed skiers to do everything, and more in my opinion, that the boarders were doing in the park. AND, they could now go in the pipes without risk of catching their rear ends!

I got 'em--that day. Then, slowly but surely, I began to do the pipe. I was already 50. The looks I got, in the beginning, were not nice ones from "the kids." They were staring at me with "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE OLD MAN?"

But, eventually, I got it and I loved it! I did get a helmet, thank G*d, and wear it every time I ski nowadays. The mix of boarders and skiers requires it, as we just "do" the mountain differently and with so many listening to music or having blind-spots, I don't want to take the chance of being taken out by an out-of-control boarder or skier.

As it turned out, I took myself out. Memorial Day, 2008, they built a pipe higher up on the mountain due to the warmer weather. By now, I regularly cleared the lip and turned above it, as much as 2-4 feet in the air. I wasn't doing tricks, but I still looked cool and "the kids" now were saying, "Not bad for an old guy."

This one day, I was keeping count of my trips in the pipe. All I remember about my 13th one, which I'd decided would be my last as it was getting too crowded, was "dropping in" and making the first turn. Next memory was waking up in a ski gurney with fingers being waved in front of my face.

Evidently, I'd fallen on my head, was knocked unconscious, with my helmet (which saved my life), and I had been "out" for a few minutes. I woke up. The patrolmen told me I'd injured my shoulder and they were going to take me down the mountain.

That was truly the scariest ride of my life. I was quite disoriented and being so close to the ground, the speed was frightening. I also wasn't quite clear-headed yet.

The ride to the hospital was also a blur. I never regained my memory of what happened after I dropped in the pipe. More on that later.

Evidently, I'd fallen on my head, upside down and dislocated my shoulder downwards, which could only happen from an upside-down fall. I only broke two bones in my shoulder. And, I had bleeding in my brain in spite of the helmet!

Whenever there's a head injury, they keep you in the hospital overnight to monitor anything further that might happen. Thankfully, nothing happened except my eating the lousy hospital food. For my shoulder, there was minimal pain as they "re-located" it while I was still in a daze on arrival so I missed that "OUCH" and all they gave me for the broken bones was a sling.

I drove home the next morning. My wife was furious. She banned me from any more jumping, but NOT the pipe. The neurologist said I was unbelievably lucky as the amount of bleeding on my brain was worse than patients of his that had severe brain damage and I apparently had done (my wife would disagree, saying the existing damage was just worsened).

The bones healed, my next MRI showed the blood dried up, and I was ready for last ski season. I intended to "jump back on the horse" as soon as the pipes were open.

When they were, it happened to be a quiet day at the mountain. My first couple of trips were definitely a bit tentative, but my numbers 4 or 5 I was getting it back. Then, came # 13. I flashed back to my last #13. I dropped in. I made it through. Not as elegantly or as high as I liked, but without a fall. I did two more for good measure. I was back.

The photo above was taken a couple of months later and I also got a video of me you can see on YouTube that I call "The Old Guy In the Pipe." Unfortunately, I was still a bit tentative, but I expect to get higher air this season! I hope you enjoy.

My only advice. Wear a helmet. Always.

Postscript: My memory of the accident never returned, but later in the season after, I went up the lift with a young guy. For some reason, I told him about my accident. He looked at me and said, "You were that guy?" He and his friend, as it turned out, were the first two people to come up to me and had witnessed the whole thing. He said I was twitching when they got to me and babbling. They said the fall was beyond scary looking and that I'd gone up the wall and fallen backwards, from the top, as if I were doing a back swan dive, which fits perfectly with the injuries I sustained. The mystery was solved. I was one lucky dude!

I'm Bruce Sallan and I write the column, "A Dad's Point-of-View" and host a radio show of the same name. Find anything and everything about me at BruceSallan.com. Also please visit my new web-site, BoomerTechTalk, where we demystify technology and social media!