Avoiding crashes and injury

Vancouver Coastal Health is planning a public awareness campaign to try and minimize mountain bike injuries. If there was one thing you could tell new riders to keep them safe, what would it be?

Pretty much all I could come up with was "Know your limits, actions have consequences, don't be stupid" That's actually three things I guess.

an underrated one is "think of the limits of the people you're riding with. especially those you are introducing to the sport"

obviously annecdote ? evidence, but i can think of way too many stories of people being taken out for one of their first rides and getting in over their head because their "guide" didn't think about how hard or long they could go

more importantly, on the a ? e note, it would be good if VCH could give US some info on what has contributed to mtb crashes. they've got all of the access and the data - maybe instead of asking us to come up with stuff they could tell us what's happening, and pick our brains on ways to communicate it :idea:

for example, if most hospitalizing crashes are the result of gear failure, "don't be stupid" isn't very helpful advice, but "maintain your bike" might be

I wholly agree boom.

Trails are rated for a reason. Keep your skill level in mind. There's no shame in starting from the beginning and working your way up. Start on green trails, progress to blue, then to black. Don't jump into a black diamond trail and give it the beans. You'll get hurt for sure.

My first ever MTB ride on the shore was a trip down CBC on a Specialized Epic. I was with a guy also on an Epic, but he had grown up on the shore and had ridden for over a decade. I was trying to match his speed, and not drop my post since he didn't. I've never walked with my bike so much in my life. I just about sold the MTB after that ride.

A few rides later I was on Pipeline with some shop dudes, who all assured me I'd be fine. Again trying to keep up to guys on similar bikes, but had ridden way more than me. Ended up with a 3rd degree shoulder separation (fully separated).

My riding has progressed, but I sure wish I took a different approach to get to where I am now. I probably wouldn't have as many injuries that are going to come back to nag me when I'm an old man…

Live to ride another day. If something looks too hard [HTML_REMOVED] you're not sure about it, go around it or walk your bike. You can always get it next time.

good question. i struggle with it all the time. i'm fairly bent on improvement and have an ongoing battle with mind/body/attitude/perceived skill levels. if you don't push your envelope to some degree you won't improve. i wish i knew what kind of advice to give. bite off small chunks and don't just fucking don't think you can ride like guys in bike videos, not for a long time, or ever. i watch a shit tonne of vids, i have no tv anymore, the interweb is my tv. so i watch and what is done on mtn bikes these days is just bonkers. the bikes combined with the chops of young dudes who cut their teeth on competitive bmx'ing is off the charts. i want to ride half that level but sorry, ain't happening. and yet, i know i will still get injured doing this dam sport still… 48 and first thing i do when moving to Kamloops? i better know where the fucking hospital is…

my attitude since I had my big accident has been "I want to ride tomorrow". I don't go slow, but I rarely take unnecessary or uncalculated risks…been working out okay [HTML_REMOVED]knocks on wood[HTML_REMOVED]

"I want to ride tomorrow".

Truth in that.

When I was volunteering in the bike park most of the incidents were from people riding above their limits.

My advice to people - no rush. Be smooth to be fast.

If that fails, lay off the front brakes, and keep your heals down.

Look where you want to go (and not where you don't….).

Just because you could do something yesterday doesn't mean today is a good day to do it. Maybe today you're tired or a bit hung over or just not as on as you should be to ride at your max level. This is something I'm trying to get better at; saying no when I'm not feeling 100%

Pave the shore.

I'll be Debbie Downer. You cant avoid injury, all you do is minimize it. Sorry, it comes with the sport and if you do it long enough it will happen.

Man this topic is a can of worms. We see it promoted as an extreme sport where risks are seen as an integral part of the sport, and it is. If it was totally safe it would not be as fun. But you get that old saw " if you aren't crashing, you aren't trying hard enough" which is kind of bullshit.

Some people too don't feel the fear like others. They take bigger risks and don't worry about consequences. I always did so my approach has been much more careful and my progress slower. I saw friends doing things and crashing but I wasn't pressured to attempt the same thing. Often I think it's the hidden competition of peer pressure that can get a person in trouble.

If you're riding a trail for the first time consider it a recon mission. Take it easy and check everything out. No point hitting something with no knowledge of the take off, distance, speed required or landing condition. This goes doubly in the bike park - always take a few warm-up laps, especially on the jump trails which get reshaped periodically.

To add to the new rider stuff: I once brutally overestimated a new rider's capability and took flak for it for years after. Remember that we've been riding this stuff for years and have likely forgotten all the fears overcome, skills learned, crashes taken and the fact that most of these trails are very familiar to us. I developed a system where I would take someone super new to SFU and go over the basics. How to get behind the seat/riding down steep things, shift forward/standing/climbing, stepping over obstacles/bunnyhopping, the basics of braking, shifting, etc. That way at least I could see first hand what they were capable of. Then I'd take them on a loop where all the challenges came at them sequentially and from a ways off to ensure they'd have time to see an obstacle and have time to prepare for it.

Don't forget/underestimate how terrifying the trails around here can seem to a noob.

For advanced riders: yoga (flexibility and breath management) and weightlifting for power and bracing (in particular squats, deadlifts and kettlebell work).

Just had a conversation with a friend who is a level three ski coach. He knew the woman that died on Whistler last week. Apparently she skiied off a cliff. He said she was a decent skier but reckless. He asked a couple friends his his to ski with her to sort of show her some stuff. These were female skiers with World Cup experience. This woman was following but passing these far better skiers. Sometimes I riders equate skill with pure speed or big air but unless you have technique, you're dangerous. Accidents will happen. But some riders are just accidents waiting to happen.