Shelby Ganitch is hardly your daredevil snowboarder, her family says. The Irvine Valley College freshman was simply carving her way down the mountain three weeks ago at Snow Summit ski resort when she caught an edge and pitched head-first onto the hard-packed snow. She's been in a coma ever since.
"She's 18, but she looks like she's 10 years old lying there with all the tubes sticking out of her," said her father, Richard, who along with his wife and other daughter has kept a vigil at Shelby's side.
Snowboarding injuries--many of them to the head or spine like Shelby's--are on the rise in Southern California, where more young enthusiasts surf the slopes than anywhere else in the country.
At the four major Southland ski resorts, serious injuries from snowboarding increased to 134 last year from nine in 1996, according to a study by the San Bernardino County Medical Center, which serves as the major trauma ward for the resorts. The medical costs of treating these injuries has topped $4 million, hospital officials say.
Injury Rate Running at Record Level
The pace of injuries is increasing, not merely because of the skyrocketing popularity of snowboarding, but because the sport attracts risk-taking youths, emphasizes spectacular aerial tricks and often takes place on less-forgiving artificial snow.
"These kids come from a skateboard/surf mentality: Let's go big; the bigger the better," said Karl Kapuscinski, general manager of the Mountain High Ski Resort.
In the first two months of this year there were 57 serious snowboarding injuries, putting 1999 on a record-setting pace as ski resorts prepare for a final assault on the slopes during the forthcoming spring break.
Despite the large number of snowboarding accidents and calls from doctors and parents for tougher safety regulations for the sport, ski resort operators say there is little they can do, other than urging snowboarders to be more cautious. State legislators have so far resisted stepping in as well.
"You start requiring people to wear specialized equipment and institute a whole lot of government regulations, you're going to take the joy out of the sport," said Assemblyman Rico Oller (R-San Andreas), who represents the Lake Tahoe area, a popular snow sport destination.
That doesn't satisfy doctors and parents, who note that snowboard injuries nationwide nearly tripled in four years, with head injuries increasing fivefold, according to a study by the U.S. Consumer Safety Products Commission.
