I went to the orthopedic today. Things are worse than I thought. I didn't break my wrist... which is bad. I have a lot of soft tissue and joint tissue damage. It'll take 6-8 weeks to heal. ...But I don't get a cast or anything. Every little movement is painful, and it's my strong hand. I seriously wish I'd broken it. Then I could have a cast, which would restrict movement, which would restrict pain. I can't write, shower, typing is strenuous, sleeping is torture. It's all swollen up and gross looking still. I've thought about breaking it myself, but decided against it. No point in causing huge amounts of pain without a guarantee that'd I'd actually broken anything.

Kiting is out of the question. If anyone has some left over hydrocodone, donations are welcomed

sucks man Take care to let it heal right and proper so it don't come back to haunt you. The time will be quick and you'll be back flying in no time........but that still sucks and I hope you get better soon:saint:

Did the doctor give you anything for the pain?

If you can go and see a good physiotherapist with a sporty background you'd likely be able to get some of the inflammation down sooner. An orthopod is a bone guy, not a soft tissue guy. So they usually say, "I could help you if you broke it." They don't tell you who to go and see if you didn't break it, simply because they don't know and more often than not don't care. Find the best sport physio place in your area and go and see someone that won't make you feel like breaking your wrist.

Pain meds? Nah. He didn't give me any. I have Advil and Ibuprofin at home... but there's a point where that just doesn't cut it anymore. And the doctor is really good. He's a great guy, too. But unfortunately, he IS a bone doctor. I was told to exercise it by bending it until it hurts and holding it there for 10 seconds. Now what the hell would make me want to do that. It hurts without moving it at all. I will probably end up taking up your advice PrairieWind and go see a physiotherapist.

+1 on the sports therapist. And +1 on the let it heal properly. Plenty of time to fly after you've recovered fully. I suspect your joints still have some of the rubbery youth about them....mine are DEFINITELY getting a bit brittle with age

My left wrist is still good to go... my right one has taken several shots. 1 break and now the second round of tissue damage :Ange09: I really need to start taking it easy.

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Originally posted by Seanny I was told to exercise it by bending it until it hurts and holding it there for 10 seconds. Now what the hell would make me want to do that. It hurts without moving it at all.

He wants you to keep the joint mobile so you do not lose range of motion as the tissue heals. A physiotherapist will do the same thing and he/she will not care about how much it hurts. Ask Dirtslide, he has had physio three times a week for just about two years now. Physio is not pleasant. It is better than surgery. Adding broken bones to the injury will not help. When the cast came off you would have to go through the pain of getting ROM back in your wrist for another six weeks.
As to medication your might try combining half doses of ibuprofen and acetaminophen. The ibuprofen will reduce the swelling and the acetaminophen will help with the pain. The combined effect is much better than one or the other, but talk to your doctor first.
S

Did break mine, didn't have a cast either ... did have a pin and plate though. Was also told to bend it full range to get movement back into it. Sucks dude, sorry to hear that eh ...

Getting older and "brittle bones" is the best excuse for me to hoe into the cheese :D

I've been excercising it to get ROM back. I knew I had to when he told me. PT isn't all that pleasant, either. I was just expecting a break. Sorry for rambling, I guess I had to tell someone about it. I have a brace but it isn't worth a damn. It just constricts around the swelling. I wear it in school and take it off at home to excercise my wrist. I'll start kiting again as soon as I get some strength back... I'm sure flying fixed bridle will do me well. I won't push it too early, though.

I'm afraid Scud is right on Seanny! The doctor wanted me to start moving my arm up and down with the aid of the other hand,the very next day after my surgery.It hurt like hell,but I can still move my arm. I feel your pain lil Bro',I can sympathize with ya ,but you are gonna have to endure some pain to get better more than likely.

When I had soft tissue damage (torn muscles in the back of my leg), the pain was great but I found that compression via ace bandage helped tremendously. Still full range of motion (as much a pain would allow) but somehow compression made it more tolerable, even comfortable.

Range of motion is important. I'm good about listening to my doctors. I had a compound fracture of my left radius along with a nasty elbow joint break, and the orthopedic told me I'd probably never be able to touch my shoulder again. I started to believe it, when after 6 months of not having a cast on, I could still hold up my arm and let it drop freely and it would stop several inches short of me being able to touch my fingers to my shoulder. But, after about a year of working it, I could feel my shoulder with my fingertips. Eventually I gained back a full range of motion. But, my left arm is about half an inch shorter than my right.

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Frustrated

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Originally posted by Seanny Every little movement is painful, and it's my strong hand.

... there's a joke in there somewhere

i know the feeling bro, i cut my middle toe off from glass on the beach, long story short i was bed ridden for about 3 months while it healed. all while having to stare at a brand new mbs landboard in my room. it sucked so bad. advil goes along way, i think you can take up to 800mg at a time. 4-advils if im not mistaken... check your bottles label first.

good luck, every thing happens for a reason

Thanks Houston! Hey, is it snowing by you? It just started here. :D

@Kami:

...

I knew, while I was typing that very sentence, that YOU, were going to say something. HOW OLD ARE WE

it just started the freezing rain. weatherman is still calling for 1-3 inches by morning.

I have everything ready to go, so when my neighbors start taking off to work tomorrow morning, I’ll be cutting upwind on my skis right in their face.LOL

i just realized LH is actually in Austin. I was there a few days ago taking their fire exam. Austin is a very unique place Ill find out in a few days how i did.

I love Austin :D And yeah, we're getting snow and freezing rain. My plans for a concert Friday night just got yanked.

The weatherman said it was going to snow, etc at 1p today and nothing happened. Then they said it would be 8p but there was nothing on the radar to indicate that possibility and by 5, they moved it back to 1a. And now it's back to 4a and there's still nothing on the radar that indicates it will happen.
Houston got into a dizzy panic over 1-3" of snow, shut down all the schools early and canceled them for tomorrow, closed all the daycare centers early and made the parents come pick up their kids and closed them for tomorrow because we were supposed to have an inch of snow.
Seems like the weatherman just gave a whole bunch of people the day off . . .

Our school wouldn't close if it caught on fire. We're starting 2 hours late tomorrow, though. I guess that's a little better. I don't see a point in delayed opening though, since the conditions aren't going to get any better through the day. Every other school in central Texas is shut down for tomorrow :flaming:

Sorry to hear, bro. But at least you have reason. There's nothing here but some temps around 30 degrees.
It is amusing, though, that the frustration comes from opposing sides (in the hijack part, that is; I've no desire to be injured, thank you).:wink2:

Seany it has been my experiance that pain meds just make things worse in the long run. I have broken many bones over the years and done lots of soft tissue damage as well. I found that numbing the pain just makes me feel I'm OK. Bad thing for a thick head! Just causes more damage. As in, I'm OK now, I'l go skiing, snowboarding, hiking, ect...
Pain sucks but getting messed up more is worse. And a lot of those pills are easy to get hooked on. Just be carefull your still young and you have lots of time to play still.
Heal well and stay cool. All will be good soon enouph.

WOOT! SCHOOL CLOSED!! :D

@rocfighter
Vicodin, Oxy, etc. is baddd bad stuff. I'm careful with it. Usually I only take it when the doctors prescribe it, and I'm in extreme pain. It screws with your body and screws with your mind. I don't understand the trend of kids wanting to get high on opiate pain killers... nasty stuff, man. Not for me.

Hope everyone's enjoying themselves! It's my day off... it's snowing... I might head out and see if I can't get my kite in the air. I climbed into bed wrong last night and my wrist made this disgusting popping sound. But, it actually seemed to help We'll see...

Seany two things; if you are going to get hurt do it at the end of summer, and if you take those meds with tequila they will be very beneficial. :eekdrull:

Trust me, I will probably be hurt again by the end of this summer. Guarantee it

Hmmm, taking them in that manner does seem like a good idea, but it's a bit of a trade-off... 1) I'm 17 (not that that matters ) 2) I know I'd get a wicked hangover afterwards. Maybe tequila is a little too far; but I'm sure they'd go down nicely with a hot toddy. :D Have you ever tried one of those? My mom makes them for her my dad and I. Yum yum. Feels great on these cold nights.

BTW, I did go fly the Venom. It went okay... the wind kind of (really) sucked, and I was by myself. I learned a few things, and have questions about a few things. I'll break it down a little bit...


Things learned:

-DO NOT LOOP THE KITE THROUGH THE POWER ZONE. The wind was really gravy at the start, and I could hardly keep it airborne. At one point, it came down, and I let too much slack into the lines, causing it to bow tie and piss me off in a number of fashions. Eventually, I DID fix it from the bar, but when it got back into the air, the lines were twisted x1. My leash does not spin, so I thought I'd just do like I always do (with other kites), and loop it the reverse direction. Uh, the kite didn't turn as fast as I thought it would... and consequently I was immediately launched into a 50 meter (at least) butt scud that lasted a grand total of 2.5 seconds. Ow.

-If it lands, don't let the lines go slack. (See above)

-My top end static flying the 13m Venom is about 22 mph. At this point, I was on my tip toes and could not walk backwards, and it was a bit frightening. The kite was also very unstable and difficult to control. I could not let it down from the zenith, or else it would wrench me forward.

-Floaty landings are often not as floaty as I thought they would be. Once again... Ow.

-Attempting to fly this kite solo in these stupid winds is a #@%$#!. It's almost not even worth going out if you don't have someone there to help you.

-The Zero 4 chicken loop SUCKS. Well, I already knew that.

-Always wear a sufficient belt around your trousers when kiting.


Questions:

-Is it me, or is the kite still kind of turning sluggishly? It's not super slow, it's just not snappy. This is my first Venom, and my first kite this size. I have nothing to compare against. I'd need someone who has experience with this to witness it flying.

-I'm having problems with the kite over flying the zenith. This isn't fun. Not fun at all.

-Am I correct in saying that pulling in the trim strap (+tension on the front lines) makes the kite fly higher/better in low winds, but compromises a degree of stability and control, whereas releasing the strap (-tension on front lines) makes the kite more powerful, but takes more wind to keep it afloat?

-What is the method used to jump with the kite? Where does the kite need to be in the sky before, during, and after the jump? How do I achieve more vertical lift than forward pull?

Well that's all I've got for now. I may think of some more things later.

Sheet in hard to stop it shooting past the zenith. Usually
Trim strap in shortens the front lines relative to the rear - you sheeting in on the bar will have less effect on the AoA ie. the kite is more depowered and you can't power up as far.
For static, I put the kite at say 10 o'clock, send it back over to 2 via 12 and lean back against it then let it pull me up when it lifts. But I also find arcs drop you hard on jumps too. Beware - the faster the arc moves, the higher you go.
You found the top end for that kite & wind So 15mph when static and the rolling on a board will easy bring the total wind speed over 22 mph eh Phree was right!

Thanks Kami! That answers most of my questions. You're right about the faster forward speed = higher jumps. The only problem is... how do you get it past 2 o'clock for a higher jump without bringing it down into the power zone causing forward pull, or bringing it out of the wind window? And what can I do to redirect (I guess) to make for a softer landing? The only time I had a soft landing was when it gusted hard and I sheeted in while the kite was sitting at the zenith, and it just lifted me straight up and set me back down. And yes, PREE is right. He's always right. I've never found myself doubting him... I'm a kinetic learner, and I usually just like to figure things out for myself before I admit that he's correct. Nothing beats experience.

You can't really, as far as I know ... send it across and that's all you get. Moving faster on a board will increase the apparent wind on the kite which will add to the jump, as will boosting of waves etc. But that doesn't help for static jumps.
Redirect when you feel your body is at the top of the jump - the kite going back over the top should cushion the landing. The best technique is not the "Fat Bastard Digs Heels In And Stands There" technique, but the "Running Like A Mad Dog In The Opposite Direction" technique that has been so well illustrated before you're still going to land down-wind with some speed though, I reckon.
Foils are the best for floaty jumps - get a big Flysurfer

'Kinetic learner', is that what it's called

Hmmm, well I often learn the most by doing it wrong and getting pancaked. Does that count as kinetic learning? :duh:

My Grandfather who was a very wise man, once told me watch all of those around you and learn from there mistakes, this will make life far easier. And I have found this to be true. Learning from others mistakes is way less painful!!