My friend dislocated two ribs seal launching off a 15ft bridge, the girl pushing him wasn't very strong and just tipped him upside down. He just popped them back in in the shower though.

Currently nursing a real pain of a strain...
Spent a great weekend, demoing new boat (slightly more aggressive/differnt body position?), river in flood, pretty active days, no acute or specific moment of injury...
But, about tuesday of the follow week, my entire side from top ribs down through my quad, glutes, hip, groin, etc. was in pain and so tightened up I could barely sit to ...
About 6 weeks now, and several RMT therapys and lots of stretching later, I am almost ready to paddle again.
Have been told that I strained the muscle that runs from the backside across the hip and under. About the worst for a kayaker as you can get, as you sit 'frogged' in the boat and require up and down (outwards and inwards, using glute area and such) to tilt, angle and brace...
Had a good RMT session yesterday, whereby they were finally able to get 'inside' at this muscle, as it's kinda 'under' other tissue, and it seems as 'loose' as it has been in a long time.
Still stretching and making sure that when the time comes, the muscles aren't 'blocking' the motion and further aggrevating matters.

Since you asked -

Most of these were long ago, but then I started back in 1968 and made a few thousand runs.

Broke 3 ribs on right side, when doing popups and endered up into rock guarding eddy/hole. \"Decapitation rock\" at Bull Sluice

Concussion when took tree in face going down blind chute on Overflow.

Scalp injury - kayak blade under brim of helmet when another kayaker dropped into hole to surf before I has left - Ocoee.

mutiple contusions and bruising when run over by commercial paddle raft on Ocoee in deep hole

Extensive body bruising when swam Rollercoaster after breaking paddle trying to run right slot.

Bruised shins when 60 foot tree came over drop I was surfing in, crushing deck and double ethafoam wall- Chattooga Earl's ford at 7.7 and rising.

multiple knuckle cuts both hands when setting up to roll. Stekoa Creek

two broken ribs left side when rammed by kayak coming down into hole where I was surfing non-releasing hole and spear chucked me. Surf Rock below Stekoa creek at 3.3

split helmet off of head when came around blind curve on river in flood to find tree across channel - Upper Hooch

broke nose when took customer paddle in face while raft guiding- Jawbone

compressed vertabra when jelly rolled Campways raft dropped off US76 bridge on Georgia side, just as I walked underneath it with Hollowform kayak on shoulder by new guide trainees (Neil Cosine and Dave)

Bruised sternum when Canoe folded up in sandwich in center hole in Bullsluice at 5.5

Infected stitches in right buttock when soloed canoe down section III on my birthday since I couldn't sit down in my kayak. Waterproofed stitches with duct tape. Fell through rotten wooden ladder at SEE day before and caught rung on way down.

Cracked ankle, bruised knee walking around Jawbone to set safety rope on slick rocks

Strained groin muscle when tried to stay in C1 to roll while being pummeled.

Strained lower back muscle when bow guiding raft over Sockemdog and customer landed on me.

Multiple nose bleeds for years on running drops over 22'

Bruised eye socket when lens driven out of glasses running stinging fork falls and again at 7foot at 5.5.

Shoulder strain surfing bottom hole of Corkscrew at 2.7. Thankyou Les Bectel of NOC for the rope.

Fingernail somehow ripped off when holding rope safety on Jawbone.

Rope burns on hands several times holding rope safety at Jawbone pulling in rafts.

Aggravation of old frostbite injuries when kayaking without a wetsuit

somehow dislocated my finger when pulling customer back in raft.

multiple shin splinters both legs from being hit by customer paddles after going over drops in raft

repeatedly bruised ankles from old shelf bracket break away foot braces in first Lettman MkIV pitoning rocks

That's all that I remember for me

Wife broke middle finger roping in raft at jawbone when Chuck admired his thow so much he forgot he was supposed to hold on and not let her belay raft by herself


gave first aid for several other folks like Michael Rainey when he dislocated shoulder in downriver C1, Frannie Barr when she broke leg by having customer fall on her at bottom of Sockemdog, Bandaids to Charlie Wallbridge when he cut his hand hammering out some dummies aluminum canoe with his bare hands at Lesser Wesser. Helped carryout SEE guide when he dislocated knee at Raven's Rock when didn't clear his kayak coming out at 5.5.

Remember Claude Terry's frozen beard snapping off when fellow paddlers tried to loosen it from his lifejacket with an icepick so he could change clothes and we could go to dinner at the DML.

Never happened to me but multiple rollover accidents while guides running shuttle on muddy logging roads. Cuts from glass, broken limbs, black eyes, and bruising from flopping around with loose gear in vans, jeeps, Suburbans, VW microbusses and retired phone company vans.

Seen 4 broken collarbones kayaking and rafting. Half dozen broken arms. 3 broke legs walking around stuff, 3 in rafts at bottom of drops. Spear chucked a swimmer who came into hole while i was doing popups with Hollowform.

beaverman wins.

I cut above my eye once when I went over in a hole that was a little shallow. Probably needed stitches but didn't bother. There's a small scar there now.

I chipped my front 2 teeth once too. Went over a 10ft fall, managed to get upside down in the pool. When I leant forward to roll I managed to be flowing over a rock at the same time and the front 2 teeth got snapped in half. Was pretty soft really, didn't even hurt. I hardly realised I had touched the rock. My teeth felt weird, I thought there were just covered in algae at first.


Plus countless cuts/scrapes on my knuckles/hands.

Wait until you have been paddling for 38 years and a few thousand trips to see who has won anything.

Don't know about my winning anything, but I made my doctor's life more interesting at times, as he always wanted to know just how did I do it this time. Plant nurse said similar things and I sure made my optician and radiologist richer. Current doctor says I am well documented with x rays when I moved here. ( and to my joy I found out he is a kayaker as well)Wife mutters that some folks are just naturally clutsy. Didn't go into the ice hockey (6 years), street hockey(7 years), racket ball,(5 years) rock climbing(4 years), caving(4 years), horseback riding(40 years), motorcycle(8 years), skateboarding(6years), construction(7 years), engineer for 20, or airplane(15 years) calamidies. (have 15,000+ miles on my Morgan gelding endurance riding mostly in the mountains, and he is a bolter/runaway who likes to chase deer)

My version is if you hang around long enough, things just tend to happen to you eventually. Better you get, farther out you tend to push the envelope, bigger you tend to fall as the little things don't get you as much to keep you humble. Not my fault I was born with a glass nose and ribcage and bad knees. As for the 8+ concussions, I was usually wearing a helmet, and so having survived somethings like having your horse roll over on you in a forward flip at speed, I really am fairly lucky and bounce pretty good - was third time over that ditch that day before he caught his front legs in the honeysuckle while field training some bird dogs with a friend who is a judge. Most of the time I never have anything happen to me, and having seen so much, I usually know better. I'm usually known now for rescueing others and having some of the biggest and most complete first aid boxes around. Somethings though, you never see coming. Like that tree that wanted to surf with me when they were drawing down Tugaloo lake. There were about another mile of rapids and fast currents under the first part of the lake when they dropped it to clean out the penstocks on the dam and there was this fantastic diagonal hole about 150 foot wide when/where the lake met the river. Where that tree came from, I'll never know, but 60 foot pine trees with limbs snapped off about three foot long make nasty surfing partners. Wish they would drop the level more often on Tugaloo so others could document what is there.

Been paddling 120+ days per year last 3 years in sea kayak and nothing happens to me now even at 3F and in 50 MPH winds because I do things safely, dress for the weather, and take reasonable precautions.

Getting set to learn boat ball and bought a hockey helmet as a precaution after almost getting nose broken underwater at introduction demonstration game when I think a spud boat endered into my face at goal line while I was flipped. Will resume creeking when hand heals up from gash when pulling nail on a habitat for humanity build. (hand hit exposed rafter plate) Volunteered 105 days with them so far and somewhere near 1000 hours in last year. Lost 10 days of paddling while it has been healing, but went out yesterday with wife for a leisurely 6 miles in 2 hours.

I'm not accident prone if you consider where I've been and what I've done.