I thought I would pose a question about shoulder injuries and kayaking as it isn't uncommon in this sport.

What percentage of whitewater paddlers will at some point get a shoulder injury bad enough to require medical care?


And by paddlers I mean those who take up whitewater kayaking as a regular hobby and does so for years.




In other words is it the kind of thing where if someone paddles on a regular basis in whitewater for five years or maybe 10 years they will have a 50 percent chance of a shoulder injury during that time? Is the percent higher? Lower?




This is speculation of course, as I'm not aware of any hard numbers or studies on the subject.

I dont know exact stats... not even sure if data specific to kayaking has even been collected.

What I can tell you is that i have tweaked and hurt my right shoulder twice. Both times were soft tissue injuries that only required NSAD treatment. It does happen... why?

I have never had to see medical attention for the minor injuries I have had on my shoulders but I have hurt them a few times. Generally after a week or two they are back to normal.

Laddie wrote:

I dont know exact stats... not even sure if data specific to kayaking has even been collected.

What I can tell you is that i have tweaked and hurt my right shoulder twice. Both times were soft tissue injuries that only required NSAD treatment. It does happen... why?

Because I am just starting to get into whitewater kayaking and I want to know how big of a risk it is. Is it the kind of thing where pretty much all/most whitewater kayakers get some degree of shoulder injury if they paddle long enough?

Tough question... do you have a history of shoulder injuries? There are some aspects of ww kayaking that can/do put your shoulders at risk. What i would do is seek instruction from a professional instructor and pay special attention to what exactly you are doing...

provided that you dont manipulate your shoulders inproperly (High brace upstream in a hole etc) I would not see any reason that you could not enjoy the sport and be challanged. Strength training with a persnal trainor will help too. the keys are good form when boating and strength training. There are plenty of boaters out there who have had shoulder injuries and are still paddling.

in short:

Can it happen? without a doubt... Will it happen? possibly not, its up to you.

Laddie wrote:

Tough question... do you have a history of shoulder injuries? There are some aspects of ww kayaking that can/do put your shoulders at risk. What i would do is seek instruction from a professional instructor and pay special attention to what exactly you are doing...

provided that you dont manipulate your shoulders inproperly (High brace upstream in a hole etc) I would not see any reason that you could not enjoy the sport and be challanged. Strength training with a persnal trainor will help too. the keys are good form when boating and strength training. There are plenty of boaters out there who have had shoulder injuries and are still paddling.

in short:

Can it happen? without a doubt... Will it happen? possibly not, its up to you.

I have tweaked shoulders as a kid and teenager doing different things. Never bad enough that I had to go to the hospital or anything. So my shoulders aren't perfect/normal in the sense that they haven't had any trauma but I haven't noticed any significant limitations as a result.


I was just trying to get a feel for how common it was. First instance, you might have quite a few friends you paddle with. How many of them have hurt their shoulders paddling?



See, check out this thread at boatertalk....

www.boatertalk.com/forum/BoaterTalk/1318773

One get's the impression that this is not an uncommon thing.





Now it's not a real big deal as people tweak their sholders doing all sorts of things and sports. But just like if I were to get into skydiving I would want to know how likely parachutes fail, likewise it would be nice to have a rough feel for how big a risk dislocated shoulders, etc are.

now that's all interesting, but senorpepe was looking for a percentage. shall we just make a playak survey out of it? suggested quetion: Did you ever have a paddling-related shoulder injury? yes/no

sounds like survey stuff to me

it's in the survey on the left now.

G'day mate. just starting hey. cool the more on the water the better. mate i did my kayaking course as part of my work. we started with 17 people 16 boys and 1 girl. it was a four week course with the end state being that we would be confident to lead people in groups down grade 2 rapids and that us our selfs would be confident on grade 3 water. of 17 people 11 finished and one of them had three cracked ribs from some one ( i wont say who) spearing into him on a wave. we had two people pull off because they freaked out when under water. one bloke pulled his back and three busted there shoulders, two were dislocated and the other had third grade tears. Most of these were the result of bad technique on moves such as sweeping high supports and rolls. i am a fairly big paddler 95kg. and on moves such as these often the bigger guys try to muscle there way through them causing injury. remember this is a sport of finess. i am right hand dominent and at the time i lernt to roll my right shoulder was giving me grief from me muscling my way through high suports so when i learnt to role i learnt on my off side. this worked to my advantige as i learnt the right technique which then flowed to my strong side. all i can say dude is that this ain't a spectator sport. will i get hurt? maybe. will i go for a swim? probabley. will i have fun? definatly. its like tatoo's mate if it was easy every one would do it.