[Injury mechanisms in windsurfing regatta]

In a retrospective study, we evaluated the injuries of 44 semi-professional competitors for the German Windsurf Cup, which were suffered from during one windsurfing season. This Cup is the national qualification tour for the annual "production fun board world championship". The subjects, participating in our study were randomly chosen. There were no surf-specific differences between the two groups. The average age was 24.63% had competitive surfing as their hobby, 37% were professional or semi-professional board sailors. The subjects surfed an average of 85 days in 1995. 23 (52%) windsurfers did not get hurt during the entire season. 21 (48%) of them got injured during the 1995 windsurf season. This is an incidence of only one injury per 174 windsurfing days. Only three windsurfers were injured during a competition. The other 18 occurred during training sessions. Most accidents happened because of an overpower situation, i.e. the sail was too big for the wind force (43%), or through negligence on the part of the windsurfer (19%). The most frequent type of the accident was the so called catapult crash (57%). The most common injuries were ligament ruptures of the lower leg (33%) and head burst wounds (19%). Compared with other competitive fun sports (e.g. snow boarding), windsurfing has a lower injury risk. In regard to the injury mechanisms, prophylactic recommendations are made.