Post-Accident Snowboard Pictures Are In!

Two of our best friends, Eric and Mandy Marshall, have been taking care of our snowboarding gear since the accident.  It made it easier for us to travel back to Tulsa.  We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

I asked Eric the other day if he could take some pictures of my snowboard.  He also took some pictures of the sock they cut off of my right ankle.

No blood in or on the sock, which is great!  You can also see they cut at the top and just started tearing around the toes.  At this point in time, I was under conscious sedation, trying to figure a way out of calling my wife, "morbidly obese."

With Jim's crochet gift, I could easily repair this sock!

Now, onto the snowboard, which Ski Patrol said was totally untouched.

Wow, it looks absolutely untouched.  No scratches, no cuts, not a single sign that I hit a tree at 45 MPH.  Looking at this picture, my right foot binding is on the left.  That's where my right boot is secured into the board.  And, that's where the tree impact took place.

No damage.  But then I looked closer!

Enhance.

It appears that four screws or their inserts, highlighted above with X's, were pushed through the some of the layers of my snowboard!

Let me explain why this is insane.  All snowboards are sandwich structures, consisting of typically eight different materials:

• A Top Sheet (with a printed graphic)
• Fiber Glass
• Wood Core
• Base (with another graphic)
• Steel Inserts (for screwing in bindings)
• Resin (glue)
• Rubber Foil
• Carbon Fiber

Here's a picture resembling some of the many layers that go into a snowboard.

The wood core is central to the whole board and receives the steel inserts.  All of these pieces are basically glued together with resign and then placed under a great deal of pressure to make one strong structure.

Like I've said before, Ski Patrol has said they've never seen a broken snowboard from an accident.

I almost broke my snowboard!

Now, I won't be able to confirm it until we ship the board back to us, but I have a feeling that I did some serious damage!