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Step 21Kayakers - Keep Your Elbows In or Dislocate Your Shoulder
I was kayaking in the Youghiogheny River in West Virginia near Ohiopyle.
I stuck my paddle into the white behind a rock to eddy turn behind it. I leaned into the brace but there was nothing there, just air and froth. I just kept reaching out until my arm came out of its socket and I flopped over into the water in a lot of pain. This happened really fast. The water was really cold. I rode out the rest of the rapid mostly underwater. I kept my paddle but lost the boat because I had only one good arm. Also did I mention any movement hurt like hell?
I twitched and paddled until I got near shore and climbed out onto a sandbar. My friends got my boat.
My arm was now coming out of my armpit instead of the usual place. The only way I could stand the pain was to hold my arm up by grabbing my helmet with that hand.
We were down in the bottom of a canyon full of rapids a long way from a road. I rode out the rest of it on the raft. Four hours or so later they got me to a hospital in Morgantown WV. The nurses laughed a lot at my costume. Then lots of waiting as usual, some xrays, an injection of valium which was the best experience of my life. A fat male nurse sat on top of me on an examination table while another moved my arm very slowly in a very painful direction. Suddenly it popped back in and all my nerves fired at once, a giant funnybone. All my muscles fired too and I threw the fat nurse a couple of feet in the air.
That arm felt like it was going to fall off for a few years after that, until I started windsurfing and eating a lot of egg whites. Then I made enough muscle to hold the thing in and quit being aware of it all the time.
I've since found out the "high brace" I learned in old kayak books isn't taught anymore. Now they use the "low brace" and keep their elbows in so they don't dislocate a shoulder. Paddle blades are smaller now also for the same reason.
I stuck my paddle into the white behind a rock to eddy turn behind it. I leaned into the brace but there was nothing there, just air and froth. I just kept reaching out until my arm came out of its socket and I flopped over into the water in a lot of pain. This happened really fast. The water was really cold. I rode out the rest of the rapid mostly underwater. I kept my paddle but lost the boat because I had only one good arm. Also did I mention any movement hurt like hell?
I twitched and paddled until I got near shore and climbed out onto a sandbar. My friends got my boat.
My arm was now coming out of my armpit instead of the usual place. The only way I could stand the pain was to hold my arm up by grabbing my helmet with that hand.
We were down in the bottom of a canyon full of rapids a long way from a road. I rode out the rest of it on the raft. Four hours or so later they got me to a hospital in Morgantown WV. The nurses laughed a lot at my costume. Then lots of waiting as usual, some xrays, an injection of valium which was the best experience of my life. A fat male nurse sat on top of me on an examination table while another moved my arm very slowly in a very painful direction. Suddenly it popped back in and all my nerves fired at once, a giant funnybone. All my muscles fired too and I threw the fat nurse a couple of feet in the air.
That arm felt like it was going to fall off for a few years after that, until I started windsurfing and eating a lot of egg whites. Then I made enough muscle to hold the thing in and quit being aware of it all the time.
I've since found out the "high brace" I learned in old kayak books isn't taught anymore. Now they use the "low brace" and keep their elbows in so they don't dislocate a shoulder. Paddle blades are smaller now also for the same reason.
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Jul 28, 2011. 10:13 PMFoehammer358
says:
Something similar happened to me a few years ago, just not nearly as bad.Was going up a river, and something happened up there, like someone had opened a dam.Whatever it was, i had 6-7 foot waves crashing towards a 10 year old kid in a Loaner kayak.I tried to flip it around and ride the wave, but i got my timing wrong and ended up twisting my shoulder 190 some degrees back; that little 10 degrees hurts.
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