Ready for take-off.

Those are my feet strapped in and ready for action. Minutes after I took this picture, I landed  wrong and executed a trap door–otherwise known as a face plant. I got a nice concussion and a punctured ear drum out of the deal.

Fellow Boatermouth writer Jeff Hemmel taught me to wakeboard years ago and I thank him for the fun, and also for the injuries. Jeff? He blew out his knee on the water.

Yeah, wakeboarding hurts. I should have known the risks from the time I visited a wakeboard tow park in Orlando and half the cats waiting in line had on knee braces. A few guys had on helmets.

The American Journal of Sports Medicine published a paper on wakeboarding injuries. 77 percent of wakeboarders polled for the article said they’d been injured.

Based on the poll of the boarders and participating doctors, here are the most common wakeboarding injuries.

Torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)

Shoulder dislocation

Ankle Sprain

Fractures

So yeah, wakeboarding hurts. But I’ll keep doing it because the fun outweighs the risk. No pain no gain, right?