My mom doesn’t want me to snowboard (I’m 17). She says that there are too many injuries, like broken arms. I told her it’s just like skiing like she does but she doesn’t agree. Is snowboarding more dangerous? Or is it the people who take stupid chances while boarding?

It seems that this is one of those times when mom really does know what she’s talking about. Although both skiing and snowboarding can result in broken arms, snowboarding has a risk of almost 50 percent higher. More snowboarders break their humerus, one of the forearm bones, than skiers do.

Behavior can play a role in the breaks, for sure. If you’re careful, your risk of breaking an arm is lower, however, other issues come into play as well. For example, look at how you go down the hill in both sports. A skier is going face down and can often control the direction of the fall. Snowboarders are going down the hill sideways, which makes it more difficult to break the fall. As well, skiers can snap out of their bindings (normally) quite quickly, while snowboarders are locked into their bindings. This results in the snowboarder only having his or her arms to try to help break their fall.

Other types of injuries are more evenly divided between skiing and snowboarding and accidents have gone down overall. Helmets are playing a large roll in this as are better designed pieces of equipment.