Got Knocked Out Cold!!!

Yesterday, I was knocked out and floated face down in the water until I was pick up by the boat. I was trying a raelly. It was the fourth attempt. I had landed on my feet and popped the rope on my third attempt. On the fourth I toe picked the landing (or so I'm told) and got KO'd. Any stories out there of getting ko'd on a trick and comming back and learning to stick it. I need some motivation today. Damn concussions suck!!!

The same thing happened to my brother a couple weeks ago doing a raley. He's done tons of them before, but this time didn't his feet back under him and got knocked out as well. When we saw his head under water, I flipped the boat around and gunned it, my dad jumped in fully clothed (cell phone too) and got his head above water. I pulled him onto the swim step and we waited about five minutes for him to come to. It was pretty intense...his face was blue by the time we got him onto the swim step and he was spitting up water. But thankfully he's fine. I don't know what to tell you about trying a raley again...it's not the safest trick out there (I also saw a kid break a vertebrate in his neck at a competition doing a raley). But if you are going to go for it again I'd wear a helmet and charge it.

Oh, yea forgot, I was wearing helmet and two life vests and still managed to knock myself out and float face down.

Wow...that's pretty intense. I guess a helmet isn't going to help then. Give a couple weeks for your head to heal, then if you still feel up to it, try it again. But if it was me, I would move on to other tricks...landing a raley isn't worth possible serious injury.

(Message edited by freewake on July 23, 2007)

i got knocked out once learning that trick but i was only wearing a comp. vest luckily my friends got over to me to get me out of the water landed it the next time i wakeboarded about a week later

i broke my nose on a faceplant from a backroll. almost got knocked out, but just bloodied up

Two life vests?

I was wondering the same thing Bill.

One of the vests was a very tight fitting comp vest and the other was a slightly larger CGA neo vest that was a little to large w/o the comp vest. Actually worked well but still ended up face down in the water. A little extra padding never hurts.

2 vests and a helmet. Good thinking. Nice to see you were covering yourself as much as possible. Imagine the crash with no helmet and a non cga vest.

If your willing to take the risk again just take it on with full confidence and no hesitation, one kid has already died this year from raleys and I just personally dont see how its worth it, I wouldn't try it unless I could do everyother trick under the sun and I felt more comfortable on my board than on my feet

My friends brother was on the kite tube and went like 15 feet in the air. He didn't know how to control it and it flipped over which resulted in him flying off into the water. The tube then swooped dow and hit him and then he got knocked out.

I could be wrong, but wouldn't you think more padding and thickness with two vest will hit harder than wearing something smaller around your upper body (more mass hitting water at a fast rate)?? Seems like when I wear a large CG approved vest, it hurts more when I fall.

Every now and then I sky a raley and can't pull it back in. My exit or bail-out on this trick is to let go and take the hit with my back (tucked up for protection). It still manages to knock the wind out of me along with a whip-lash for 2-3 days. I'm almost getting to the point of bagging this trick with all the talk lately (knocked out, passing out, killed, etc...). I think I'm leaning with Darren on this, "is it worth it". I would much rather work on style (pokes, tweaking)!

one of my buddies had to get a bunch of stitches on his lip bc his chin hit his knee when he was trying to bring the board back down from the raley