# Wrist guard suggestion?



## CrossStealth (Aug 17, 2010)

Bump to the top


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## DC5R (Feb 21, 2008)

I haven't used any of the ones you've listed. Mine are built with the glove I use...Level gloves with their biomex wrist protection.


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

I just ordered a pair of Flexmeter wrist guards so I will let you know when i get them. I bought a pair of dakine guards and they seemed pretty shitty. Offered little to no protection against hyperflexion and I don't even want to know what would happen if your wrist were forced forward. Basically they are just a piece of stiff plastic strapped to the bottom of your wrist. I wouldn't recommend any of the short rigid guards that are designed for rollerblading or anything else besides snowboarding. Flexmeter guards are supposedly designed by a doctor specifically for snowboarding which is why I decided to give them a try.

Wrist guards for snowboarders - www.ski-injury.com - Ski Injury Some good info on wrist guards and where i first heard about flexmeter


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## CrossStealth (Aug 17, 2010)

The Level gloves and the Flexmeter wrist guards both look great. Which one would you say offers more protection. Anyone own both of these? Or both exactly the same


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## DC5R (Feb 21, 2008)

It'll be pretty tough to say which offers better protection unless someones tried both. However, from the looks of it, the flexmeter provides better dorsal support, but not a lot of shock absorption on the palm side - Qball can give more details than me. The biomex provides more shock absorption and palm support and some dorsal support given that the glove is somewhat rigid on the palm side.

Either way, some wrist protection is better than none at all.


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## Extremo (Nov 6, 2008)

If you want serious protection check these products

Wrist Protection


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

Extremo said:


> If you want serious protection check these products
> 
> Wrist Protection


 Did i just see $259.95?!


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## Tarzanman (Dec 20, 2008)

Personally, I don't understand how wrist guards will help unless they seriously constrict your hand movement.

Get some rollerblade wrist guards and call it a day.


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

Tarzanman said:


> Personally, I don't understand how wrist guards will help unless they seriously constrict your hand movement.
> 
> Get some rollerblade wrist guards and call it a day.












That's why I won't use rollerblade wrist guards. That's not me btw


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## kswissreject (Feb 26, 2009)

Hey Qball, where did you order from? The only site in the US I see is snowboardsecrets.com and I've never heard of them outside of dealing with Flexmeters. The site looks a little sketch. Thanks


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## SPAZ (May 2, 2009)

i'm buying level biomax wrist guards. if you don't want to buy them at the-house.com, i think the demon's are your best bet. i'm buying a pair of impact shorts from asp soon, myself.


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

kswissreject said:


> Hey Qball, where did you order from? The only site in the US I see is snowboardsecrets.com and I've never heard of them outside of dealing with Flexmeters. The site looks a little sketch. Thanks


The site is legit, that's where I ordered mine. The guards are great! Much better support then the crappy ones i had before,, and the range of motion is barely affected. They fit nicely under my gloves too which i was a little worried about. Also, the guards are all black, not blue like the pictures, which i prefer. Just need some snow so I can test them out.


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## MistahTaki (Apr 24, 2010)

I say no wrist gaurds. Safety gear is for noobs.


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

MistahTaki said:


> Safety gear is for noobs.


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## SPAZ (May 2, 2009)

MistahTaki said:


> I say no wrist gaurds. Safety gear is for noobs.


even the best wear them. i would rather have a pair of impact shorts/wrist guards on when catching an edge instead of having a huge hospital bill and not boarding for the rest of the season.


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

It's a personal choice to wear safety gear or not. It's dumb to ridicule other people who care about snowboarding enough to protect themselves from injury so they can keep shredding. If you don't want to wear it, fine, who cares?


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## CustomX - J-rad (Mar 29, 2010)

My advice is, don't get wrist guards. Last season on the last day i was boarding and it was a warm day, half way through the day i was goin through a shady part of a run on the side and it was quite rough and hard/icy cuz it wasn't in the sun. hooked my heal edge tryin some butter on the side slant of the run and fell backwords, made the mistake of putting my right arm out and fell on it and heard a snap. I had a green-stick fracture so it wasn't a snap but it was broken and i needed a cast (smelt like shit after a while!!). The Doc asked me if i was wearing wrist guards, i told him no but he let me now that wrist guards can help but can make brakes worse, if i was wearing one it wouldn't of broke 1 inch from my wrist and instead snaped the bone where the wrist guard ends, making it worse. It makes sense to me, i never wore one but after sitting waiting for an x-ray i thought it wouldn't be a bad idea but now i dont want to get them, gonna get some crash pants =D, save my ass in the park.


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

Yes some wrist guards have been shown to transfer the break higher up, mainly the short, rigid, rollerblade style type. Longer flexible type guards are better and won't act as a lever, causing a break up the arm. No wrist guard is going to protect you 100%


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## john doe (Nov 6, 2009)

CustomX - J-rad said:


> My advice is, don't get wrist guards. Last season on the last day i was boarding and it was a warm day, half way through the day i was goin through a shady part of a run on the side and it was quite rough and hard/icy cuz it wasn't in the sun. hooked my heal edge tryin some butter on the side slant of the run and fell backwords, made the mistake of putting my right arm out and fell on it and heard a snap. I had a green-stick fracture so it wasn't a snap but it was broken and i needed a cast (smelt like shit after a while!!). The Doc asked me if i was wearing wrist guards, i told him no but he let me now that wrist guards can help but can make brakes worse, if i was wearing one it wouldn't of broke 1 inch from my wrist and instead snaped the bone where the wrist guard ends, making it worse. It makes sense to me, i never wore one but after sitting waiting for an x-ray i thought it wouldn't be a bad idea but now i dont want to get them, gonna get some crash pants =D, save my ass in the park.


Except for extreme cases a bone injury is always better then a joint injury. I'm about 2 1/2 months into my healing after I dislocated my ulna at my wrist. It took over a month before it would go back in on it's own after popping out. It was only about a week ago that it has stopped popping out easily. The doc said it will be 3-6 months before it fully stabalizes. If I had broken the bone it would have been a cast for 4-6 weeks and I'd be good to go. If I had been wearing a wrist guard nothing would have happened.


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## CustomX - J-rad (Mar 29, 2010)

john doe said:


> Except for extreme cases a bone injury is always better then a joint injury. I'm about 2 1/2 months into my healing after I dislocated my ulna at my wrist. It took over a month before it would go back in on it's own after popping out. It was only about a week ago that it has stopped popping out easily. The doc said it will be 3-6 months before it fully stabalizes. If I had broken the bone it would have been a cast for 4-6 weeks and I'd be good to go. If I had been wearing a wrist guard nothing would have happened.


ya, i learned to keep the arms in against the body when you fall


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## brunozi (Sep 19, 2010)

Extremo said:


> If you want serious protection check these products
> 
> Wrist Protection





Qball said:


> Did i just see $259.95?!



That's ridiculously expensive. The fact that they've used a couple layers of carbon fiber and kevlar doesn't justify the price.

I'm planning on building one of these myself, should start it this week. If everything goes right I'll create a topic here with a tutorial. The tough part will be buying the CF and kevlar, it's not as easy to find it in Brazil as it is in US.

I've broke my scaphoyd when I was snowboarding at Snowmass Mtn in the 08-09 winter season. Had surgery and used a cast for the longest 3 months of my life. In fact I was using one of those Dakine rollerblade wrist guards...piece of sh*t...


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## KIRKRIDER (Mar 18, 2008)

I'm probably getting the Level Pro gloves, Level Pro gloves,...Anyone used them?


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## NYinfamous2k2 (Aug 5, 2009)

Heres the deal, from my experience having used a bunch of different wrist gaurds. they are all pretty similar. I would advise her to go to your local shop and see what they have and to try them on. the protection on those are pretty similar but everyones hands are different and some may be more comfortable then others. if she gets ones online that cut off her circulation then she will never use them. ALSO. when she goes to try them on make sure she brings her gloves. womens gloves are pretty slim fittng and wrist gaurds can get bulky depending on the brand. My girl had to go through a few different pairs that even fit in her glove. good luck 

also Brunozi - a scaphoyd break is a impact fracture, not from your wrist getting over extended which is what I believe wrist gaurds mainly protect against so I dont think even a different wrist gaurd could have prevent it. broke mine also but in a motorcycle accident. how did yours heal because I probably have only %60 mobility left.


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## Deviant (Dec 22, 2009)

Was yours displaced? I broke my scaphoid (and a couple other bones) in a snowboard wreck and I have 95% motion.


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## NYinfamous2k2 (Aug 5, 2009)

BurtonX8 said:


> Was yours displaced? I broke my scaphoid (and a couple other bones) in a snowboard wreck and I have 95% motion.


Damn thats good to hear. yea mine was a displaced fracture, broke all the way through. I didnt even know it was broke for a week or two, actually a hr after I crashed I had to lift the 400 lb bike onto and off my boys pickup with just him and my girl, yea it kind of hurt but the other injuries from the accident hurt juuuuuussst a bit more lol.
I think it didnt heal right because im an asshole and dont listen to doctors and only went to PT for a few day then stopped going. or maybe they just fucked up and screwed my whole wrist together haha


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## MrJTA (Jan 9, 2011)

*Level gloves too uncomfortable*

I purchased a pair of goretex xcr level gloves with the biomex protection. I found the plastic that sits on the palm of your hand uncomfortable (it digs in when you close your fist), the rounded finger tips too bulky and they get sweaty and freeze when you stop boarding. I half suspect most wrist guard suffer the same problems with comfort. I'm going to try some flexmeters. Anybody have a pair? are they comfortable?


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## cookiedog (Mar 3, 2014)

*Biomex VS Flexmeter*

I'm looking to buy wrist guards. I'm pretty much stuck between Flexmeters and Biomex gloves. Here is my big concern about Biomex.

From Biomex Website:
*During a fall your wrist is put in hyper extension, the back of hand is pushed back towards the forearm.*

As opposed to flexmeter, which placed on top of the wrist and restricts its upward movement towards the forearm, Biomex is placed on bottom of the hand in anatomically correct position. It looks like it designed to restrict sideways movement. But I don’t see any support structure on top to prevent the arm from moving up and hyperextending during the impact. 
If anybody owns them can you please share your thoughts?


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## KIRKRIDER (Mar 18, 2008)

I Have been using the Super Pipe Pro for 3 seasons now.. they are coming apart but you feel pretty armored inside them. 

http://www.snowboardingforum.com/general-equipment-reviews/33022-gloves-level-super-pipe-pro.html


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## Irahi (May 19, 2011)

cookiedog said:


> If anybody owns them can you please share your thoughts?


I own a couple pairs of both biomex gloves (half pipes and super pipes), and flexmeters (single and double splint.)

Without question the flexmeters provide better protection from hyperextension, the big splint on the back is springy and absorbs more impact the farther back it's bent, so you don't go from no resistance to full resistance with no transition. As a side effect, they really strengthen your ability to use your hands as tools for things like bashing branches out of the way, since the springy splint on the back is useful even in low speed impacts. However, unless you use the double splint (which you shouldn't, it's insanely bulky,) they don't provide any protection against raw impact to the underside of the wrist.

Biomex works okay, and provides a little bit of direct impact protection, but in some test falls I didn't find that the hyperextension protection was any better than other cheap wristguards. It is much more streamlined than flexmeters, since they're always built into the glove it's much less of a hassle to get them on and off, and aren't quite as bulky.

For what it's worth, I don't really wear any of my biomex gloves anymore, the extra bulk and hassle is worth how useful flexmeters are in general.


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## cookiedog (Mar 3, 2014)

Is single sides Flexmeter provides reasonable protection on you opinion?


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## Irahi (May 19, 2011)

Yeah, single splint flexmeters rock for the kind of impact you probably care about while snowboarding (hyperextension of the wrist.)


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## cookiedog (Mar 3, 2014)

I honestly don't understand why none of the wrist guards deal with the foremost reason of the injury. The impact force.


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## Irahi (May 19, 2011)

Because then they would be forearm guards. The weak part of the wrist is the joint, it's a mass of fine bones and ligaments that can be torqued the wrong way pretty easily and cause lifelong impairment because there's no way for us to repair them.

The larger bones of the wrist and forearm are much more durable, and if you take a shot hard enough to break them, even if we protect against the head of the bones, you probably took enough impact to break something higher up anyway. Much like helmets it's kind of a losing battle to attempt to protect against that kind of catastrophic injury. In order to have something truly effective, you're looking at extremely bulky, very uncomfortable equipment. However, if you want that kind of full protection, the double splint flexmeters are quite beefy and have some significant bottom side wrist protection in addition to the graduated compression of their top splint.


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## Deacon (Mar 2, 2013)

tuck and roll. :shrug:


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## Homies911 (Sep 10, 2014)

If you really want a real wrist guard (or I should say "better protection on a decent budget"), go for Dye gear. Dye specializes on paintball equipment from markers to masks to protection.

I, personally, have the wrist, arm, and back guards from Dye and they are phenomenal. Landing on my back if I make a potato move off a jump feels soft (I mean it still hurts because I'm landing on it) and if I catch an accidental edge going down a hill from looking at the view and not paying attention, landing on the palms of my hands or elbows hurts significantly less.

I also have a few products from them for paintball, just the mask and lense (I'm more of an Empire / Invert guy), but these guys make great gear for a moderate price AND are the leading brands for paintball.

Sure its not over $200 for a wrist guard, but it damn works like a $200 wrist guard. 

https://dyesnow.com/


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## SnowDragon (Apr 23, 2012)

Recommend the single-sided Flexmeter gloves (with the wrist protection built into the glove). Easy on/off and very good protection. This is what I use.

If you want to protect the palm of your hand as well, get the double-sided Flexmeter glove.
But, as mentioned previously, it is somewhat bulky. I have these, but rarely use them.


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## tdn (Dec 30, 2010)

I skimmed through the thread and didn't see it mentioned.. so..

My ex used wrists guards and it definitely helped her. It helps getting the right wrist guards, not rollerblading ones.

Anyway, if you get wrist guards, you may want to size up on gloves. My ex got them after she bought proper fitting gloves, and non of them fit. So go up at least a size with gloves, or better yet, buy gloves at a shop and bring your wrists guards to make sure they fit.

Then again, online retailers usually have pretty good return policies.


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