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I've scared myself enough recently into forking out the money for some sort of back brace. I'm looking at getting one of those dainese body armour jackets. The main reason I'm thinking about it is to protect my spine in case I get bent over backwards like a scorpion off a jump. The thing is most of the jackets designed for ski/snowboarding don't have a waist band. Whereas the mountain bike/motorcross safety jackets do. By my thinking when things do go wrong and you need the support but there is no waist band firmly holding the spine brace in place, it will probably just slide up your back and be useless. wakaranai.gif

Do they leave the waist bands off the snowboard/ski models because they restrict your movement too much?

Anyone use them or know anything about them?

Any advice would be appreciated. The staff in most japanese snowboard shops might as well be flipping burgers for all they actually know about the gear they are selling.

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No idea but I hurt myself pretty good last year getting bent over an ice block the wrong way. Not sure what happened but I feeling the injury for about 6 months after. Either cracked some ribs or bruised my spine really good.

 

Body armour seems like a good idea. I would want it for the shoulder protection though.

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The waistband restricts your movement somewhat, but you notice it only when you are not skiing.

 

A body armour w/waistband is better than without, but don't strap it on to tight. This can fixate your back muscles in such a way that your muscles cramp up and you end up with a sore stiff back the following day.

This might exactly be the reason why it is leftout, because you ski a lot longer (or at least be out) than you will downhill-MTB or moto cross.

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Cheers, I figured the waistband was probably the way to go!

That's interesting about the back muscles, must be because they have to oppose the elastic in the band all day.

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Cruising into the last kicker of a park, on the way back for lunch, not really concentrating, I'm not even sure where things went pear shaped but I think I caught an edge on the lip and got flipped upside down. Anyway, after a bit of airtime my head hit the ground first, followed by my shoulder, back and hip. I couldn't breath for a while, just lay there groaning like a bitch waiting for my chest to decide to start working again. My mate riding behind me got a good laugh out of it but I wasn't smiling.

I always wear a helmet so my head wasn't rocked too badly, and fortunately nothing was broken. The weird thing was eventhough I had smacked the ice with my back, what hurt the most was inside the front of my lower stomach. It took me a couple of hours to get my shit together to ride the day out. And then the stomach pain didn't go away for over a week.

So to cut a long story short it hurt a bit but could very easily have been much much worse.

I picked up some armour off yahoo the other night. It should come tomorrow clap.gif Yatta! I love getting new gear!

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Mine cost 26k. Usually about 40k. That one in the picture is more of a mountan bike job, my local bike shop had one for 32k when I looked. Not that they are that much different.

 

I suppose the spine protector might be overkill for some people. Better to have too much than not enough with something like that. If you check out the dainese website they do all sorts of variations of jackets/vests with/without plates in different places.

http://www.dainese.com/pre.asp

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I've been wearing the Azonics Z-5 (now Z-6) for several years.

 

 

05-z6-frnt.jpg

 

 

05-z6-back.jpg

 

 

It's a motocross back, shoulder and elbow/arm protector with a kidney belt. To me, it felt like total protection, and I've whacked trees, the side of pipes and slammed down on hard ice in it without pain.

 

It's not heavy or restrictive, but if you don't dress puffy, then the shoulder protection might make you slightly resemble an American football player in pads.

 

It can be had for about US$130 online in the US, I don't know about availability here. Better Google it.

 

Mogski has the same Dianese shown in Toque's post, and he recommends it highly.

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Yeah, I actually forget I'm wearing it. In the pics it looks heavy and bulky, but it's neither. Once you zip it on you forget about it until the part of any good day on the mountain when you know you are about to slam helplessly into something, possibly a very hard something, such as concrete ice, the edge of a pipe, or god forbid a tree. I wouldn't go in the pipe without it. I also wouldn't ride on an icy day without it.

 

Not that I think I would end up in the hospital without it. In some sense and on some days it is overkill. I think in the 3 or so seasons I've used it, I only had one fall that without it would have probably resulted in a busted elbow (slamdown at speed on concrete ice at Alpine Valley, Michigan on a day when it started out around +5C, but ended with night skiing at -15C). It's more just that it makes most hard falls completely pain- and bruise-free.

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I've got a North Peak jersey style set-up that has spine, rib, shoulder, and elbow protection sewn into it. It doesn't offer the levels of the the hardshell jackets but isn't as cumbersome, or as expensive either (About ¥9000 from Murasaki). I wear that and some Burton Protector Pants whenever I ride and you don't even notice it.

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I don't know about making you look good, my girlfriend reckons I look like a cockroache in my armour. yaa, gokiburi da!

It does the job though, I spent all day in a half pipe yesterday, hit the ice so many times. My upper body is fine, but my arse is killing me. \:\(

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