Windsurfing vs kitesurfing: Injuries at the North Sea over a 2-year period

Table 1 Baseline characteristics

	Windsurfing	Kitesurfing	P-value
Age (yr)	31 ± 8	29 ± 11	0.437
Gender (No. and % of patients)			0.279
Male	21 (84%)	23 (72%)
Female	4 (16%)	9 (28%)
Experience (yr)	15 (0-30)	2 (0-12)	< 0.001
Annual participant hours	106 (1-480)	70 (1-810)	0.184
Skills level			0.001
Beginner	1 (4%)	11 (34%)
Intermediate	0 (0%)	6 (19%)
Advanced	9 (36%)	3 (9%)
Expert	8 (32%)	6 (19%)
Wind speed (Bft)	6 (2-8.5)	5 (2-9)	0.362
Protective gear (No. and % of patients)	3 (17%)	7 (28%)	0.480

Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation in case of normal distribution, and as median (range) in case of skewed distribution.

Table 2 Injury data

	Windsurfing	Kitesurfing	P-value
Number of injuries per 1000 h	5.2	7	0.005
Affected body site (No. and % of patients)			0.413
Head and cervical spine	9 (36%)	11 (34%)
Upper extremity	6 (24%)	5 (16%)
Trunk and thoracolumbar spine	0 (0%)	3 (9%)
Lower extremity	10 (40%)	13 (41%)
Injury severity (No. and % of patients)			1.000
Mild	3 (17%)	5 (19%)
Medium	6 (33%)	9 (35%)
Severe	8 (44%)	10 (39%)
Catastrophic	1 (6%)	2 (8%)
Location of accident (No. and % of patients)			0.014
Water	17 (94%)	15 (58%)
Beach	1 (6%)	11 (42%)
Type of transport (No. and % of patients)			0.161
Ambulance	2 (11%)	8 (31%)
Own transport	16 (89%)	18 (69%)
Inpatient hospital stay (No. and % of patients)	1 (4%)	5 (16%)	0.215
Operative treatment (No. and % of patients)	1 (4%)	4 (13%)	0.372
Total number of injuries during study period (No. and % of patients)			0.237
1	20 (80%)	19 (59%)
2	3 (12%)	9 (28%)
3	2 (8%)	4 (13%)
Return to sports in weeks (median and range)	5 (0-chronic)	4 (0-chronic)	0.792
Chronic symptoms (No. and % of patients)	7 (39%)	8 (31%)	0.576