Just was wondering what a newbie windsurfer can expect and maybe a little on hot to avoid it. When I first tried windsurfing some 11 years ago I had a freaky accident where I fell onto the board awkwardly and dislocated my shoulder.
Mrs El Viento seems me today, a little beaten up with bruises from yesterday (shhhh more to come today as taking a day off). What kind of injury type stuff is she going use the old "told you so...." ??
cheers
El Viento
Torn callousses(?) on your hands
grazed knees (from the deck if your board)
Stubbed toes
cut shins (from the fin when waterstarting)
wet ankles
None can be avoided, they add to teh fun.
As you mentioned your accident was not "normal" so I wouldnt worry too much about injuries, just get back out there when you can,
JB
Whiplash from catapults..
Tennis elbow if your not careful.
What JayBee said 
After a session,
- you have to learn to walk without limping
- keep a packet of painkillers in shed/garage for that troublesome knee/ankle/shoulder
- don't groan when bending down
- pretend you didn't break any gear 
It's all good fun
Sore arms and shoulders
Strained back
bruised shins
scraped knees.
crushed feet (from mast falling on it)
bruised cranium (from mast falling on it)
sunburn
strained hands and fingers from gripping the boom too hard
recommended medication: 2x Voltaren Rapid for after the session 1 every 3 hours after that.
Here's one I did yesterday...Non slip deck from the knee to the ankle.
I had so much fun...
I thought my deckgrip was bad!It takes ages to heal too..
Don't let go of the boom - this tip should stop you from coping a mast cracking your head open.
When surfacing after a dunking put your hands either side of your head (ie feel around) before shaking the water off your face - this tip should stop you from cracking your nose on the board.
Broken ankles
shoulder
knee twisting
broken nose on boom
cut feet
and then some more cut feet
and just for a change, a cut foot.
all of the above and talking about toes, if you don't cut your nails regularly, then ripped off toe nails when the stitching on foot of the sail catches usually when spinning out at speed.
Believe me, this happens alot. That's why our feet look like they do.
Botany Bay H-6, picking up formula board in R hand and boom in the other to leave
water, I stumbled in a tiny shore break, the fin impact on my R calf has downed me
for two days. There has to be a safer way to exit. ..OHhh bless me father its been
9 days since my last sail and counting...
mick
Flipppin heck......I am putting myself down for extreme ironing or something 
Well after the last 2 days in the surf my hands are shredded but the toenails are OK so far.
Its just too much bloomin boomin (pun intended ) fun thoughespecially when I am hanging off the board and chewing up some jellies
Off to buy a board now...
El viento contento
at the start (pre-jump/looping) you're unlikely to hurt yourself. catapults are the most common and they're not so bad if you hang on and follow the sail where it goes; it can go really wrong when you are disconnected from the sail (including the shin graze jase is modeling for us).
love your sailing and approach it fearlessly.
dislocated toes (smashing into footstraps) & skun ankles (fin, deckgrip)...regularly!
hide the pain no mater how much it herts ( atleast in front of kiters and good onlookers ) but feel free to cry like a baby once in side your car
torn up both Knees and ankles
dislocated left knee
broken left wrist
broken nose (not central for ten years)
6 toes and 3 fingers
10 broken ribs 6 left and 4 right
fractured skull
compressed vertebrae
over 100 stitches, feet, head, shins, back! (really good at stitching myself up now)
carpel tunnel
blue bottle in the eyes and all over face (probably the most painful to date)
confusious says: own every brace for every joint on ya body and always travel with duct tape.
OK next question from the newbie then is...........WTF do you do if a far way offshore and some body part falls off or stops working. Your buddy/buddies are off doing aerials or whatever......think I might take a moby in my life vest just in case
Holy dooly. What a bunch of uncos.
I know they organise the occasional bus trip to the beach for you guys but I didn't think they'd let you anywhere near a windsurfer.
El Viento
I always take a cheapo mobile with me just in case...good to have healthy respect fo the ocean, it giveth and taketh away at will.....so as a last resort, why not?
Not sure your abiity, but if you are first learning how to plane / use harness / footstraps then i reckon a helmet is a good idea too. Forget about it not looking cool. It's way more embarrasing coming back to the beach with a bloody face.
Also when you are starting out, it can be hard to judge the limits of your own ability. But you have to push these limits to get out of the comfort zone...thing is how much is too much?
Do you know how to get upwind properly yet? If not then I reckon the next time it's blowing 20+knt go out on a lake, the upwind side, and make sure you can get back. When you can't get back, it will piss you off no end...but your wife can come and pick you up. Keep doing this until you figure out how to get upwind. Then figure it out how to get back without the use of a centerboard, if your board has one.
I learnt this lesson in the ocean, at a sailing school no so long ago. Full offshore wind, which was totally calm by the beach, but got progressively stronger and the waves choppier the further out I got. Gusting 30 knots about 1km out. Eventually was too tired to uphaul any more....and would have to wait for the school boat to come and get me at the end of the session.
Did this a bunch of times, until I no longer needed any help getting back...great confidence builder....but offshore winds still freak me out because of equipment failure. To be avoided!
Human nature is funny, as people, we learn best from our own mistakes. So for example, the fear of being swept out to sea is only fully appreciated when you get swept out to sea....wouldn't recommend it though...hence the lake suggestion so you can get a feeling for it :)
I hope to never need to use my mob phone !!
I have add all the usual injuries, breaks etc but they heal, the worst is the future. After 20 years of sailing literally whenever it blows I now have stuffed knees and tunnel syndrome in the hands, not much fun first thing in the morning when I can't lift a cup of tea - but still sail whenever white caps appear - and with a bit of luck thats how I'll go...
Cripes if id read this post before i got into the sport Id never have gone ahead!
Ive been sailing 20years & yes in my day I was a wavesailing whimp ( still alive & in one piece to tell) & still err on the conservative side rigging now sailing on the lake but the worst Ive ever got was a bad whiplash.That was when i was being uncharacteristicaly gung ho ..
My tennis elbow used to be stirred up but that was a pre existing work injury. So I think if you just use some commonsense & dont try to keep up with the hotshots you see pics of in the forum you should be able to progress safely & have a ball doing it!
