Forward motion, headfirst & horizontal to gravity!

Thigh protection?

Been wearin slip in football thigh pads for awhile now but still gettin rocked on occasion in the the shallow Ocoee River where I spend most of my time. This last time, on Saturday, I took two massive borderline femur shattering hits in the exact same spot on my leg in two different rapids. Other than switching to a longer board .... any suggestions from the crew here on various forms of comprehensive thigh protection. I'm already using Six Six Ones which does fine for knees and shins...

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Yount on June 6, 2011 at 8:42pm

I always had trouble with thigh pads slipping around on my thighs ( I wear them occasionally when I expect some major contact on a steep, shallow run ) until I started wearing a speedo under my wetsuit. That has seemed to help some.

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Permalink Reply by Rochelle Parry on June 6, 2011 at 8:50pm

I bought some protective shorts with padding all around sewn in. I think I wore them under a dry suit; guessing they could go over a suit as well.

Avoiding the rocks is always the best solution ;).

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Permalink Reply by Erik on June 6, 2011 at 8:59pm

I've got some six six one impact shorts with that new (?) D30 padding on order. I'll post a review after I get a chance to test them. Never felt like I needed them in most runs, but on some of our shallow creeky sections full of sharp rocks, slamming one every now and then is probably going to happen...

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Permalink Reply by Rob Robinson on June 6, 2011 at 9:18pm

I'm researching everything across the board from mtn biking to motorcross to riot gear. Just bad sh*t luck ... total 4 big hits like this already this season ... same leg same spot, two n the same day.

Problem is the Ocoee is a very shallow and rocky river ... unless you're jacked up on a long board and outta the water its hard to avoid a lot of scrapin and underwater speed bumps. Think I'm cured of RipBoards now for shallow water unless I can find some bomber thigh pro.

Knees and shins are ok w Sis Six One pro ... it's the THIGHS that are gettin hammered.

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Permalink Reply by Erik on June 6, 2011 at 11:10pm

Oh trust me I understand the creekin' thigh hit! I had a chance to test out some of the D30 material the other day and it seemed pretty amazing. Soft but hardens instantly when subjected to a shock. So I'm trying out a pair of these: http://www.modernbike.com/itemgroup.asp?IGPK=2126180266 . Hoping they'll give enough protection while not interfering with mobility. Posting back within a week.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Robinson on June 6, 2011 at 11:14pm

Will check it out .... issue I got is I'm not positive I got a shot in that slipped past my pads that I wear beneath leg rash guard, or if the hit telegraphed right through the pad. I know I don't want to buy five different types of pants though tryin to find something optimal. Will check out that D30 stuff now...

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Permalink Reply by Erik on June 27, 2011 at 4:40am

The 6-6-1 D30 pants are nice and comfy but offer very little protection. No D30 on the thigh, and the hip pads are way too small to do anything useful. Save your money. What about something like this? http://www.icewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=WPG It's overkill with the rear leg protection, but you could probably take them out. Going to check a shop by my house and see if something like that looks practical for creeking.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Lashbrook on July 18, 2011 at 2:48am

Im a little new at this and was wondering about knee protection. I hit both knees really hard a few weeks ago on the Kern

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Yount on July 19, 2011 at 1:55am

No one has quite found the perfect knee pad yet ( one that will stay on and not flop around on the outside of your wetsuit so it protects your knees / shins and your wetsuit ) but there are plenty of good ones to wear under your suit. Thor, 661, Troy Lee, and Fox all make good pads. I have a friend who uses gorilla tape to secure the top of his 661 racer pads to his legs or wetsuit so they don't flop around.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Robinson on July 19, 2011 at 1:35pm

I've been lucki Guess and have never taken a big hit telegraphing through my Six Six Ones. Thighs ... that's another matter.

This weekend I used Goop to glue Velcro backing inside my wetsuit in the thigh area, and then applied the Velcro stickie to some football pads. Once I slipped the pads down inside and into positiom it worked perfectly ... no pad slippage at all. I didn't think about them again all day long.

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Permalink Reply by Erik on July 19, 2011 at 6:27pm

I bought a Warrior 'Projekt' Ice-Hockey girdle for rough creek runs. It saved me from a painful injury running the notorious 'Trashcan' rapid in Bailey (IV-V wilderness creek run) last weekend. This can be a rough run, containing sizable drops with a few hidden fins of rock. I hit one hard enough to crack the bottom of a Kern Pro. Overkill for the normal stuff but they can save your butt in the big and manky...

Pads are foam (closed cell) with plastic in some critical areas including thighs, hips, and just above them. They add some warmth and buoyancy, but fit under my suit pretty well. The only problem I've noticed is that the thigh pads tend to ride up. Rob's 'velcro method' would probably help. Sizes run a bit big, if you're on the edge, go smaller (follow the ice warehouse link from above response).

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Yount on July 20, 2011 at 2:33am

I slide thigh pads under my wetsuit for creek runs. They used to slide until I started wearing a speedo or compression shorts under my wetsuit and that cut out the pads slipping.