Don't kill the messenger here, but science has finally confirmed what most people already know; snowboarders are not the shiniest apples in the bunch. A recent study looked at ski and snowboard injuries over the last 30 years and found a marked increase in serious injury to both skiers and snowboarders. However, snowboarders have a much higher likelihood of suffering major injuries:

Snowboarders appear to be at greater hazard than skiiers, they conclude in Injury Prevention. One Norwegian report found that snowboarders were three to four times as likely to suffer injury, while a Canadian study found that they were 50 per cent more likely to have head and neck injuries.

So there you have it. A tenuous link between intelligence and snowboarding, but a link nevertheless. How best to avoid injury? Well, other than switching to skiing if you snowboard, you could become a woman since men are 2.2 times more likely to suffer injury, you could wait till you're 35 to start skiing or snowboarding since "skiers and snowboarders under the age of 35 were three times more likely to sustain a head injury than older participants," and/or you can wear a helmet since "there is evidence that helmets reduce the risk of head injury by 22-60 per cent." Via Times Online.