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Snowboarder hits kid, kids father punches snowboarder (video)

Nick

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Skip to around 4:10 marker. Here is the commentary from the video uploader, the snowboarder's mother:

As the mother of a 17-year-old son, I try to teach him how to be respectful of people. I want him to learn to be kind and caring and to keep his anger in check. That is a hard goal to accomplish in this world, but I believe it is possible.
On Black Friday, I allowed my son to go snowboarding with friends at Snowbasin Ski Resort. While there, an unfortunate accident occurred. My son was boarding slightly faster than the younger kids on the slopes, which wasn't that fast, although I can't say how fast. But a young girl skied in front of my son from the side. In order to avoid hitting her, you can see how he puts his hand out to guide himself off her shoulder to go another direction. It appears that he is in the clear, but an adult male who is stopped on the slopes appears to have his small son ski out from behind him at the last moment My son couldn't avoid the unfortunate collision that happened. They appear to hit pretty hard and end up sliding down the hill together. The video is long, but the accident happens at about 4:16. I uploaded the whole thing for perspective.

I am proud of my son's initial response, which was to turn all the way around and ask "are you ok, buddy?" The boy wasn't crying initially. The next thing that happened was the boy's father went after my son. The profanities ensued as he called my boy a name, then proceeded to punch him in the head.

I understand this man's anger and wanting to protect his son, as I feel the same way. When someone hurts my son, I too want to protect him. But my son had an unintentional accident with his young son. My son's initial reaction was to make sure the boy was alright. His own dad didn't even go check on him until he beat on my son. Throughout the encounter, my son stayed silent, while continuing to look back at the boy repeatedly. He was still concerned about the boy.

I'm not happy with the language used by his friend, but I'm very, very appreciative of his coming to the defense of my son. I can't explain how much I appreciate him being there to stand up for my son. Who knows how it may have gone if he hadn't been there to let the dad know he was out of control and it wasn't okay. Thank you to him!!

I'm posting this video because I want this to eventually reach the man who hit my son. I want him to understand the irony of him screaming at my juvenile son to stay in control, while punching him in the head. Irony. Some people don't deserve the respect I teach my son to give them. I love you, son. One of you was out of control, and it wasn't you.



I'm betting this goes viral pretty quick.
 

emmaurice2

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From what I can tell, the rider had no options and he doesn't appear to be going that fast. Little kid that got knocked down just made the wrong move at the wrong time. I can understand a parent being upset watching his/her kid getting knocked down, but he shouldn't have hit the rider. Total short fuse.
 

Nick

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In watching this again I see a few things. For one, the snowboarder wasn't really traveling that fast. he was turning to avoid the kid coming from the left when the little girl he hit comes out from the right in front of the father. In the video, you can't even really see the girl until she emerges from in front of the father. It seems like just an unfortunate alignment of the stars for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

On the flip side, the father is probably rightfully angry, I think I would be too. But, he shouldn't have hit the kid. short fuse is correct. That said, the kid was wearing a helmet and it's hard to gauge how hard the hit was, if it was just a dopeslap, or what. Still, that could come back to bite him in the ass.
 

Huck_It_Baby

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If anyone hit me with a ski, regardless of who's fault the collision was, there would be repercussions for that man.
 

WoodCore

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Snowboarder was in the wrong. End of story.
 

DPhelan

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Disregard slow sign>crash into small kid but don't bother helping him get up or seeing if he's ok>snowboard away and stop a few more times directly below a cat track before going home to upload 4 minutes of unwatchable gopro footage!
 
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little kids are unpredictable...i try to give a super-wide berth when they are around...i get that i have just as much right to the trail as them, but i like to be nice to the little shavers and avoid incidents if at all possible...when i'm sharing a trail with a little kid and a parent i will stop and let them go ahead, or speak to the parent if possible to ask which side of the trail they want or how the kid skis...i think the snowboarder was a nice kid that unfortunately exercised questionable judgment by trying to thread a needle instead of slowing or stopping to chart a safe way through the anklebiters...i was 17 once too and this could probably have happened to any of us

having said that the dad should not have hit the kid...totally in the wrong there...it seems the little kid didn't get upset until his dad freaked out
 
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I was wondering the same thing, if the kid was crying because she got hurt or if it was because the dad was blowing up. Or a combo.

if there's one thing i've learned since having a kid, they will react in kind to your reaction when something happens...if you freak out when they fall, they will freak out
 

SnowRock

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Snowboarder was definitely cutting things to close for comfort, but isn't part of the code to look uphill when starting and yield? Not saying the boarder wasn't at fault (he was) but dad doesn't appear to check uphill at all.

I am super conscious about never wanting to collide with people on the hill, but the closest I came was when a father sent his kid out almost directly into my path without looking uphill, so I may be a bit hypersensitive to that behavior.
 

catherine

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Unfortunate but as a parent I would have probably smacked the kid too. You can see in the shadow that he pushes the kid out of the way. As far as the language, PLEASE, he's never heard/used that language! I hope this doesn't lead to court. Shit happens, everyone's ok, get over it.
 

ss20

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This is one of those "perfect storm" type-of-deals where everything came together to make a bad situation 100x worse.
1. If you look 5 seconds before impact, you'll see the snowboarder had to change his course to avoid another skier. Said skier sorta held her line. It's hard to tell. It seems she didn't know the boarder was their.
2. The boarder should've been able to stop, or at least change his course. He was not in control. You can see him flailing his arms.
3. The father and son should not have been stopped in the middle of an icy, crowded trail.
4. The Father must have severe mental issues. Instead of checking to see if his 5-year-old son who just got completely mowed over by a snowboarder is OK, he goes passed his son to yell at the snowboarder. Not a parent, but I think it's pretty f'd up that the "dad" would rather hit the snowboarder than check to see if his son is okay.

Final Verdict: Snowboard is responsible and must have really bad luck. The "father" is a total dick and should not be a parent.
 

Domeskier

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Idiot dad is at fault for negligently failing to make sure it was safe for his kid to proceed from a stand still on an icy, crowded trail.
 
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