While tubing has become a major attraction and revenue producer for winter resorts, the marketing spin can run the gamut from “safe but enjoyable family sport” to “a roller coaster ride.” Unfortunately, much like amusement parks, things can go wrong, and people can get hurt, with injuries ranging from ankle and knee sprains to concussions. Or worse. In one severe case, a man who hit his head on a backstop at the end of a runout became paralyzed from the chest down, prompting a multi-million-dollar lawsuit that’s still pending.

Risk is obviously inherent in skiing and snowboarding, since mountain terrain includes both marked and unmarked hazards as well as changeable surface conditions. But people who participate in tubing, many of them nonskiers, typically believe that a tubing hill is a controlled environment. “I’m sure they’ve figured out every way to make it stupid-proof,” a father of two children once told a newspaper in Ohio.

And for the most part, resorts have. Tubing injuries are relatively uncommon at tubing hills. In contrast, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that hospital emergency rooms, clinics and doctors treated in excess of 160,000 snow tubing, sledding and tobogganing-related injuries in 2007, the majority sustained by youths 14 and under. Most of the mishaps occurred on runouts or at the end of a sledding path, and typically involved collisions with walls, trees, rocks or other sliders. While the report doesn’t offer a breakdown of locations, it’s likely that organized tubing hills represent a small percentage of the injuries.

Still, ski area operators have faced a plethora of lawsuits, even with liability waivers and assumption of risk statutes for winter sports. And the assumption of risk doctrine, a staple in skiing injury cases, doesn’t always apply in tubing.

For example, in 2005, the Connecticut Supreme Court, by a 4 to 3 vote, ruled that a man who broke his ankle when his leg was caught between a tube and the snowbank bordering the run had a right to pursue damages. The court found that the plaintiff could reasonably expect that tubing would be safe, despite the fact that he had signed a waiver saying he would not sue even if he were injured through the area’s negligence. In its majority opinion, the court said “it is illogical to permit snowtubers, and the public generally, to bear the costs of risks that they have no ability or right to control.”

The End Game
When it comes to risk management at tubing hills, there are a multitude of variables. These can include the design of the hill itself, including the slope of the runout. It is almost impossible to design a run-out that is too long, with 50 yards or more being a good benchmark. Second, an uphill ramp angle in the run-out of six percent or more helps reduce speed. Some hills have favorable terrain that allows for a graduated uphill slope and, thus, a natural slowing of the tubes. Others have runouts that may require some type of backstop.

“Some areas still don’t spend enough time assessing whether they have enough runout,” says Bill Pawson of Tube Pro, which supplies tubes and a variety of barriers. While barriers are often useful and necessary, some areas rely on them too much. “They focus on getting people going fast,” Pawson says. “They need to think more about the topographical layout of the hill.”

Even when they do, though, there is often still a need for some type of final barrier. For that, Tube Pro and Idaho Sewing supply a variety of low-impact barriers. “We use waterproof, closed-cell foam, it does a good job of dissipating impact,” Pawson adds, and the waterproof materials “won’t absorb water or become firmer.” Some types of tube bottoms can slow down tubers, too.

The variety of barriers is extensive. Resorts use flexible netting, a variety of foam-filled products, deceleration mats, or a combination of these. One resort combines foam-filled barrier pads, laid on their side (so that they are two feet high and three feet deep, rather than the opposite), and backed by netting that is only attached at the ends. As a result, the pads and netting can move backward upon impact, providing a more gradual (and well cushioned) stop.

One newer solution is ShortStopZ, produced by Sans Gear NZ and distributed by Idaho Sewing For Sports. ShortStopZ involves a unique technology called Krush KushioNZ, which allows for pillow-soft landings and is designed for impacts of 25 to 30 mph. The system was designed by a trapeze artist and has been used successfully for nine years by circus performers. The manufacturer says it draws virtually all of the impact energy away from the body, resulting in softer impacts and lower potential for injuries. “It stops you in three hundredths of a second with no bounceback,” says Pete Northcutt, customer relations manager for Idaho Sewing. But it can be pricey: $25,000 for a 32-foot section, compared to about $2,500 for a comparable length of closed-cell foam barrier.

Last season, the first U.S. area to deploy ShortStopZ was Massanutten Ski Resort in Virginia, and others are considering it, in spite of the cost. Steve Showalter, the area’s general manager, says his operation has tried a multitude of solutions in its 12 years of tubing operations, but has found that ShortStopZ is the most effective barrier yet. “If someone hits it, the impact immediately pushes air out of the system, and then the fingers reinflate,” he says.

Earlier arrangements had shortcomings, he adds. “The first year we built the hill, we had a reverse slope runout and no fence,” he says. “That worked fine until somebody went over the hill and into the parking lot. So we put up a cargo net type of fence, and that worked until people went underneath the net. Then we added some Willy bags and inner tubes in front of the fence, and that worked pretty well for a number of years.” More recently, the area brought in black safety mats, sometimes 10 per lane in fast conditions, along with pole-vault pit pads with three types of foam cushions.

No barrier is perfect. Whatever it is, riders attempt to accelerate fast enough to hit it, especially young tubers. “We give them the lecture that if they do, we will throw them out,” says Showalter. “But sometimes the temperature drops five degrees, the wind kicks up and the lanes get slicker, and then everyone hits the bag. In that case, we break out the snow guns and that slows the tubes. We try to be one step ahead of the weather, but things that work today don’t always work tomorrow.”

Managing The Risks
Given the weather-related variables, personnel and their training are key components of risk management. “It’s all about being consistent,” says Brian Derouin, vice president of Wells Fargo Special Risks based in Seattle. “We don’t regard the tubing hills as more hazardous than any other part of the ski operation,” he says. But since there is a lack of standards for designing them, having a safe operation depends on “people keeping an eye on weather and surface conditions, and that relies heavily on the quality of ski area management.”

Jimmy Lawrence, vice president of loss control for ski area insurance carrier Willis MountainGuard, says that ski areas can manage risk by focusing on some key operations elements.

His advice: “Set rules and regulations that fit not only the demographics of your clientele, but also the design of your tubing area,” he says. “That may include things such as minimum height requirements, the number of people allowed in a tube, and whether you allow tubes to be chained together. Don’t handcuff yourself to a mechanism that requires people to drag their feet to stop, because even some adults may not be tall enough to do that.”

Training employees is another critical area, he says. “Tubing is a labor-intensive activity, and your staff needs to understand their responsibilities. This means that employees who start the tubes at the top of the run need to make sure that the path is clear before releasing the next tuber. And employees at the bottom need to be aware of what they must do to collect the tubes.”

Lawrence says it is important that tubing hill supervisors adhere to strict procedures, including knowing when to close the hill if weather or surface conditions make tubing too hazardous. “If you are diligent in selecting good employees, they need to be empowered to make decisions.

“And I would advise resorts not to put their tubing operations under the supervision of a manager who has other responsibilities. If tubes are reaching the backstop or the top of the berm, the managers must decide whether to adjust the start location or shut down and re-groom. There are a lot of things you can do to help control the speed, but these need to be done on a timely basis.” Lawrence says that night tubing, in particular, has its challenges because lanes can ice up quickly.

Communicating with customers is another important factor, he says. “Check with your state or local government jurisdiction to find out the rules on releases and assumption of risk that you can have people sign. Even in places such as Vermont, Virginia and New York, where releases are against public policy, this doesn’t mean that resorts shouldn’t give people some information about the risks involved. Also, we suggest comprehensive signage on the tubing hill,” says Lawrence.

Areas that are new to tubing or want to tweak their operations can check out the best practices planner developed by the National Ski Areas Association. There’s also the “Introduction to Snowtubing Operations,” published by Chris Stoddard, president of Mountain Management Services. His “insider’s” basic guide for employees, he says, is designed as “an adjunct to the training that a ski area would do.”

Legal Advice
Tom Aicher, a Vermont attorney whose firm, Cleary Shahi & Aicher, frequently represents resorts, says that identifying the regulations that govern tubing is the first step in setting up a sound risk management program. “Depending on the state, tubing may be defined as a sport that is covered by your inherent risk doctrines, or it may be included as part of a skiing statute. Some states consider it an amusement ride.

“The question is: How do you get assumption of risk, either by statute or by case law? Once you have a good understanding of the laws, you can fashion and prepare a contract with your customers that is appropriate for your state. It would incorporate an assumption of risk and warnings about the activity.”

Areas also should choose their tubing suppliers carefully, he advises. “I would select a vendor that would allow you to maintain warranty and indemnity rights for malfunctions of the equipment,” Aicher says.

Pennsylvania attorney Hugh Emory, who also defends ski areas in lawsuits, says that releases usually constitute an effective defense. As tubing has evolved, some of the earlier types of incidents—kids falling out halfway down, tubes colliding with other tubes, or tubes hitting exiting pedestrians at the bottom—are tapering off, he says. “Most of the claims involve the runout areas. Plaintiffs say they are too short or too steep, or that if you used hay bales you should have used deceleration mats, or if you used mats you should have used padding.” The takeaway: be ready to defend your choice of backstop, and make sure it does its job.

Tubing has become a safer activity as ski resorts have learned how to reduce or eliminate the collisions and other incidents that dogged the early years. But tubing operations must remain vigilant about safety, because any time people are sliding at speed on snow, things can happen. That’s true at even the best-run facilities. And that’s a sobering reminder for everyone.