Superstition. For the past 5 months, I have been working around many

superstitious people. I thought superstition was put in the grave along

with the Salem Witch Trials. Apparently not, so lets bury it now.

In the skiing and snowboarding community, calling ‘last run’ is

taboo. If even the words ‘one more’ leak out of a rider’s mouth, he/she

is quickly corrected by other riders in the group. Often a few stories

of last run injuries follow and everyone agrees that saying ‘last run’

must be bad luck.

While I do not believe that calling ‘last run’ is bad luck, I think

a study of skiing injuries would show a slightly higher rate of injury

on the last run among advanced riders. I distinguish advanced riders

because many of the following factors do not apply to beginner riders.

If you are really focused on making it down the hill, you cannot day

dream about dinner while you are riding, for example.

Placebo Effect

The placebo effect

can work in a negative manner as well. If you think you are more likely

to be injured because you had called ‘last run’, you probably will be....

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