INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR SKIING SAFETY
 

Introduction


"The purpose of the ISSS is to stimulate interest at the international level in the prevention of skiing injuries. This is accomplished through the individual efforts of the members and the collective efforts of the Society. Scientific exchange is provided through the international conferences and regional meetings sponsored by the Society. It is anticipated that the ISSS will become an influential body in all areas of skiing safety and trauma prevention."

(Taken from the Introduction to the Proceedings of the 2nd ISSS Conference held in Grenada, Spain in 1977)

You will see the International Society for Skiing Safety (ISSS) mentioned frequently throughout this website. It is an international society of doctors, physios engineers (and other scientists), manufacturers, patrollers and ski area staff (amongst many others) all of whom share a common interest - to reduce the number of injuries from snow sports and improve the enjoyment of those taking part. The Society was founded in 1974 under the leadership of Ejnar Eriksson, and the first conference was held in Sweden that year. Since then, the society has gone from strength to strength and continues to hold a biannual international conference, attracting expert speakers and high quality research from around the world. The proceedings of each Congress have, until 2003, been published by the ASTM in America, and the resulting book provides a vast amount of research material specific to the domains of epidemiology, biomechanics, injury prevention, equipment design and more. From 2003, the research proceedings of the ISSS have been published in the Journal of ASTM International. Following the 2005 ISSS meeting in Japan, the ISSS has redeveloped its website, and will soon be offering interactive features for members including access to pdf document copies of powerpoint presentations from previous symposia. Specific work groups are also being established to increase cooperation in pushing forward knowledge and research in key areas including ski binding settings, protective equipment and performance factors on snow. The new ISSS website can be found at www.isssweb.com

If you would like any more information on the ISSS or just want to ask an informal question, please feel free to send me an email.
 

Membership


Membership of the ISSS involves only a modest sum - currently $125 (US) for a two year personal membership - a reduced rate of $50 applies to students at University or College (a letter of support from your department head is required for proof). All members receive a copy of the latest aforementioned Congress proceedings - often worth at least half the subscription fee on its own! The ISSS is a very friendly organisation and one of the many benefits of membership is the network of contacts available in the various fields allied to snow sports injury prevention. On a very personal level, it was not until my initial contact with the ISSS that my own research really began to reach the required level and every meeting sees new presenters from different countries joining in the fun of the ISSS.

You can download an ISSS membership form as a pdf file by clicking here.


For more details on the ISSS feel free to send me an email - hope to see some of you at the next meeting in Germany in 2009 - details on www.isss2009.com

 

Photographs from previous meetings

The last ISSS meeting was held in Aviemore, Scotland in May 2007. Aviemore is the home village of Dr Mike Langran who chaired the organising committee.  The ISSS were able to welcome new national secretaries for the Czech republic and Argentina. As always, we remain keen to welcome new members - our meetings and forums are totally informal and there are plenty of organised activities during the course of the conference, separate schedules for those accompanying delegates and, of course, a good bit of skiing and boarding to be had. The social side of things is well catered for too with lots of evening meetings and friendly discussions in the bar! To prove the point, here are a few pictures from the previous five ISSS meetings - click on the thumbnails for the full picture.
       
Pictures from the ISSS meeting in Cervinia, Italy. May 1999
       

Pictures from the ISSS meeting in Queenstown, New Zealand. August 2001
       

Pictures from the ISSS meeting in St Moritz, Switzerland. May 2003
       

Pictures from the ISSS meeting in Mount Arai, Japan. April 2005
       

Pictures from the ISSS meeting in Aviemore, Scotland. May 2007

 

Details of future meetings


The next ISSS meeting is scheduled for April 26-May 2 2009 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany under the chairmanship of Veit Senner from Munich. The conference website is now up and running at www.isss2009.com. You can download the first announcement as a pdf file here.

The conference hotel is the rather nice Sport and Spa Hotel Riessersee in Garmisch - you can check out their English language website here.  You can also visit the official website for Garmisch.

The provisional prices for the conference are as follows:

 


Once again, membership of the ISSS makes real sense due to the discounts available - if you're not a current member, contact the ISSS secretary now - details on www.isssweb.com. Meantime, I hope you will consider registering for ISSS 2009. Another excellent conference is assured though and I look forward to seeing you there.