My First Snowboarding Injury

I was snowboarding for the third time at a local mountain here in Colorado. I was riding down one of the steepest sections of the run when another boarding bailed 10 feet in front of me. This being only my third time boarding, I was unable to avoid the inevitable collision. The dude saw me barreling down on him so he stuck up his board to protect himself. His board made contact with my left shin and I went sailing. When I finally came to a stop my leg hurt, but I continued to board for a few more runs. Eventually my friend noticed my pants were ripped so we stopped at the top of the mountain to scope out the injury. As I pulled up my pant leg, the first thing I saw was my bone. To make a long story short...I ended up having a 2 1/2 inch long and 4cm wide gash on my left shin which required 15 stitches (5 inside and 10 outside). While riding on my last couple of runs (with the gash in my leg), I finally learned how to link turns and for the first time I actually felt like I was snowboarding...can't wait to go riding next week (even though I still have the stitches!)