My experience taking care of well over 1,000 ACL injuries indicates that snowboarding is pretty safe for you, at least as far as ACL tears go. This paper surveyed professional snowboard cross athletes and their data was very interesting. First of all, I was right, skiers are far more likely to tear their ACL. One study quoted 17% ACL injury in skiers versus 1.7% in snowboarders.
However, snowboard cross is far more dangerous. Here is a summary of this study:
[66 competitive snowboardcross athletes responded to the email surveys, 48.5% of respondents had torn their ACL at least once in their career. (female respondents, 55.6% suffered at least one ACL tear,43.6% of male respondents) 31.2% suffered more than one ACL tear during their career. Of those who tore their ACL, 91.3% (p <0.001) tore their front leg. 100.0% of the respondent athletes returned to sport post-ACL reconstruction].
Read more about this study in Cureus: Trends in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury and Recovery in Professional Snowboarders: The Extreme Sport of Snowboardcross.
Photo by Go Montgenevre on Unsplash