Share your injuries

General Discussion
1

A spin off from the rotator cuff thread.

Maybe Doc and MarkSpindler will be so kind as to re-post their injury lists from the rotator cuff thread.

Doc provided the blank drawing to add injuries to.

  1. Hole in head from friend’s surfboard. He was paddling through a wave and let go his board just as I was riding by. We were in Mexico at the time and I didn’t really want to get stitches, so I lived with a bloody crater in my head for weeks.

  2. Hole in head from stranger’s surfboard. As I duck dove a wave the guy fell off and his board went nose first through my skull. I couldn’t speak for an hour, and must have been in shock since I stayed out for most of that hour, until a friend paddled up and said, “I can see your skull bone through all the blood. We should go to the hospital.” The ER doc spent a fair amount of time picking fiberglass out of my head before stitching me up and sending me home.

  3. Slash on bridge of nose from fin of my board. It was a windy day and the board flipped up and spun about ten times before clocking me on the nose.

  4. Crushed C-3 and C-4 discs. Actually from a boat in Alaska, but paddling doesn’t help and the whiplash from snowboarding made things really fun. If I sleep on my back my arms go all tingly then numb.

  5. Present rotator cuff b.s.

  6. Compression fractures of three thoracic vertebrae. From snowboarding, but exacerbated by a slip and fall on seaweed.

  7. Torn ligaments and impinged nerves from being snapped in half backwards while trying to duck dive a 15’ peak. It sounded as if every bone in my back popped as the wave hit. Thought I was dead on this one. As I was being rag dolled for what seemed like forever, I kept trying to feel my legs to see if they still worked. My understanding of the power of water in motion took a quantum leap forward on this one. ER doc shook her head after seeing the xrays (which also showed the compression fractures above) and told me I “needed to stop abusing” my body.

  8. As I made my way up a point break with slippery boulders, my right leg became wedged in between several boulders. Before I could extricate myself, I looked around in horror to see a large wall of white water rushing toward me. Whoosh…I was twirled around like a 4th of July spinner. Now my knee is REALLY flexible.

  9. Blown ankle. A falling lip kept throwing out just far enough to stay on my shoulder as I tried to straighten out. Eventually the wave pushed down so hard that my ankle gave out. Torn ligaments and six weeks in a cast.

  10. Bunion on big toe from rolling foot during cutbacks or tubes? The surgery was way worse than the original bunion.

  11. Plantar fasciitis. Like someone poking a burning stick into the arch of my foot.

  12. Surfer’s ear, both sides.

  13. In front of left ankle, an odd scar from Chile. As I jumped off the barnacle encrusted rocks in Arica, the water receded and my foot dragged along the barnacles until I hit deeper water. The funny thing is, the scar has always had a weird texture to it, as if the barnacles set up shop in my skin.

Will I ever quit? Did the Black Knight give up?

2

countless reef cuts and scars across lower back

two major fin cuts to right ankle (10 &16 stiches)

two seperated ribs from surfing big Lanis and thinking i could do a floater off the end section on an eight footer (smart, real smart)

22 stiches to my right hip got droped in on at waimea and had to straighten out down the step behind the boil, air droped and got sucked back over the wave only to land directly on my board and fins when i reached the bottom. that one really sucked, cut straight to my femur so you could see the bone and i broke the fins off my brand new 9’2’ D. pang

8 stiches to the back of my neck inches from major artery. surfing sandys shorebreak has its drawbacks

broken wrist this actually happend at OB san Francisco surfing Taraval on a super strong offshore day. the board flew up when i kicked out and when i tried to grab it it hit me on the side of my wrist and broke my scafoid. put it in a cast, didn’t set so i had to have bone grafts and pins put it (still itches right before rain comes)

Broken nose from eating it onto my board in Mendecino so cold i couldn’t even feel it but i was scared shitless that a shark was going to eat me

Not too bad, i think i am pretty lucky for all the stupid crap i have done.

3

most of mine are non surf related, just the basic minor fin cuts and getting dragged across the rocks a few times in front of hangers by P.A.F.B. you dont really get torn up when you spend most of your time surfing east coast beach break.

i think my worst all time injurys have ocured from skating. probably the best was the fractured elbow from falling of a 5-0 grind in the deep end of a pool with no elbow pads on.

and the other one is a huge hole in my leg right above my ankle on my left leg. when i first started skate boarding again i tried to skate a rail, like i used to be able to do. needless to say i attacked the rail and didnt pick up my back leg enough and proceed to slam it right into the corner of an open steel square tube. i left a huge chunk of my skin on the rail and you could see the bone, i was really luck to walk away with a stress fracture.

but the indention is still there about the size of the tip of your pointer finger and probably a quarter inch deep.

that was the first and last time i ever skated rails.

4

Aside from the basic fin cuts and scrapes, while pulling backside through a right-hand barrel, the lip clipped me and down I went. Somehow, underwater, my 6’1 JS Flyboy chopped me in the side of the head using the rail just under the nose of the board. It damn near gave me a concussion and blew the back of my right ear wide open. I could have used probably 5-7 stitches, but the waves were too good, so I stayed out, bloody and all.

5

2 # 8’s, a 10 and a 11… I’m working on a 5.

6

like turbo, i haven’t had many injuries from the sand bar at cocoa beach. a few odd rock scrapes from getting in and out of the water at places in satellite like RCs. my major stuff was from skateboarding. first was when i was five years old and learning to skateboard, i couldn’t stand and ride so me and my friends would ride around on our knees, i hit a rock or something and went chin first into the cement, 5 stitches on the bottom of my chin. fast forward 11 years later when i was attempting a boardslide on my first real handrail down a 7 step staircase, i bailed after a couple tries and rolled my ankle in half, it didn’t break but it swelled up to the size of a grapefruit. after that healed and i conquered some rails successfully i went after this 8 stair in tampa, something went wrong and my foot slipped, i ended up landing with the rail between my legs this close l------l to the family jewels. that was the last rail i skated, now i stick to bowls and parks and where full pads.

7

Re: [OregonPeter] 7 Minute Rotator Cuff Solution [In reply to] Edit | Quote | Reply

In the past three years I’ve gone from torn left knee cartilage, stepping off board right onto beach, a la Slater, and speed hiking Broken Top in Oregon, to ruptured disk in back, to torn left shoulder rotator cuff, to torn right rotator cuff with nerve damage going to elbow. The price is rest. The result is overweight. I have started waddling 2-4 miles every few days(up to my mid 40’s I did steady 7 minute miles, now it’s twice that). I have asthema now, too, but it’s got to be weight related. Hope so because then I may be able to beat it.

Supplements and knowing when and what to throw into your stomach helps. Knowing what you are trying to fix helps also. Exercise pain is not from lactic acid buildup as once believed, but micro tears. This is important to shoulder abusers like us. The body needs energy and protein. First, last year, I heard chocolate milk was the best post exercise drink. I liked that idea, but I couldn’t exercise first because I was still injured. Add weight. Then I got turned onto chocolate flavored whey protein, which I blend with milk. Awesome. Add more weight. Now that I’m doing road work things are reversing. Knee is holding up. Even old as I am I have faster recover time than I might have expected. with milk and whey protein.

I have an uncle who ran competition marathons into his 60’s and my grandmother lived to 102. I don’t know if my genes are that long lived, but I’m preparing for the worst, which is living a long time.

Stay away from Coke or Pepsi or any soda. Sugar, too, is a bummer. It cuts uptake of calcium. Rots teeth too. And bonds to protein so it’s virtually indigestible. Combined it weakens the cartilage and the bone so the ligaments and muscles can just rip things to shreds.

Also if anyone has restless legs calcium supplements help me. I figure it’s just the body stealing calcium from Peter to pay Paul. Galvanic reaction? The calcium supplements stop that by providing adequate source. Cheap fix.

(This post was edited by MarkSpindler on Apr 13, 2005, 6:20

AM)

I actually did a full dislocation left shoulder at Jax beach paddlingfor a wave in 1985. Had to go to some brand spanking new southern baptist regional or something or other hospital to get it popped back in. What a nightmare. What awesome painkiller! They said I liked it too much. This was after I waited 3-4 hours. By then any painkiller was welcome relief. They didn’t get it.

It continued to pop out for a year or so, but I just had friends or co-workers or girlfriend or whatever pop it in for me. Eventually it healed up enough to surf but it took years. Or was it fear that took years? Because when it dislocates in the water you might as well just drift out to sea. Fortunately those were the neon tight shorts years.

I have much more range of motion than guys who had the surgery. I had a bunch of shoulder exercises I did with pullys and weights and I should start that agian. I dug up my rowing machine for starters today. But the weights and rope and pully system I had worked better.

Here’s one I saw on TV late one night. It’s a reverse push up. You lay under a bar like you are in a bench press and you pull yourself up to it. Keep your legs and back straight. If I were to try a bench press right now, my arms would pop out of the sockets so fast I’d be choking on the bar in a second. Don’t need chest muscles anyway.

8

Lets see, a #10, 12, a #5 and a torn MCL. But I am still young so I have plenty of time to work on the more serious injuries.

9

the worst was multiple broken ribs from taking a late drop on a 12 foot wave and hitting another guy’s board (the guy bailed and threw his board sideways in front of me, Thanks!)… knee injury from big clamshell barrel… multiple head & face wounds & stitches from boards & fins hitting… surfers’s ear/ruptured eardrum, reef wounds, etc. Stupidest surf-related injury, punched myself in the mouth while trying to get my arm out of a wetsuit, chipped my front tooth. Never had it fixed so I’d remember not to do THAT again.

and apparently, Dain Bramage from being hit in the head… or maybe it was that bicycle crash where I was unconscious for an hour…

10

most of my injuries come from kooks who can’t hang on to their boards. most recently, i got hit in the jaw, and a few weeks ago i got cracked in the head pretty bad. once, some little kid dropped in on me, but i really didn’t care…we were sharing the wave, and he was fighting to pump down the line…i was cruisin’ behind him…then he caught a rail and did a header, kicking the board right back at me fins first…cut me up pretty bad. and another time some kid dropped in on me and took a nice chunk out of the top of my foot. aside from that…just little things.

11

I would be glad to do much more than share my injuries. I would like to give them away completely.

12

Last Saturday, I did a lot of yard/ house work…

The first thing I did was at about 9 am…

I was using a 1/2" electric drill to tap a screw hole into a broom handle…

Hand holding the handle is second nature for me…

Hey, I’m a “Professional”…

Been doing this stuff over thirty years…

Guess what, the 3/16 bit jammed, broke and the remaining drill shaft went THROUGH my middle finger, in a split second…

Reactively, I pulled the drill away, and rationally surmised that, “I f-cked up”…

Fortunately it completely missed the bone…

If you hold your hand flat, parallel to the ground, the hole in my finger started at 5:00 about 1" from the tip and exited at 12:30…

Missed my nail by 1/4"…

I sucked the bad blood out and masking taped it up (Garage Band-Aid), and proceeded with my “To Do” list…

Some yard work with heavy lifting, shoveling, etc…

Tape it up and get on with life…

A man’s gotta do what a mans gotta do…

The following day, no bleeding, a bit sore, but no biggee…

I got lucky…

I think…

I know what you’re going to hysterically say…

“Drop everything, get to the hospital and get it cauterized, sterilized, homogonized and funkifized”…

Throw in a Soul Vacination also (It’s in the blood…)

I would, but my jaw’s starting to lock up, and I don’t think the Doc will be able to understand me…

Grrrrrrr…

I keep telling myself, chicks dig scars…

Gnarly looking drill bit huh…

Like a hot needle though butter…

That’s not a factory tint inside the groove…

That’s the human fluid covering…

BTW…I did get a tetanus booster in Feb…


13

I LOVE these threads …

here ya go …

here’s a photo of my worst one …

14

oh …“THE PHOTO WON’T UPLOAD” …isn’t that a shame ??

never mind , it’s on the shaperoom , the surfer and sways sites [previously] …maybe a ‘google’ search under " ‘Waves’ magazine sex change operation’’ may bring it up .

ben

15

Gee, that’s a good one Paul, must be painful at it’s time.

When I was building my HWS, the next injuries took place:

  • cutting the plywood for building up the rails I cut through my left palm, about 2’’ long and 1/4’’ deep. nice scar, it looks quite natural.

  • with the same utility knife cut trough my middle finger nail, about 1/4’’ again.

  • with my brand new belt sander and a 36 grit brand new sandpaper band, sanded my left index finger and a nice part of the nail. this is the worst looking injury I made to myself, missed my fingerprint.

Those are the surf building-related. Many more from sandboarding, skimboarding, and some from bodyboarding in a beach with gnarly big waves and a gnarly rocky bottom. Sometimes there are 7 feet waves breaking in 1 feet deep water.

Jack

16

My worst injury was a broken heart!

17

Most of mine are non surf related. Third degree shoulder separation playing foot ball. When down in a blaze of glory, though. School rushing record kind of stuff. Shoulder reconstructed. Sprained ACL and MCL doing the same. Crunched cartilage in same sloppy knee sparing with my karate student. Dislocated fractured knuckles ring finger, middle finger different student. Stiches in upper lip from someone else’s board. Third hole in nose with nasal bone fracture from fin of my first home made board. The look of absolute horror from the tourist on the beach was almost worth it. My best was a compound fracture of both tibia and fibula(leg bones) in a head on crash, van flipped over, then hung upside down by it. Jaws of life time.The leg’s a bit shorter than it used to be. Like Gary I’ve had several broken hearts. They hurt like hell at the time, but it always seems to work out well in the end. I try to remember the words to a Toy Caldwell song. " As soon as I kiss the lips of another woman, I’m going to forget all about you." Mike

18

hola,

Among hundreds of razorblade cuts on my hands while cutting laps or building bodyboards, my worst injury was a finger tip amputation while using the power planer for removing the old glassing fibres from a snapped glass-on fin. Stupid of me!!! I held the planer on one hand(right) and the fin on the other(left). When I hit the planer with the fin, the fin simply was eaten by the planer and so was my finger. Blood was on every wall of the garage and over the board I was fixing (I think I was the inventor of the acid splash then…).

The funny thing: I was so stoked by the wound that I didn’t feel pain. Shut down the planer, took my finger tip from it and went to the hospital with it. When the doctors watched the wound and the bit of flesh I had on the other hand, they decided to put it back on place. Now I have an insensitive fingertip with no digital print.

Moral1: Power planer is just a shaping tool.

Moral2: Everyone could be a doctor here.

19

These treands are classic… I’t like sharing tales round the camp fire,

I carry a lot of scares, most through acciedents, a few from my own stupidity.

there are some funny ones too, even more close calls.

not enough time you go through every thing but the drill bit reminded me of a funny tale I’d completely forgotren about about:

when I was about 15 or 16 I was camping and went to get wood for the nights fire, I walked about 1/2 mile down the beach but couldn’t find any, so went to look in the rock where all the flotsume and jetsumeI washes up, was’nt looking and stepped on a peice of a wooden pallet about a ft long with a big nail sticking out of it

Yep you guessed it the nail went right through my foot and out the other side, did’nt hurt as much as I thought it would just kinda freaked me out, problem was that I couldn’t get the damb thin out so has to walk/hop the 1/2 mile back to camp with a big bit of wood nailed to my foot and get a couple of my friends to hold on an yank the plank of the bottom foot. Every one had a laugth at my novel approch of collecting fire wood.

That has nothing to do with being called Woody just an unfortunate coincedence.

20

…THAT was the only time in your life when ALL your friends unanimously agreed ,

"Woody , you REALLY nailed it " !