Jeez! This is starting to sound like and old Veteran’s home. B,B., it’s a wonder you got the use of your thumb back. Saw a kid run a chisel into his palm and sever all tendons and ligaments to his thumb. From what I’ve heard he lost all dexterity and nearly 85% of use.
ps. That’s how I lost my teeth, upper and lower. And another time board hit me in the mug and put the bottom row through the lip. Got a soul patch without the hair.
Great stories! Some very humbling.(broken vertebrae, amnesia??) hope everyone came out okay. Plenty funny ones too, “bruised ambition, paralyzed work ethic”, (I relate) but the one that got me was, Dlock, “Love, possibly the worst…absolutely the deepest”.I understand. Felt the same way the first time I met Rell Sunn. Left me speachless.
One more: Not really an injury. Got stuck in the impact zone in moderate Sunset and was pushed down to the bottom (sand at the time) and the water SHOVED me rapidly to shore while I was in a sitting upright position. Got out to find my board and felt my ass had turned into road rash like a bad slide into second base on a rough infield. Couldn’t sit for a couple of days after.
Escaped injury: Was surfing a reef break that really threw out hollow, water sucking back off the reef exposing a huge urchin covered rock. I’m taking off way too late and get launched face first onto the rock and then washed off. While tumbling around I’m thinking I don’t feel any pain,could be good or really bad.Thought I’d be covered in spines. Must have been just enough water to cover the rock. Came out totally ok and not a single urchin spine. How the hell did that happen?
Yikes!!! Tomas, I’d say no mas also! Wouldn’t want to lose an eye. Rather lose one of my cojones than an eye.
Other folks would read these posts and think we are crazy or dumb, but try to explain in the end, it’s worth the risk.
Well Stated.
Got lip launched on a big one as a grom. Landed back on my board, but not well - left knee bent the correct direction, right knee POPPED!!! the wrong direction. Results:
Patella in 3 pieces, torn miniscus, ACL pulled from femur, hairline fracture of fibula & strained the lateral ligaments. Had to swim in from Overhead Reef at Ventura, thru the shorebreak, then a beach camper took me to the hospital.
Lockedin, bet the “soup” at Overheads was a lot of fun with a barely hanging leg. You had to pick the break that’s the furthest out huh?
In a couple of weeks I will be celebrating 50 years of surfing. Almost made it without any serious injury that a few stitches and/or time wouldn’t fix. But this past January I apparently did a headfirst BP (drilling into the ocean bottom), crushed vertebrae C5, C6, C7, suffered a concussion, apparently damaged some tendons and/or ligaments (as after the accident my left side, was about half the strength of my right side), and damaged the muscles that control swallowing. I don’t remember anything between when I decided to conclude my surf session and when I was being transported from one hospital to another (better equipped) one. Apparently no other surfers were out, and somehow I had made it to shore under my own power and navigation. I was discovered sitting on a landing on the stairs that lead down to the beach by a friend who was going to go out. Two of my friends drove me to the hospital.
I had spinal surgery after getting X-rays, an MRI, and a CAT scan. The spinal surgeon cleaned out the crushed pieces of vertebrae, added a titanium plate (and 8 screws), and filled in missing “parts” with some sort of plastic that connective tissue can bond with. I’m told that the operation took about 4 hours. My weight dropped from 144 lbs a couple of hours before the accident to 128 lbs a few days after the accident. Spent fifteen days in intensive care, followed by a month or so of in-patient and out-patient physical and mental therapy. Was given permission to start surfing again about a month ago (~6 months from the accident).
My doctors (and I) consider me to be very lucky. The surgeons and the neurologist have told me on several occasions that if there had been just a tiny bit more damage (e.g. if I hadn’t been wearing a helmet), I would likely have been paraplegic pr quadriplegic.
Broken Teeth, broken Ribs , Stitches in the head, And according to some a life ruined by Surfing and Skiing.
" Mamas don't let your Sons grow up to be Surfers"
I once bruised my ambition, and another time I permanently paralysed my work ethic. To this day I suffer from joint pain on days with offshore winds.
bump
Torn knee ligament. Had to surf with a brace for a few months once the pain would let me back in the water.
As a beginner fell off he fired his mini-mal into my face as i was paddling out. That resulted in 12 stiches which were used to put my bottom lip back where it should be!
When i was a grom i took on overhead El Quemao (Lanzarote) on a sponge and ended up hitting the reef very hard, splitting my stomach muscles and suffering internal bleeding; it took 4 months for my muscle to heel and 6 months for the lump to dissapear! There's a lesson to be learnt from that one kids, don't paddle out somewhere unless you are sure you know what you are doing!
A myriad of injuries, some of which brought me to swelled knees. In the younger days was fisticuffs with the hogs between bombing set waves. After surfing the cold north blue… stumbled with numb feet to snap off the odd fin or two. After one far away rescue I got us both back to the shore and dropped, couldn’t move.
Inflicting injuries, I sliced open the back of a guys wetty with some finnage. probably left a bruise. He couldn’t duck was out a luck, I was in the tube. Met another guy the other day who couldn’t duck. What was he doing there as I came out of the peak’s spray? Bump, he will have a lump on the calf of his right leg.
Stay away from injuries both giving and receiving. For that must be the road less traveled. For me it surely seems to be.
Once I met a pretty girl in the water at queens, straddled atop a tanker in what was not much of a bikini, more like a string. Love. Possibly the worst injury of all. Absolutely the deepest. Keep surfing my Queen.
Dear Lord! what have you folks gotten yourselves into.
just when i thought a reef-ripped toenail was the worst i could ever get from surfing, all your life-threatening injuries are making me reconsider hmmm
Howzit surfiber, Just think about all the stories you can tell your grand kids and don't forget to show them the scars. Aloha,Kokua
hehe all your stitched scars are way cooler than my reef cuts (arms, back, legs, feet), but (God willing) i’d rather not have those types of injuries! " )
cheers,
Aloha DrokneeSL and others
This reminds me of one of my favorite movie scenes. The one from Jaws, where they share stories of their scars. Until the shark shows up!
I should clarify that the guy who nearly cut off my thumb, did come over to my house a couple of days later and apologized.
Tblank, your right, I was very lucky my hand healed well, bordering on the miraculous. My hand is near perfect. Would have been hell without a thumb, everything I do seems to need it!
Kokua, I lived at Log Cabins for 20 years, that place is notorious for injuries! Been to Kahuku Hospital way too many times, often to get friends repaired, too often to get myself fixed. My wife and daughters think I am a bit looney! By the way… my younger brother Bob lives in Phoenix area and is involved in the construction trade. Maybe you will bump into him eventually.
hmm how come we never hear of gerry lopez or laird (or greg noll back in his day) getting seriously messed up like you guys given the type of surf they regularly go for?
plain dumb luck ? or under heaven’s protection? hehe
cheers,
I don't know about Lopez, but Laird has a diagram in his book showing all the scars and broken bones he has garnered from his many surfing injuries.
After reading through this thread, I feel fortunate to have escaped serious injury in many years of surfing. Perhaps my natural aversion to crowds has been a factor, but I know I've had many close calls, even recently.
Be careful out there!
noll, definitely got his bumps and bruises..i remeember seeing a pic of him
with his left eye swollen shut...
lopez got the famous fin to the ass, and actually perferated his rectum..
his brah said in the hospital to lopez... "brah..you farting out two holes now!"
the right side of my lip and jaw..this morning..looks
i was on the wrong end of chuck liddle's( not greg) notorious " ground and pound"
banana mango honey smoothies for a couple of days...