Surfing Waves

Hi everyone,

A total beginner here, with an injury related question. I have an old knee injury that's been about 5 months, and when I tried surfing in Cornwall recently, the knee did not take it well. I'm going to Bali in two weeks, and surfing is out of the question, but I wanted to try bodyboarding.

My question is - how hard is bodyboarding on the knees? With surfing it's the standing up motion and the turning (sideways knee torque) that I can't do at the moment, so it will have to wait a little bit, but if bodyboarding is more kicking in the water (straight knee joint motion up and down), then maybe that's much more forgiving on the joint?

Any thoughts appreciated.

With ligament damage the most common are the collateral on the side of the knee cruciate ligaments less common. The knee of course is much less stable under load , hence not being able to stand up.
Bali, body boards and injured knee, the kicking action sounds like it won't be challenging as much.
I would ask myself before going out if the knee belts me can I handle the pain enough to be safe and get in?

Possible consequences of further injury, tearing or increasing a tear in the cartilage, if the injury is a partial tear worsening the tear, or completely tearing it. The knee may also be more prone to subluxation or dislocation.

Your call on all this, one other fact you do not wish to need Indonesian hospitalisation .

If you try try gentle surf and gentle straight leg swimming, check yourself out!
Good luck!

Bodyboarding has it's own issues in regards to knees. I do both. Mainly I body board waves that aren't ideal for surfing--closeout barrels, shorebreaks, things like that, and can tell you that the fins can make wipeouts and duckdiving broken waves (caught inside on big days) murder on your knees. I've gotten out on some big days feeling like my legs have been twisted every way possible because the fins get twisted and torqued so much when a wave rolls over you. For paddling, I tend to use my arms for the most part (that's what I'm used to) and only kick when catching waves because the board paddles with no speed. Bali won't throw much in the way of shorebreaks or closeouts at you, but getting caught inside could be a problem on your knee. Try it out at your local break first, purposely getting caught inside and see how it goes--you can definitely tell you've got fins on!

I had a knee problem that got worse when I went skin diving with fins. That is what motivated me to go back to surfing again after quitting for so many years. I have worked at strengthening my knees and for the most part seems fine surfing although getting slammed while turning on bigger waves can mess me up a little. I have not put on fins to see if I can use them now as I spend most of my time in the water surfing.