Surfing Waves

Hey folks, been a while, haven't had internet in my place for a few months, just got it last week!

A few weeks ago I went surfing a new spot, quite far from where I live. Had a ride from my parents and my sister that came along. All breaks nearby were near flat, so I was a bit worried I would have ridden all the way there for nothing, but it had some decent size waves, around 2ft to 3f hawaiian on the biggest series. Sun was out, had an older board of mine that I keep on my aunt's, a blessed day that I could spend surfing and having a good time with my family.

Had a great session, then went out to find my parents and sis, and decided to go in again, even though waves seemed a little bit smaller (still good as I would soon find out ).
When I was leaving from my second session, I noticed a guy was photographing near where I was, so I asked him if I was in any shot and he sent me them.

So here it is, my first shot from the beach:

I wish I had someone photographing me from the beach. So did you make it or did the lip take you out? Did you get around the section?

oldmansurfer wrote:So did you make it or did the lip take you out? Did you get around the section?

I'm not completely sure, but I don't remember getting past a long section on a b/s wave that day, so I probably had to straighten out or kick out on the foam after the shot!

Some more shots of a couple of days ago :

That day I nailed two snaps that were probably the most vertical I could get so far, I can't say how vertical because it's hard to have an idea when you don't see it from the outside. One of them was caught on camera when I was coming back from it (I wish there was a shot from the lip hit!):







And a small frontside top turn carve:

so cool, congrats! I have a bunch of pics of me from my third lesson - the school had a photographer but most of them are of me eating it. I really like the ones of you against the white break. I can't wait until I get better and actually look like I know what I'm doing out there, if even for a split second in a photo.

Thanks Rachelle!

I'm sure if there were pictures from the whole session there would be plenty of shots of me eating it too, probably more than of me getting it right!

By the way, how is the finger recovering? Are you back on water already?

IanCaio wrote:Thanks Rachelle!

I'm sure if there were pictures from the whole session there would be plenty of shots of me eating it too, probably more than of me getting it right!

By the way, how is the finger recovering? Are you back on water already?

I went in for just a little last weekend, less than an hour since the pins were still in there. I just got them taken out on Monday and how can "officially" get it wet. Technically he says another two weeks but I'm going out tomorrow.

Overall, if I had to do it again, I'd skip the surgery. It was more painful and restrictive than the actual injury and the only thing I have to show for it is a straighter ring finger.

It's cool to see how stooked you're getting about surfing! Keep it up, just be careful to avoid any after effects on your finger.

But could you recover the finger without surgery? A while ago I broke a wrist and because of the nature of the fracture I'd have to put a pin, but the ER doctors putted it back to place so well the follow-up doctor thought I could wait for a while to see if I'd really need it, and I ended up recovering with a cast only. Was that the case? Like, you had the option of trying to go with a cast only?

Think having the pin is the safest choice most of the time though, glad the recovery went fine!

IanCaio wrote:It's cool to see how stooked you're getting about surfing! Keep it up, just be careful to avoid any after effects on your finger.

But could you recover the finger without surgery? A while ago I broke a wrist and because of the nature of the fracture I'd have to put a pin, but the ER doctors putted it back to place so well the follow-up doctor thought I could wait for a while to see if I'd really need it, and I ended up recovering with a cast only. Was that the case? Like, you had the option of trying to go with a cast only?

Think having the pin is the safest choice most of the time though, glad the recovery went fine!

Well, I say I just started surfing in early July this year, but it was actually July of last year. Thing is, I took two lessons last year, was about to take my third and injured my neck doing something else (long boring story) which prevented me from doing anything for a couple of months. So I resolved to really put my all into it this year and did just that. Until I was injured again, ugh.

What the doctor did for you in the ER, I did to myself in the water. Reducing a fracture means that it was a displaced (non-aligned) fracture and you "put it back into place" manually. I apparently did such a good job that I saved myself permanent hardware, but the surgeon insisted that I would heal with a crooked finger so I opted for the surgery, not thinking it was a big deal.

The thing that just pisses me off is that I had thought it was a dislocation so I reduced it myself and went back out there 3 and 4 days later, just getting by with taping it and taking Aleve. If it hadn't swelled so badly on the 5th day, I never would have thought anything of it and I wouldn't have gotten the x-ray. Even after I scheduled the surgery I surfed with it two more times. Going from that, sort of toughing it out and shaking it off, to going through the surgery and the recovery (which was MUCH longer than I was originally told) makes it seem like it just wasn't worth it, but who knows what would have happened if I didn't get it.

I'm a nurse, so I had all the options I wanted haha! I decided to go with the surgery, but it's STILL very painful, STILL very swollen, STILL very tender, and I STILL have to wear a dumb splint on the thing for god knows how long! So I'm left wondering if I made the right decision. Getting hardware put into a fracture helps it heal in alignment and prevents future issues and injury over time with range of motion, but many times it is not critical. Also, getting the pins taken out of the bone actually prolongs the healing of the bone because now I have holes in there - it's osteoporosed and will take another 4-6 weeks to fill in and heal completely. So that makes things harder for me because I still need to baby it.

I'm glad you didn't end up needing ORIF surgery for your wrist! Was it a surfing accident?

Rachelle

You sound like - any injury drives me nuts and has always. I played competitive sports every weekend (and many weekdays) for about 30 years and missing that would make me very annoying to be around.

Sound like me...(that post is meant to say)

kookRachelle wrote:What the doctor did for you in the ER, I did to myself in the water. Reducing a fracture means that it was a displaced (non-aligned) fracture and you "put it back into place" manually.

Damn, that's real bad ass! I hope it was less painful than when they reduced mine, they applied some anesthesia on my wrist and I asked "So it's not going to hurt that much right?" to which the doctor replied "Of course it's going to hurt, you broke your bone". Have to love his honesty, and he was right . The anesthesia didn't do much help, if any, but I can still remember how good the relief was when they set it in place.

kookRachelle wrote:I'm a nurse, so I had all the options I wanted haha! I decided to go with the surgery, but it's STILL very painful, STILL very swollen, STILL very tender, and I STILL have to wear a dumb splint on the thing for god knows how long! So I'm left wondering if I made the right decision.

I think you did, might be a little annoying right now, having to wait a bit longer but I think it was safer. A few more days of recovery but less chance of having some long-term effect.

kookRachelle wrote:I'm glad you didn't end up needing ORIF surgery for your wrist! Was it a surfing accident?

It was actually skateboarding! Surfing I got mostly small cuts, some soreness and rarely hematomas from the poundings.

dtc wrote:any injury drives me nuts and has always.

I think now that I surf I'd be more annoyed to be injuried, because of the time outside the water recovering..