Surfing Waves

Strange, was surfing shoulder/head high barreling waves at Imperial Beach on Friday. I tucked in but did not come out, the impact felt hard on my calf but thought nothing of it. After, on what became my last wave, I got a good peeler and did a couple of cutbacks on it, as I cut away over the shoulder to end the ride my calf pulled, hard, I could not even bend my leg straight. I floated for about 5 minutes with waves hitting me (luckily I had just ridden my last one close to the shore) trying to massage my calf until I finally was able straighten out my leg and limp to my car. Oddly, the next day my calf was purple and now, 3 days later now it is still sensitive to the touch.

Might be that I am 55 and surfing like I'm not, not sure, but I found this new injury bothersome. I've had stitches on my foot and eyebrow, stepped on 7 different stingrays and have battered and bruised myself on different reefs and sandbars, but this is a new one for me, I hurt just from normal surfing...

As I get older I dread getting something like that but overall do pretty good not getting hurt

The recent injury I had from surfing was a heel bruise due to carving a cutback with too much force and created a new pressure ding in my board but it was an awesome cutback on a shoulder high wave, maximum power. Probably threw a lot of spray but I didn't notice worrying about my sore heel. The bruise was all good in a couple days.

IB_Surfer wrote:Oddly, the next day my calf was purple and now, 3 days later now it is still sensitive to the touch.

Mine was purple and yellow. They said if it's yellow then it's probably bleeding somewhere.
My calf took around two months to heal.

Getting old sucks! However I can't wait until the day that I retire and can surf whenever I want.

It most likely a torn muscle fibre not the whole muscle enough to cause intra muscular bleeding = bruising also known as a corked fibre if there was impact to the area. If you run your Fingers along th muscle fibres you may feel a small knot or lump this is the location the injury occured.
That is a clot within the muscle do not disturb, you can lightly massage with Arnica Cream following the muscle fibres at the edge of the bruise , as the bruise lessens you can move towards the area of the clot, Massage upwards from the leg towards the body not towards the foot!

If you see your Doctor and they know you medical history they may suggest hirudoid cream which dissolves bruises more than arnica.
Don't rush back to surfing the muscle is a new fibres less than its optimal strength and could tear worse under load!

Follow up: a week later I was back in the water but it’s a lingering injury, not as bad but I can feel it. A lot of stretching…

Don’t stretch a freshly torn muscle. Ensure it us fully healed first, otherwise you may permanently damage it. One week is far too early. I would suggest to see a doctor.

Thanks, I will remember for next time, all good now