Weekend not as planned…

Amy and myself went down to Manly to meet Nancy and Marcus for some beach fun. The waves weren’t really coming in. In fact, they were so small it was almost not worth even going out. However we decided it would be a good day for mal riding with Amy and Nancy, so after sitting on the beach for a while I went off and hired a mal, it was really a mini-mal as its dimensions were 7’6.

I put on Marcus’ rash vest and thought I’d have a quick go whilst waiting for Marcus to get back from getting his fish board. I paddled out into the non-existent surf on the mal and waited for a wave. A technique used on my board is if a wave looks like it is going to break, lean into it and go head under. I normally appear out the other side still in sitting position on the board. I must have been out for about 60 seconds when I attempted something similar. However, the consequences went horribly wrong –

I became a burden on the Australian health system

The mal has a much bigger surface area than a shortboard and so the wave must have sucked me over. The whitey bubbly water just as the wave breaks is not the place you want to be. So, in a sitting position on the board I went over the falls. This is not the best of positions to go over in as I later worked out. I protected my face from getting hit by the board but instead it either hit me in the shoulder or my arm hit the sand as I went sideways over the edge of the wave. My arm definetly felt wrong and when I came to the surface it looked wrong as well. I stayed calm and let the waves push me back to shore, Amy took the board off me whilst I went to the life guards, they walked me to the tent at the end of the beach where I sat down and breathed oxygen as the pain was really getting intense. The lifeguards were really nice and helpful and one girl even held ice on my shoulder. An ambulance came and gave me 10mls of morphine, after that everything went a little weird!!

So I got into hospital and had more morphine and breathed oxygen and had xrays taken. I was then told I was going to have a drug similar to rohypnol (sp?) and that I would be consious but no really aware of anything. After getting that I was in a crazy dream world as Amy told me about some of the things I was saying whilst in la la land. I remember some of it but was sure it was a dream rather than reality!! The picture above was taken in a room I don’t remember being in!

So that was a very long day and now I have a sling which I have to wear for two weeks and no surfing for the foreseeable future!! Sucks!! More happier updates coming soon….

Fizzer has a blog now, which rules, it’s called Faiser Chief go check it out!