For everyone who knows Echostorm (Mike) - I would like to wish him a good recovery after his operation today.
After a jump gone wrong 2 days ago in the surf he snapped both bones in his lower leg and will probably be out of action for about a year. 
For anyone who knows him, you'll know that this is a hard pill to swallow so please send him some well wishes.
Get well soon Echostorm...
Ehco,jeeze you have been so into your kiteing,especialy after recovering from last spill,your accident was broadcast on local radio yeterday,(no name)said a local kiter had recieved a broken limb whist surfing in trechuous conditions(thats our Echostorm) and that you were collected buy Ambo from the beach.....definately have to get all your mates around you when you are a bitt better...can't say much other than 'hope your recovery is speedy' regards Mark W. 
Sorry to hear of your misfortune Mr Echo.
Hope you make a speedy recovery and return to both the water and the forums soon. 
Echo....thats Hard Core dude! sounds like some serious carnadge,
Hope you mend quick and come back stronger and braver than ever.
you gota give us some more details bro, did you.... land in shallow water? or with one foot out of you straps?.... what happend?
Im hangen for some details on what went down!...(no pun intented)
talk to you soon
Best Regards
Luke
Mike, bummer man I know what you are going through
....Mate..your down,but not out!
some tips 4 ya
kick them pain killers sooner rather than latter because they help to depress you an have nasty side effects.
Stay focused on the recovery an have an I can beat this attitude.I know you can!
Channel that enthusiasm you have for kiting into your healing process and it will speed things up.
Remember what the "experts" say is a worse case scenario and the final outcome is up to you, if you do everything right you WILL recover heaps quicker.
Having said all that ,I hope you get over it quickly Bro so we can go on some more epic crazy downwinders together
Phil
mike that is harsh,,,,,,
you 'll need plenty of dvds and mags to get yoou through......so will have to rally the boys to get you some
- fingers crossed for a good recovery
Lucky Bruce
Hope the recovery goes well, and no complications later on.
Not surprised though, looking at the sunshine coast/brisbane/goldcoast graphs(assuming thats wehre he was??) it looks pretty hairy.
Broke my leg last year slim chancing in blasting wind. Ahhh!
Keep your leg up otherwise it takes ages to get the fluid out of your foot. 
both bones you say... 
musta been bloody painful, hope you get back out there soon
A year is a huge amount of time to be out, even with a bad break to the tibia and fibula. Did he need surgery or anything?
When i broke my tibia i was back playing cricket, tennis etc within 4 months.
PS if you need a good physio, i can recommend a few (myself mainly)
Fooking hell - Mike heres hoping you make a speedier recovery than that...all the best!
wish a speedy recovery, anyhow does that mean cheap toys for sale or more ****e forums-wise 
Gee thats a hard pill to swallow Mike , but time will pass mate and i hope you have a speedy recovery .
I went to visit Mike yesterday in the hospital. He's doing OK I suppose considering. He had surgery to insert the rod into his leg and then a day later had to have surgery again as he had contracted compartment syndrome of the calf muscle. This results when a great trauma occurs to the body, causing fluids to rush to the injured body compartment, and forcing the muscle tissue to expand greatly. This swelling would have continued until the skin prevented the muscle from expanding any more, whereupon the muscle would have died. To prevent this, the surgeon made two large incisions on the calf allowing the swelled calf muscle room to expand. So basically, the calf muscle is on the outside of the leg until the swelling subsides.
He gave me the low down on what happened - which turns out to be a large case of bad luck. He was landing a pretty routine jump at a reasonable speed when he hit a backwash wave colliding with an incoming wave just at the peak of its energy. The force was enough to travel up the leg and break 2 bones. His knee hit his upper arm which is severly bruised and his arm hit his head so he has a bump on the eye.
He said thanks for all the well wishes and is looking forward to catching up for a beer sometime soon.
That sounds painful.
Even the thought of getting back to the beach with 2 broken bones in the leg and every wave thereafter pounding it. Ouch!
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Holy **** Mikey! Did that happen on the last day I saw you before I left? I'm so sorry to hear this news - what a bummer. All the best for a quick recovery and I'll drop by with some movies and stuff when I get home mid month.
Dude ......... my condolences.
I got pretty whacked up last week but at least I can still walk (just)
So unlucky mate
Happ(ier) Days
I spoke with Mike today, in for another op, and not sounding too happy!!
The only guy to ring me from 20,000 feet off the gold coast while working (Aerial photography) to tell me he'll be on the beach and pumped in 30mins, and orginised
4 others for a 10kms downwinder.
Another was arriving on the beach after doing a 6km downwinder and co ercing me to join him on a 10km down the beach and to stop halfway to
tell me we only have
15 minutes to get his wife's office before she leaves work.
Yeah, and I told my wife I'm only going for a quick one, left her at
1pm only to get home at 7.30pm.
Mike can be very persuasive and enjoys pushing the boundaries.
Whenever the wind was up, this guy charges every time....mate you helped me through my knee injury, and I know you'll be back to kick your my arse.
Oh incase you didn't get the full story...Tony went out together with Mike,
he popped his shoulder and kited all the way home without knowing what happened
to echostorm.
Not a good day all round...get well bro....anything you want just say it!!
Also a classic blogger on the forum.
Hey Banana,reckon we all should dose up Echo with some home grown hospitality when he is feeling better,his imput deserves a comendation by all that have the pleasure to know him
First off I would like to thank all you guys from the bottom of my heart for the well wishes. It was really warming when Sunseeker (nick) visited me in hospital with a printout of this post. It is amazing that a bunch of people, lots who have never met face to face come together in these forums, share experiences, encourage each other, give advice... and listen. To all of you, be it my mates or the guys i have never met in person, it really did mean something... so thanks.
I guess i should start by telling you what happened. I was out with tony doing a quick downwinder from mudjimba to the broadwork when just north of marcoola at a quiet stretch of beach I did a nice and clean front roll off the back of a wave. It was nothing special and my landing was going to be spot-on when just before i hit the water two waves collided and made a wall in front of me. Instead of converting all that forward and downward energy into momentum my legs absorbed it all... the tibia and fibula broke in one leg and the ligaments in my knee snapped on the other... I think cause my elbows hit my knees and my fists hit my head in a kind of ball that the energy was absorbed entirely through my legs as the rest of my body acted as a kind of brace. I remember the flash and knowing straight away that i had stuffed my legs pretty bad. I let my kite go and felt my ankle to discover that skin was all that attached it to my leg. It was at that point i was hit by a reasonable sized wave and i remember watching my toes kick my knee as my lower leg flopped around in all that turbulant water. The feeling of the bones grinding on each other was freaking disgusting. Perhaps in heinsite I shouldnt have ditched my kite as I could have used it to drag me in, however when you have a fall like that you want both hands to go to the wounded area and the kite was just in the way. Swimming in was a real challenge (lucky i was at the inner shore break and not out the back when it happened). I always wear an impact vest to absorb big falls and that flotation saved my ass. Those that ride at the Sunny Coast know that there is a very short wave period (waves keep coming one after the other) so everytime the waves hit my leg would get thrown all over the place. When I got to the beach a women and her dog came over to me... i smile when I think of the look on her face when she saw the leg, the poor women, she made this moaning gurgle sound totally repulsed and asked how she could help trying not to look at it. I got her to go up the beach and get help which she did, waiting at the waters edge constantly getting bombarded by waves really sucked. Two guys came and dragged me up the beach we made a sling and waited almost 2 hours for the ambos.
I ended up getting internal bleeding in the calf known as Comparment syndrome so they had to cut the calf down both sides, cut it in half and then pull it out either side of my leg... All I will say is lucky I am in private cover... if I had of continued to keep waiting at Nambour the chances are I would have most certainly lost my leg.
Here is a pic (the black area is whree the bone is broken)
The Xray (I dont know wtf those squiggles are?)
And a vid (dont show ur wives)
Man that is one hell of a story, and injury.
I broke both bones in my arm playing rugby and have 2 plates and 12 screws still in there. That was hell and isn't even in the same universe as this.
Mate you are one lucky guy as it seems you will recover fully in time, but sounds like that was not a certain outcome at all. 2 hours for an Ambo??? wtf?? You get better service in PNG than that! The pain must have been unbelievable.
Selling your kites sucks - if anyone wants to set up a donation fund account I will throw some cash in.
Speedy recovery mate, and I hope to have a kite with you one day soon.
hahaha thanks for the donation offer Paradox... not like i can use the gear though so please give donations to people that really need it .
Whew! Thanks for the graphic description and images. That's heavy s**t! I wish you speedy and full recovery. Get well is the main thing.
Fark man, you must be one of the only people that wouldn't pass out from the serious pain endured. Especially for 2 hours.
Hope your recovery is a speedy one
