Looks like I won't be kiting for a while...

Headed down to Altona on sunday after having a quick look-in at Hookstock...wish we'd stayed there haha...

So there I am just running back and forth in the shallows doing little 1m max jumps, correcting my technique and perfecting my transitions when I got hit by a gust that just launched me straight up. I landed in 10cm of water with my right led extended and just knew I was in trouble.

I managed to get tangled with someone else unfortunately (sorry whoever that was) but immediately released the kite and had a look down my leg...My foot was at a right angle to my leg Adrenaline must have been pumping because I reached down, grabbed the foot in one hand, leg in the other and snapped it back into the socket

So anyway, a MASSIVE thankyou to Jason and Brendan who came out to me and were absolute legends. Jason rang the ambo's while Brendan ran out to the roadside to flag them down. Jason stayed calm, talked to me and kept me from thinking about it too much. They then carried me to the ambulance when it arrived. Thanks guys you are both legends and beers will be happening soon.

My partner Veronica gathered all our stuff, locked it in the car then came with me to the hospital in the ambulance. She was a real angel, staying at my bedside for the first 24 hours straight and over the course of the hospital stay had less sleep than I did.

End result, dislocated ankle, multiple breaks then 3 days drugged to my eyeballs with nil to mouth and having to fight tooth and nail for a drip and morphene while waiting for 4 hours of surgery.

It was a nightmare hospital stay because I was in the abdominal ward not osteopathic and I don't think the staff understood the nature of my injuries. A lot of requests for painkillers were met with offers of panadol...yah...great... They also forgot to feed me on those few occasions when I missed the surgery list again and was lucky to get a piece of old toast on one occasion.






I'll be back though

Fek!!

As someone who has witnessed their own hand sitting 4-5 inches further back than it should be I can empathise with the adrenalin and 'fix it before it hurts' mentality.

Yep - the lack of painkillers made things a bit worse for me too. If you are EVER asked in hospital, what the pain level is on a scale of 1-10, don't be a tuff guy say "8-9" at least and get some bloody relief (and sleep). Learnt that one a bit late for myself.

Glad to hear you had some champs (and an angel) help you out. Sure is good to have good peeps around at times like this.

All the best for smooth recovery mate, it will take a long time but hang in there.

Funny, Veronica saw the post about framing the x-rays and rolled her eyes because I've always got them out looking at them and she figured I wanted to do that.

I was certainly letting them know I was in pain but I really don't think they understood how much. At one stage I could barely speak because of the pain and Veronica had to translate my request for painkillers...I got offered panadol again...

After the op though I was on a cocktail of Morphene, Ketamine and Tramadol(spelling?). At the touch of a button I could give myself a shot. I'm kicking myself though because I didn't realise how much I had at my disposal and was carefully conserving my supply. When they went to take it away the nurse said "I'm unhooking it, if you want to, hit the button as many times as you want". DOH!!! I didn't know I could take multi-shots

I'm looking at 6 weeks minimum with no weight on the leg at all so I'm guessing I'm out for the season. I was planning on winter kiting but it might be a good idea to play safe and wait till next season I think

On a good note I got to sit on a chair in the shower tonight while Veronica washed me She also gave me all my sponge baths while in hospital She's wondering what the hell she got herself in for though because we only got engaged 2 weeks ago lol. Seems like our snowboarding honeymoon has been canned until next year.

This is the pic Veronica took of the launch that caused all this...





Pity she'd just stopped taking vids and switched to camera mode It was a youtube moment.

Bad luck, but I wouldnt rush back to kiting for a good year or so. My mate did same thing, tried to follow me over 50mm of water, but my head was nearly in water with fins out of water so didnt hit the sand he was bolt upright, fins hit bottom board stopped dead he didnt, did almost same as you, not quite as bad. He went back to soon to windsurfing and over two years later still has trouble with ankle. So give it up until FULLY healed or you may regret it later. Sorry to tell you this but you dont want to end up like him and poss suffer for years to come, ankles are slow to heal and take a lot of stress.

Good luck and take it easy on your ankle. Shame about no vid though. Frame xrays.

Cut. You seem in good shape mentally. Its great that you can share your experience with us is such a positive way. I particularly like thinking about how you've got a free female personal trainer and I'm assuming the fiancé still knows shes required for those sponge baths.. Terrible accident, but not all bad news hey.

Wishing you a speedy recovery. Hope you find some cool ways to spend your recovery time. I suggest grabbing an old guitar before resorting to having the first beer of the day earlier or watching day time TV. I'm sure you'll be able to more involved in the replanning of your honey moon too.

All the best man. Those xrays are awesome and should definitely be framed.

PS Tell Veronica that my comments about the personal trainer were just an attempt to make light of an annoying situation in a manly way and I'm not actually a jerk who condones cheating and I realise there was no real need to mention she was female or to put the comment in the same sentence as the sponge bath..... mmmmm sponge bath.

Best of luck with the recovery. Did something similar (but at work) 5 years ago and still causes the occasional giref. That said, you sound like your in a pretty good position to recover well; personal trainer, personal sponge bath practitioner and some funky plates and screws holding everything together. Keep the spirits up and do your rehab with a smile; each exercise will get you one day closer to the kite, snowboard etc.

Hope you heal up soon mate.... Its not a fun process... i did sorta the same thing on my motorbike.... did a jump from a ramp.... landed short.... right leg took all the compression. 6 screws and 2 plates later here we are. I did it in August last year and took up kite boarding end of december ( thought it would be a safer sport the freestyle motorcross ).... still going to physio now..... but can do most things now.......

So sorry to here of your accident Cut. As you probably know through reading the forum that I'm going through similar recovery after shatterer my heel bone (calcaneus) on the 5th January. I know what you're going through. Good family and friends speed recovery.

Here's some of my pictures to cheer you up. Get well.

Guitar Hero ay?

You can practice your best 'Rock god with foot up on the foldback wedge' just substitute a nice flowery cushion for the foldback wedge!


As for your hospital care; I am not gonna bag nurses n docs (my wifey is a nurse) but the level of care does vary wildly. It seems if you are a strapping bloke then the HTFU does seem to come into play a bit too.

Generally speaking you get as good care, if not better in public hospys (staffing levels etc are generally more lean in the private sector).

When I had my shoulder op privately a couple of years ago I had excellent pre-care and op, but the post op care was very bloody ordinary indeed. So much so that after quite a long time barfing my guts (due to the opiods used for pain/anaesth) and wife and I being told "Yeh - weve given him everything we should" wifey had to get (uncharacteristically) stroppy and run through a list of standard items they should have given to relieve nausea straight off. None had been given, so at that stage she let them know she was a senior nurse and would like a word to the nurse manager (CN). Complete change in attitude from that point on. I couldn't help but laugh, tried to anyhoo, and (head still in bucket at this stage) gave her the thumbs up and mumbled "Top work.."

In fairness, medical folks do have to be careful letting peeps know they can have as much fun juice as they like, as many will try to abuse the goodies. When your leg ahs been re-arranged all bets should be off though!! BTW, the pain shot usually isn't 'all you can scoff buffet' and is regulated no matter how many times you push it. If you don't push it however there is no relief, so it was very average that they didn't let you know that. Most likely it was yet another case of an overworked individual cutting corners to get all the patients done.

When in medical care it is always a case of the squeeky wheel getting the fun juice and the tuff it out and silent types getting fek all.

Anyway - wasn't all bad and relief was obviously provided by your angel (sponge baths - hubba hubba).



As someone said good friends and rellies help recovery enormously.. best of luck bud, and a good cautionary tale for everyone (myself included) about shallow water shananigans.

Take care Rock God.

Pre-op care was ****e.
Post-op care was awesome.

Probably helped that my dad and Ronie both had dummy spits about my lack of pain killers pre-op though. Things did improve 200% when I was getting close to surgery but for 2 days after leaving emergency I was pretty much ignored and it often took an hour for someone to come see why I was pressing my buzzer.

When my dad had his rage at the nurses the chick looking after me at the time said "He was well enough to take himself outside on a wheelchair so he can't be in that much pain". I just needed to feel some sun and wind...still nearly in tears though.

Hey Cut

Gutted to here about the Leg.

I busted my ankle the same about 3 years ago. Metal plat and all, similar pics of xray. Best thing to do is rest during the period you have your cast on as much as possible.

After you get the cast off, don't have any ideas that you will be back to normal. I could not even walk as most of muscle had worn away and tendons still damaged.

Best advice is to go and see the best physio you can and do the exercises he gives you religiously. Lots of cycling as this is low impact and can be done relatively early on and is great for rota movement.

Don't go kiting until you can run 100m without pain.

Then you will be right as rain

I have never had any prob since. But think down to little luck and all post op rehab.

Good luck mate.

dont foget to really milk it while you can. and dont forget that when you return to the water you will need new safer kit