Monday, March 12, 2007

MCL sprain

At no point on any wave on Saturday was I in any kind of control on Doc III. Left, right, didn't matter. The board felt squirrelly and fast and I'm starting to think I'm not good enough. To compound it all, I was trying to bring the board under me on a right after a bottom turn when the wave jacked up and the board started sliding and pitching me. I couldn't even count on my honed wipe-out skills. My front left foot remained planted on the board as it cartwheeled and started hyper-extending my knee. I was tumbling with the thought, "I am seriously going to get hurt here." I managed to disentangle my leg from the board and hobble into shore. Walking was manageable, but started tweaking out if I rotated the bottom half of my leg.

Great. So now I had to fake walk all day while my parents came for a visit. (They approve of my surfing even less than they approved of my white boyfriend in college.) The first part of the day was fine, and my Dr. Brother, who was also visiting, assured me that if I wasn't in agonizing pain and could walk it was probably just a MCL sprain. He had one while snowboarding a couple years ago. I asked him how long it took to recover. "Fully? Two months." What?! Great.

So, dim sum in Monterey Hills was good . What sucked was discovering that sitting still all day caused my knee to get stiff which caused more pain when I started walking. The day's plan was to drive around looking at neighborhoods with Dr. Brother in preparation for his move out there in the summer when he starts his vascular fellowship. That means me sitting, driving everybody in my car. By the end of the day, I couldn't fake walk from the parking garage to the crab place at Redondo for dinner. I had to limp walk and confess.

"You have to do things right. When you have kids to support you won't do such things."

Is that really true? The majority of my surfer friends are parents who can't wait to throw their kids into the water. I also don't think I did anything particularly stupid. I just have a new board I don't know how to ride. Unfortunately, though, my dad believes surfing in general is dangerous and stupid, so there is no point for debate.

I feel like the MCL sprain has actually given me a new appreciation for preventative training. I'm glad I started going to the gym to improve my cardio-vascular system and build some muscle mass. I believe in the positive effects of yoga to strengthen my core muscles. But surfing is not for any of that. It's just for me. So, will I end up "doing things right" like my dad lectures?

9 comments:

dave rich said...

OHHH I know your pain! I did almost the same thing a while back (maybe 8 months????) and it still gives me trouble sometimes. I was getting low for an upcoming headdip and instead of properly dropping my back right leg I just tightened my knee considerably and there she went. I practice on the flat ground now pulling this move and staying loose. It sucks! Hope yours heals faster than mine!

Bill Graber said...

Nope not true... finding the time to surf with twins is difficult but the will to surf is still there, I cant wait for the weather to get better so I can get back to my every morning paddle out.

Surfsister said...

Dad is right. There's no way anyone with kids would surf. Oops! I guess I didn't get the memo. And, yes, I can't wait until my kid asks to go surfing.

Sorry to hear about your MCL. That's the ligament I tore (along with the ACL) decades ago. (You've seen the scars on my knee.). Once you recover, you will definitely want to strengthen those quads (and hamstrings) in order to take some pressure off that knee.

Perhaps we both should have stayed away from the home break this weekend. Your knee. My board. Sucks!

Unknown said...

Hope you heal up, and get back on Doc III soon!

6ftnperfect said...

ouch! Your Dad is right, get in as much surf now before you have kids. Because after that you don't want to surf, fly, drive on freeways, or or listen to loud music.

6ftnperfect said...

Oh yeah, can I borrow Doc III while you're laid up?

Patch said...

The MCL sprain might allow for more fluid snaps, this might be a good thing, no? Get better...

reverb said...

...beauty, I tell yo that is not "..I just have a new board I don't know how to ride."
this is not happend if you order a real CUSTOM board
--when you order a real custom, the shaper should be ask you strange questions like what type of job you ve got?
etc

if not is not possible to do a board that suit perfect for you


hope you recover soon

cheers

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the MCL...I seriously feel your pain...I whacked a tree with the outside of my right leg, just a few inches above the knee, while snowboarding untracked powder in a tree stand a week and a half ago and also suffered an MCL sprain. Now I have to sit here and watch the last of the sweet spring snow falling while I gimp around. Have done a lot of looking on the 'net about MCL sprains and the concensus is that healing takes somewhere between 3 and 12 weeks. Once the pain lets up, start working the quads and the hamstrings with easy bike riding and leg lifts at first, then move on to squats.

BTW, your dad is a bit in error. Surfing is for life; I get to the coast as often as I can, and I will be 61 next month. Ride On!

Idaho Surfer