09 April 2012

10 Days

Fortunately it's spring and the surf does not look like this.
About three weeks ago, my right wrist hurt a bit after using a landpaddle with my skateboard. As I popped up on wave at Linda Mar the following day, a bump in the face pushed my board upward, driving it forcefully and unexpectedly into my wrist (ouch!). I popped ibuprofen like candy and iced the wrist from time to time, and it seemed to get better, but then worse again, several times over the intervening weeks. Last week at the Jetty, during a miserable skunking, I tweaked it again. Still, I was on a hope-oriented plan to semi-ignore the injury into nonexistence, barely mentioning it here in subconscious fear of making it real. But as my mom told me when I was young, if wishes were horses, we'd all take a ride. Whatever that means.

During last Thursday's surf session in Santa Cruz, the injury rose up and refused to be ignored any longer; an increasingly sharp pain shot through my wrist when I popped up or pulled myself back onto my board. For the next three days I wore a brace to rest my wrist as much as possible, still icing and ibuprof'ing, ever hopeful that it would magically be cured. But no. Today I saw a doctor, who diagnosed it as sprained due to hyperextension, and ordered 10 days without surfing.

Ten. Days. Without. Surfing. Waaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!

8 comments:

  1. Sad. But having spent months and months with surf-acquired injury, 10 days is nothing really. Maybe you could focus on some related activity to get you fitter for when you do go back to stand-upsurfing. You could always try a boogie board.

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    1. I know it's nothing compared to what you went through. I'll sponge if I have to!

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  2. LOL what does that mean? Is that what you call body boarding?

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    1. Sponger= bodyboarder
      Janitor = stand-up paddler

      Do Aussie surfers have any nicknames for them?

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  3. Cynthia, get yourself one of those firm wrist wraps at either CVS, Wallgreens, or Sports Authority. I've used them and they really help during the injury recovery period. And don't forget, ice then heat.

    You can't stay out of the water much longer Girl!

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    1. Thanks, but the doc said no brace/support at this time.

      Only 8 more days now!

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  4. Mmmmm...might not be polite to mention all of the names we call them. Body boarder = Boogers, shark biscuits, flotsam. I call them berly (not sure how you spell that). I think it is a colloquial term for the mix of oil and pollard etc you throw out to attract fish ie sharks. Or mossies ('mosquitos' cos they swarm around and need swatting occasionally (just joking) I call my SUP the Bismarck cos it's an older design and fairly chunky. We use 'goat boat' for surf skis, also quite derogatory. Apparently we use 'sponge' as well but I haven't heard it here on the west coast.

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    1. "Shark biscuits" - I love that one!

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