tell us your battle wounds>>

well.. i was a a shore breaking wave in Kiama called Kendalls took off got nailed got a bit of water up my nose,that was alright, went to duck dive the next wave held my nose and as i went under it the pressure of the water burst both my ear drums,the most pain i have ever experienced in my life!!!there is more but i’ll save some for later

now some times i have to wear ear plugs due to it causing ear aches!! I cant really hear my mates when i’m in the water hahaha

whats yours ???

I’ve got a nasty scar on my knee cap from an accident on an escalator…I was running the wrong way up & racing my brother. I tripped, fell and the jagged edge of it just bit straight into my knee…you can see the shape of the escalator step in the scar!
As soon as it happened I sat and looked at it and could see bone & nearly passed out. Ended up with 12 stitches i think…and passed out twice from looking at it. Its not like I was a kid either, I was 25 when I did it! haha so dumb!

Got a couple of nasty scars from the first time I surfed redsands & I got shredded like a cheese grater - one behind my knee and one on my upper arm.

Redsands??Shellharbour?? thats one of my local breaks

Shoulda been bogus boarding the escalator Cords, then it would be a more worthy battle wound.

Since Eddie set a standard, I’ll only post one wound at a time (being an old bugga I got a few)

Surfing in a clean 2’-3’ at Culburra Beach slipped off the front of my board while trying to take off on a really easy wave. The day before was 4’-6’, dolphins out, epic day so had walked 2km from where we stay in the dark to find the size was way down. Anyway, as I slipped forward the nose of my board dug into my ribs then the push of the wave caught my board. I didn’t feel much more than some pressure from the board pushing me through the water into the sand. When I came up and took a breath OH MY GOD! Two broken ribs! When I made it to the shore and my full weight came into effect I couldn’t walk, so crawled up the sand. Once I didn’t need to breath heavily tried to carry my board 200m up the beach. I say tried because it was a very slow, lonely struggle. In the car park I was facing a 2km hike. Luckily a local surfer had seen me struggling, stopped to offer help and drove me back where again lady luck was on hand and I had some old Panadine Forte in my supply.

I can still feel the ribs +10yr on.

Swallow tail to the head at about 7-8 years of age, 8 stitches above the eye.

Ate shit pretty bad and had my legs flicked behind me by the lip while my head was buried in the bottom, legs went numb and my lower back was rooted for about a week, never went to the Dr so not sure what it was.

Board in the ribs in Hawaii, had xrays but seemed to be just bruised.

Buggered a floater and type two tear of my medial ligament was the result

On a clubby board one time got a wave and pushed myself back to take the drop, one of the bolts on the straps on the rails got wedged between two toes, got bounced rolled off and the wave pushed the board on and I stopped pulling the bolt through my foot, 10 external and 2 internal stitches, could see the bones of my foot before it started pissing blood.

Copped the nose of my board in the back, 4 stitches and one very pissed of Dad as I had borrowed his new wetsuit and put some extra ventilation in it.

Pulled my neck really badly after pulling into a closeout and headbutting the sandbank, couldnt turn my head at all for a couple of weeks and hurt for a long time after that.

Burst ear drum after late drop on bomb set on 6-8ft day went wrong.  One of the scariest injuries, complete and utter loss of balance and sense of direction.  Not great when you’ve just fallen out of the lip on an 8ft set onto your ear and your getting a what would’ve been a solid beating in it’s own right.  No idea which way was up and had a mega battle fighting the rising panic, had to just bide my time till i floated to the surface.  Very very lucky that there wasnt another set for a few minutes, my balance was that farked I couldnt even manage to llie or hold on my board, a mate paddled in and had to hold me on my board.  Took a fair while to equalise to the point where I could get myself in on a wave prone.  By the time I got to the beach I was in some pretty serious pain, took a fair while to get better.

Not a direct injury but all my years in and around the water necessitated an ear drilling.  Actually went deaf in my right ear for a couple of months cause the bone had grown across far enough to mean that a drop of water once in wasn’t coming out.  Not a nice op, couldn’t find anyone in NSW who would do the ear canal version so ended up having the old way, cut the ear just about off, fold it forward and then drill the bone out.  Was on some pretty awesome pain killers for a while after that one!

Literally hundreds of reef cuts, scrapes, etc, few concussions

once out redsands i was the only one left in the take off zone just chilling out looking at the headland when i turned around and was staring into the face of a 6ft wave(kinda dumb not paying attention but i was tired after a night out). Copped that to the head, snapped rope, a few bumps and bruises and a decent swim into the rocks to find my board.

Skipped school once back in the day to score 6ft+ kendalls beachy. strangely the most painful ones were the smaller waves…

Got smoked out at Bombora(near kendalls) once and prob wont go out there again!

umm got a decent smashing at shark island a few times, add that with the crowds i prob wont go there again anytime soon.

And probably the scariest wipeout i have had was in 1 ft shit, was riding a lil shore breaker and landed head first into the sand, heard a snap and couldnt feel my legs for a solid 10-15 seconds. I didnt go surfing after that for a few months, freaked me out hard!

and thats just the surfing ones, i have snowboarding/motorbike/pushbike/wakeboarding/tubing wounds but i will leave them for another day!

Had a buggered neck that kept me out of the water for a summer, I couldn’t look up so paddling was impossible. On the plus side it taught me how to paddle better with my head down (not hyper-extended).

I regularly use blutac in my ears to try and prevent SurfersEar. Seen too many mates have to have their ears drilled.
According to Tommy Carroll it will also prevent them bursting.

My feet have scars upon scars from fin/reef chops.

First Brocken Bone ever.
Headies (Austinmer). Wind changed as well as the tide and I got caught out the back, unable to paddle or catch a wave in (southerly swell) due to currents/wind/swell strength. 4’-6’ sets and I tried to go in over the reef between sets. A big set came while I was in 3’ of water so I had to let my board fend for itself and dug my feet into the reef, the wave pressure cracked a bone in my foot then the water running back off the reef took me back to sea.
I thought I was a dead man - that the ocean had decided to take me, a Siren’s call. I don’t give up easy and paddled south around the headland to L.A. (little Austi) only to find it breaking as good as it gets! At this time couldn’t feel my broken foot so caught a few waves and every time I stood up the pain in my foot exploded - I thought I had just strained a ligament as had never broken a bone before then. I went in but found I couldn’t walk but hobbled back to the car. Driving was hectic using the clutch (left foot). At the time had just landed my first acting job - with The Australian Opera Company and was mid performances at the Sydney Opera House, had to pull out, devo’ed.

Split Chin
A little scar, (that catches when I shave) from impacting my board while pulling off a wave (coke commercial style ie: off the back and catching board mid air, into paddling mode, but hand slipped and split my chin open) no stitches, just 4X butterfly bandaids applied myself (should have had a stitch CBF).

Biggest most Epic Bruise ever!
After pulling an huge all-night shift (of physical work and 6hrs driving), arrived home at 7am to 3’-4’ perfection. Worked with my neighbour and we lived across the road from Coledale beach. Giddy from no sleep but dieing for waves we both raced to grab our boards without checking the sets.
Coledale has a great rock-shelf that means you never have to paddle but you do need an intimate knowledge of every nook and cranny to navigate it in bigger swells and higher tides. I held back while my mate jumped first, mid tide, decent swell - only one good jump spot for one person at a time. Once he was off I started racing from the safe zone but a 3 wave set put way too much water on the rocks and I lost my footing. I knew exactly what awaited me, a man sized hole followed by a 1’ step-up. I managed to stay on the surface water and avoid the hole but found the corner of the step with the side of my thigh/hip.
Luckily I only ended up with a big cork but I mean big - worst bruise I’ve ever had, covered from my knee to ribcage and I limped for 2 weeks.

Irony
Hit the reef at Sandon Point that put a 1"x1"x1” hole through my wetsuit and my hip. I swear I’m still getting reef out of it 15years later.
Ironically the Dr treated it by packing it with seaweed then gauze.

Cheez Grater.
Bronte Baths. Jump rock. +4’ swell, legrope caught as I jumped, mid dive and prone, suddenly my board vanishes and my forward movement halts, I drop infront of the wave I was aiming to be on-top of, into dry rocks.
Industrial carnage ensued. With nowhere but the ocean to go, freed my leggy and paddled out to sea.
Once safe of the breaking waves I sat on my board and noticed the amount of blood surrounding me. On inspection found multiple gashes on hands/feet. Caught a wave (good wave) so paddled back out! Started feeling light-headed and realised I was loosing too much blood - sensibility kicked in. Walking up the beach noticed the bloody trail of red footprints I was leaving on the sand.
Bronte locals are (or where pre-2000) wonderful people and even though shock had kicked in I was doing fine mentally, I knew my first aid, so with supplies and help from locals, cleaned my wounds, pulled the loose flesh back into place and dressed/tapped/bandaged myself up for the bus ride home to Rushcutters Bay. Even though the locals wanted to call an ambulance they were older guys impressed by my bravado and let me and my cup’o'cement be.

I don’t surf, so have no surf injuries, does it count if I was on a boat in the surf and got drilled?

You should start Azz, that way you can make some contributions to this thread!  I’m past the early injury stages with surfing and into the more life threatening stage of it ha ha ha, heads into reefs, big hold downs and broken bones/torn ligaments and that from flat landings.  Actually I’m way more wary of flat landing than I used to be now.

Ok, I used to be in a local ocean rescue squad, which has now become part of the Australian volunteer coast guard. We always trained on a saturday morning.

Mostly we would be in the surf, boats skills in breaking and white water, pick ups of people from surf conditions.
Back then the squad had a 17’ RIB with 115 on the back and a 26’ Aluminium tri hull custom built vessel, it had twin 250’s hanging off the stern.

We always did the pick ups heading out into the waves, if a wave was big enough we would motor into it, backing off just before impact so the bow would dip, then punch through, duck diving so to speak. Heaps of fun being in a watertight cabin, inside the green room Would do the same with the RIB, you have to hang on.

Anyways, one saturday we decided to try pick ups coming in through the waves. To do the pick up in the RIB we had in the lake perfected coming in pretty fast 15 knots or so, backing off and getting the boat over on its chine, then with a crew in the bow grabbing the person in the water, gunning the motor while turning around the person, swinging them into the boat, lying flat on the deck, while this happens, the boat has done a 180 and is heading where it come from. In the lake its easy, but in the surf you need to be on your game, getting caught beam on with crew in the water can get really messy for everyone involved.

So I was sitting on the side of the RIB at the stern. My job was to grab and legs and make sure our ‘patient’ didn’t shoot out the stern while heading back out to sea.

We came in to do the pick up, the large vessel sitting inshore of us to grab the dude in the water if we messed it up. As we came in a wave pushed the RIB in a bit closer than expected and gave us too much speed (I did surf !!!) and we came across the front of the large boat at 90 degrees, smashing along it. I hit the centre and port hulls across the bow. The crew up front copped the gunwale, luckily rubber straight to the forehead.

A second later we are both lying on the floor, blood appearing from somewhere. I thought Jess who got the head whack, was bleeding from the head, so I am trying to see where it was coming from, meanwhile she’s telling me that its coming from me.

We hot foot it back to the base station about 2 NM away. I jumped up from the boat onto the jetty and just fell flat on my face…....... uh oh, I can’t walk and now there is LOTS of pain. My mates stretchered me inside while we waited for the Ambo’s. The blood was coming from my left arm, but there were no cuts in my wetsuit anywhere.

The Ambo’s turn up, one being my Uncle, the other a mate. Our base is on the main street, so quite a crowd had gathered to watch the action
Trying to take my wetty off was not happening, so my Uncle took great delight in ‘skinning’ me, ie cutting off my wetsuit

Then the good stuff happened, lights and sirens to the hospital and pain relief drugs

The injury list finally topped out over the next week at;

Cut to arm, a couple of stitches.
Busted the wing off left pelvis, chunk about 50mm
Four broken ribs
Collapsed lung
Had the gnarliest bruise on my hip. The nurse when she saw it said “Fuck thats gonna cain !!!”

A week later they wanted to put me back in hospital and drain my lung. Hanging with Paramedics and nurse’s lots, I knew it was not going to be fun. I had known my Doc forever and managed to talk him out of it as I was recovering quickly.
I had to have x rays everyday for a week, then every three days for the following week. They ultra sounded my kidneys, liver etc etc

3 months off work, first 14 days in a wheel chair, another 1 on crutches.

Not putting my hand up for another shot.

I need to find a pic of my bruise.

Hectic!!!!! 

Holy shit, Azz. I hope you’re feeling OK after that. Crazy! Positive vibes coming your way.