Well I feel like I may be jinxing myself right now, but I’m gonna sacrifice myself for your entertainment. Yeah the water has been 35 degrees for awhile now, and yeah the waves have had flat spells in it. But let me tell you this much, it beats being where I was a couple years ago.

It was October and I was 16, with hopes of having a great winter. After an NSSA (National Scholastic Surfing Association) contest and newly sponsored, I was eager to surf as much as I could. So when I got back into Ocean City, I was itching to just go out front of my house and catch a couple of waves (by myself) before the sun went down. The surf was about chest high and fun, so I was stoked and was having a fun session. Then I made the crucial mistake of telling myself, “let’s catch one more and go in.” To all you readers: never say you’re gonna just take one more! (IF you have to, just keep it to yourself) I am convinced that “one more” leads to some serious bad luck.

So, I caught my last wave (for the winter that is). As I was going down the line, I saw a perfect reverse section. In the middle of my turn, my foot got stuck and my leg torqued, I heard a pop and immediately fell off my board. After falling off, I immediately knew something was wrong, so I had to take a look. I was wearing a full suit, which left my legs completely covered, but I saw a huge lump in my leg. The wetsuit kept my imagination wandering, and the first thing I thought was that the bone had come through the skin. Since I was the only one out, I had to swim myself in. The crazy thing is that my adrenaline must have been kicking in so much that there was no pain, yet….

Unable to pick my leg up onto my board, the only option was to doggy paddle in. Surprisingly, the swim was manageable, and I made it to the shore break. I’m not sure if it was that my brain knew I was safe or if it was that my leg was not supported by the water anymore, but the pain quickly changed from none to the worse pain in my life. I just could not get past the shore break, and the sun was setting. The rain had kept everyone off the beach, and I laid there wondering how long it would take for help to come. Luckily, it only took 30 minutes. For some reason, my parents decided to take our dog for a walk to the beach, and they found me sitting lying by the shoreline. They thought I was just trying to play with the dog, so they released him from his leash. By the way, our dog has a habit of biting ankles, which is the first thing he began doing to me. You could imagine the anger that was going through my head as a I lunged myself at him. Quickly, they realized I was hurt. They then carried me off the beach and into the car for the emergency room.

The result was a spiral fracture of the tibia and the fibula (the two big bones in your leg) . Anyone who has broken anything knows it is a long recovery back. My recovery was a cast up to my thigh for 9 months. This meant a lot of crutching time, and winter is not the best months for that. I ended up not being able to surf for about 11 months. As a grom, it is ridiculous to not think of going a week without surfing.

So when you complain about the cold water or the lack of waves, think about this story. It could be a lot worse!

Photo: Trevor Moran