It's official!

I'm officially out with a torn ACL. Also had a contusion to the bottom of the femur, but apparently that isn't that big of a deal. Right now I'm looking at 6 mos. of being out from surgery, but I'm getting a second opinion to know for sure if the surgery is needed.

Is it me or is everyone getting knee injuries this year? Let's take a poll of the 2004 knee injuries.

lol, yep, right here, go for surgery in May out for 4-6months, stretched out and acutely torn ACL, right knee. Time to turn to wake vids, wakeboarding unleashed, and photography to fill my time...

(Message edited by xtremebordgurl on April 19, 2004)

Oh man, that sucks Sean! Very sorry to hear that and hope you get back on the water soon.

What??! Thats just horrible. What happend to the bursitis diagnosis?

I hope both of you get better soon.

Found out today that I torn my ACL as well. Also looking at 6 month recovery period. I have surgery next week Tuesday.

sorry to hear that bro. that sucks. the skipper just lost his first mate! i got your drinks the next time we're out...

Sorry to hear that Sean, Bess & Ryan.

Here's to a speedy and full recovery.

You too Canaday? Summer hasn't even started and you're already out Well I guess you can teach those the fine art of wakewhoring.

Welcome to my world!
Sorry to hear it.
Get well soon!

Sorry to hear that Sean, your riding was really coming along and I expected you to land quite a few new tricks this summer. But you can still come out on the boat and drink beer and you can probably start wakesurfing in just a couple of months!

nmessed up my knee in august and got it fixed over christmas. i had two tears in my miniscus. one tear they scoped and the other they stiched back together. i also had a stretched acl with a partial tear that they scoped. full rehab time 3 months. been wakeskating for about a month now. can't wait until my muscles are strong enough to start wakeboarding again.

Sorry to hear that Sean. You were lookin really solid out there.

Question for all of you that are out: How did you land when you injured your knee. Straight legged?

(Message edited by Blabel on April 20, 2004)

That is a low blow Sean.
I did my ACL in July 2002. Reconstructive in Jan. 2003 It feels pretty strong but still hurts pretty bad at times. Its taking a long time to get over.Mentaly its killing my riding.I used to just give it (its only water right) now I`m always nervous. Its getting better but how long should it take to get back to 100% Pysicaly and Mentaly.Anyone have any tips past experience on this knee crap. Good Luck Sean

Yeah, I went straight legged on a roll-to-revert off the dub. It's a lesson for me, I need to grab everything!

Sorry about everyone else too. Thanks for the well-wishes. Does the surgery make the leg worse before it gets better, because right now I am walking around fine. It's just my range of motion that is affected. Maybe there should be a forum for wakeboarding injuries/rehab so people can ask questions about these topics.

(Message edited by canaday on April 20, 2004)

(Message edited by canaday on April 20, 2004)

Sean that's what initially started bothering my knee.

I only ask the question because most people I have talked to have wrecked their knees landing straight legged. I think people can learn from other's injuries.

Anyway, it sucks and I hope you have a speedy recovery.

Sean, dude, sorry to hear about this. Hope everything works out, and you are back on the water soon. I tore mine like 7 years ago, never had it repaired. gives me a little trouble now and then, but until it becomes chronic, I won't mess with it. Looks like you get to hold the flag in one hand, and the Budweiser in the other.

Here is a question for everyone:

What were you doing when you hurt your knee? What do you think cause it, Hard straight legged landing like Sean or One foot coming out?

This is coming from someone who has already gone under the knife 20 years ago and is trying to avoid a repeat trip.

Last weekend two of our group went down with knee injuries....One just strained, the other not so good. Found out yesterday that he tore his acl completely and dis-located his meniscus. Doc says it'll take 2 surgeries to repair and 8 months to recover. This is just after he broke his tibia down the middle last year and had meniscus repaired in his other knee. Some people just have worse luck than others. Incidently...He did it on a W2W 180. He was warming up and the landing looked completely normal, except he went one way and his knee went the other. Last year he did his knee/leg on a tantrum...again, the landing looked normal.

My heart goes out to all with busted knees. It's a sad deal. My knees hurt everyday, but they haven't blown up totally....Knock on wood.

Sean I hope you get better soon. This is all I hear from my surf buddies. "ya gonna blow out your knee". Well another friend hurt himself and he is bitter. He just got a tower and killed his knee. Says he wants to sell the boat and it bums the rest of the family out. He says he was ten feet in the air,sunk nose in and held on.

Damn,

When I first started wakeboarding I never thought the chance of a pretty good/bad injury was there. Figured a serious knee injury was far and few between, yeah it could happen but the odds are high. Wakeworld has really opened my eyes. Seems pretty to very common, I love to push it like the rest of you, but damn! Who needs a busted up knee for the summer?

I was thinking, this is early season, and it seems we have had a rash of knee injuries on wakeworld. Do you think it could have to do with getting back on the water after not riding as much or at all over the winter? Or maybe the colder water, tight muscles/tendons? Combo of both?

Sean,
Bro what the hell man that sucks, you and me in the same month, damn. I haven't even got my MRI yet so i am now even more worried when you say 6 months because the Doc is pretty sure i tore
both my ACL and MCL and yes i landed straight legged...except on a motorcycle. I was even daydreaming about taking a half day on Fridays just so i could watch you and John ride....well her's to you an i getting trashed and talking John into pulling Raley's this summer

I think there are a couple of things that contributed to my injury, 1) I had injured it two years ago, stretched out the ACL and opted not to go for the surgery, kinda regret not getting the surgery since I am doing it now... (2) being WAAAAAAY out of shape and pushing too hard to get back into shape, (3) riding when i was exhausted.

What happened was I was wakeskating over at the cable park in Deerfield FL and I had been having a hard time getting off the dock with my board on the cable so I was using one of their rentals and after I started getting back into the rythem of it I tried a pop shuv-it while I was exiting the cable (mind you their skate rentals are just wakeboards with grip tape on them) all I remember is seeing the board starting to rotate like a kick flip and thinking "oh $#!t" not sure exactly what my body did but when I went to swim to shore I couldn't move my knee and it felt exactly the way it did when I messed it up a couple yrs ago. I'm guessing I landed with just my lead foot on the board, but I dunno cause I cut my shins up on the griptape, altho some of that was from previous falls but there was some fresh scrapes... so in that case I really am not sure what I did.

I was hesitant to look at it, then I got to the steps and stood and I figured well, I can stand and hobble so maybe its fine and I'm just sore. So i kept riding, then I fell at the first corner which hadn't given me any problems at all previous to that; all my trouble was always getting off the dock, and I had been riding for about an hour or two and I decided I better call it a day in case I did injure it, I didn't want to be out for the rest of the semester (go figure). After all, I'm going to school in FL to ride, if I can't do that than whats the point? The more I walked arround the more it hurt, but again I ignored it and just went about my day, I think I was just in denial. Later that evening arround 4ish I went to see the school nurse since its free and I figured its better to be safe than sorry. She said that the pain I was in should be at its peak and if it gets progressively worse to go to the hospitol, long story short @ 8pm I wasn't able to walk... so my friend took me to the hospitol and the rest is history. I can walk fine now and swim, the doctor said I don't need the surgery for everyday life but if I ever wanted to ride again or do any sport that involves twisting my knee that I needed the surgery. So surgery it is.

Overall I think I love wakeskating more than wakeboarding and I have found that while the impact is a lot less (esp. for me cause I can't even go w2w) that I injure myself in other worse ways. Like this time with my knee, but I think the risk of landing with one foot on the board leads to more problems than landing a big air, I could be wrong, I've never really experienced a big air, but just the twisting and tweaking of your joints in both your ankle and knee seem to be worse with the skate. Just my .02

Thanx for all the well-wishes, I hope everyone else also has a speedy recovery. Sorry for the long post

Sean,

Very sorry to hear about your injury. I was hoping for you to be a body in the boat this summer. I guess you can still drive and coach at this point. I hope you don't have to have surgery, but if you do you can be rest assured it will be bulletproff after that. ACL repairs are 10x what they were 10 years ago from what I have heard. So what maybe you have to wear a knee brace out of it. I know riding is a passion of yours so take it easy man. You are always welcome on my boat.

I did not tear my acl, I have several tiny tears and stretches in the fibular colateral and lateral condyle. Those are ligaments and tendons down the outside of the leg from the hamstring and knee to your fibula. It results in extreme pain and a constant cramping and spazing of my hamstring. I am told I got it from over tweaking grabs and landing in the flats. I am not supposed to ride anymore but do anyway. I gave it a year and am starting up again. Hopefully I can get my sh*t back together. Cant do any of it without the knee brace though.

test

Ok, just wanted to make sure I had the right password! ;-)

Tore my MCL and meniscus at the end of last summer. Thankfully I only partially tore my ACL so I didn't have to have complete reconstruction, but my MCL was in 2 pieces.

I did it on a raley...my board and body came in at a 45 degree angle. It's kinda hard to explain, but I guess the board and everything stopped at the surface and my body kept going into the water bending my knee sideways. I'm not really exactly sure what happened but I knew immediately it was screwed.

Well, surgery was last October...I haven't been on a board yet mainly because I'm getting married this Saturday! I hope to ride for the first time when I get back from the honeymoon (St. Lucia).

That's my story!

Sean,

I am very sad to hear this. I was really looking forward to some more friendly competition this year. But hopefully you won't be out for to long, that way you can help me fight off all these newbies in the Mens class. Good Luck and I hope you a speedy recovery.

Jarret, congrats on the marriage!!

I coach a girl’s competitive soccer team. Girls (after hitting puberty) & of course, women, have up to a 8x chance of having ACL and related injuries over the male counterpart as a result of the differences in hip to knee angles. This is across the board in all competitive girls sports. The Santa Monica Orthopedic and Sports Medical Group adding to research from around the world to come up with a program, directed towards soccer athletes, to Prevent ACL and related injuries through education of proper technique and neuromuscular and proprioceptive exercises. The program was studied through various soccer leagues since 1999 and over the last 2 years in colligates division 1. The results are very positive.

We have implemented it in our soccer team as part of our normal training. Additionally, I have adopted the regime to help keep the joints healthy.

The technique part of the program deals with reducing the vulnerable positions and teaching proper landing.

Although the program is directed toward women’s soccer, the principles go towards the health and strength of the knee joint in both men and women.

http://http://www.aclprevent.com . In addition there is a lot of research available from the web.

Hey Sean, we are so sorry to hear about your knee. Just stay strong in all the other areas and therapy, therapy, therapy!! We will keep you in our prayers, hugs, robyn valdez

Thats a bummer Bro!
And sad to hear so many of you are grounded due to injuries.
Home you all have speedy and well recoveries!!