Surf: 4.6 ft at 10.0 s from the NW at 319°. Outgoing side. Light+ S/SW Wind.
Back in July I totally put my neck and shoulder out again. This time I decided to listen to my doctor and stay out of the water until it was better. Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with chronic pain, deciding what “better” is can be a challenge. I got my neck and shoulder to the point it wasn’t locked up, but it still hurt. I kept working on it, but it still hurt.
The surf has been really small and the doc said it was okay to give it a shot with a few rules.
- Don’t go out if it’s rough or big or anything crazy
- Warm up and stretch beforehand
- Don’t stay out too long
- Stretch after
Looking at the forecast I found plenty of small, not crazy surf. I did my stretches. I didn’t stay out too long. BUT, and here’s where things probably went wrong, I decided to wait till I got home to stretch. My stretches include a foam roller and I didn’t think I could do what I needed to do at the beach so I put it off. We got lunch, we hit traffic, the surfmobile broke down, we got it towed, we got my car and went and unloaded the surfmobile into my car, then we unleaded my car into the house. At this point it’s maybe 3-4 hours after surfing and my shoulders were getting really tight and sore. I stretched, but it was too late.
By Sunday morning both shoulders were locked up and I was so so bummed. This injury has been one of those things where it’s both “not that bad” because I can still go about most of my daily life, but also so depressing because the things I do must (work, sleep, surf, draw, read) are all impacted and when it’s acting up, I start feeling like this is something I’ll never be able to fix.
So, here I am. I had a great session. I remembered how to surf, I got some fun waves, but I’m worried about surfing again and aggravating it more. We’ll see what happens.
In other news, I picked up a cheap surf mat thinking maybe not paddling with my arms might help keep the shoulders from getting sore. It definitely is not shoulder friendly. It’s a crazy, hysterical ride, but it’s not gentle for sure. Not being able to dive makes getting out a little challenging, plus the bouncing and spinning around in circles while on the ride might be a little more than my shoulder needs. It’s slippery as hell and maybe not meants for use with a wetsuit.
That said, it was really fun. Closeouts? No problem, you fly right over them. Steering? Who needs steering? Someone drops in on you? Good thing you have an airbag.
I’ll try it again another time and I’ll definitely bring it out on the grom beach days,
