Windsurf – July 2019

28 JULY 2019

BIGBURY

PAUL HUNT

B

igbury was a day of disaster for me. I missed the classic day 15

years ago, so was very keen to make up for it. Chris Audsley

and I travelled down after a friend’s 40th the night before; I’d

got involved with the wrong people and had a major hangover.

When we arrived it was firing, huge spray and lining up for

miles. I grabbed my 88 stubby and 4.7 Blade and ran down the steps

frothing as I watched Timo and Jamie killing it. My day was about to get a

whole lot worse!

I scored two waves and was just getting my eye in. The waves had smooth

walls and were long peeling lefts, almost perfect it felt like. On my third

wave right in front of the river mouth I bottom turned and as I was coming

back up the wave a huge gust threw me into the air. I landed really heavily

on the tail and felt a snap, it did not feel good. I looked at my foot and it

was obviously in a bad way. Timo saw I was in trouble. He is always really

good at keeping an eye on people. He has towed me in before and did so

again this time. He then rallied the guys on the beach to help me up the

steps as I had to be carried. Then he organized me a towel, water and called

the ambulance. I was triaged in the end and Audsley drove me to Torquay

A&E. After 3 hours waiting around I was diagnosed with a bad sprain and

sent on my way. Just over half way home I got a call from the nurse who said

there had been a mistake, a doctor had looked at the x-ray and diagnosed an

unstable Lisfranc fracture and that I must return to A&E.

That was bad news, I’d never head of a Lisfranc, what a stupid name. I

went to A&E in Portsmouth and sure enough it was unstable. I was booked

for a CT scan to confirm and decide the next cause of action. That ended up

being surgery, 5 months on crutches and a very angry wife. No windsurfing for

a year, that sucks. I sit here now in May just about able to walk. The Lisfranc

joint turns out to have a silly name but is very important, it supports the arc

in your foot. I had hardware put in and then removed 4 months post-surgery.

A Lisfranc injury is fairly common in windsurfing it seems, I’ve spoken now

to 3 or 4 people who have had similar injuries. My advice is avoid doing it!

“THE WAVES HAD SMOOTH WALLS

AND WERE LONG PEELING LEFTS.”

Paul setting it up.

Hunty properly broken.