Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

I was surfing yesterday and a footboarder dropped in on me causing me to wipe out.
While in routine bail out the lip caught my board and hit the lower part of my leg, hyper-extending my knee sideways in a direction it shouldn't go!
It seemed fine yesterday with just a little pain. I could walk fine. Went to bed and on awaking I can't even move it, extreme pain and hard to walk!
Any advice? Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I have the rest of the week off and the best swell of the winter approaches. . .

elevate, ice 20 minutes every two hours and take some ibuprofen for at least the first 48 hrs. should have iced as soon as you returned home.

if it doesn't start feeling better within two days see a doctor.

I'm not a doctor but these are my suggestions based on previous experience.

Fredo, Same thing happened to me skateboarding a few years ago. I did the same thing as sf_firestarter did but I also went to the local drug store and got one of those slip on knee braces. I wore that for about three weeks. I even wore it under my wetsuit. That brace seemed to keep all my ligaments in place and kept the swelling and pain to a minimum. Hope the info helps and hope you get better soon!

I had the same problem, so I made sure nothing in the knee was torn or damaged. It may only be inflamed like my sports doctor said (via x rays) 2 weeks of Ibuprofin, rest the knee. He assigned me to physical therapy which made it hurt more so I stopped. I figured kneeboarding was done. So I bought a camera and a housing and started just swimming around in the lineup and shooting the HB Cove guys. Strangely just treading water, floating and swimming around slowly seemed to relieve pressure (inflamatiom) on that knee, it really got better just floating around in the water. If you think about it almost all our waking hours there is pressure on our knees, even sitting down' perhaps in the bouyant position the knee has a chance to heal. maybe some pool time too...Who knows it might work for you but find out if the knee guts are just swoolen or actually schmushed or torn. Praying for your knee.

same here.... I found a brace made out of wetsuit material with reinforced sides & velcro straps to tighten it in place. It was either 3 or 4 mil. I got me out in the water after I was sure there was no bad damage.

AZ, Bummer about your knee just as the winter season getting started. The pain and stiffness the next day may be due to ongoing swelling after the initial injury. The fluid from the swelling accumulates at night and so the next day it can feel even worse and less mobile. As with most traumatic injury rest, ice (short periods, not all night) and elevation can help. If up and about a compressive wrap or brace and help control some of the fluid accumulation in the knee. As soon you are feeling better you can start some gentle range of motion exercises, like gentle heel slides in bed.
You can have a PT or orhto MD or AT check the integrity of your knee ligaments to make sure you don't have a full rupture and knee instability. If knee was slammed into hyperextension, you need to check cruciate ligaments. if slammed extremely side ways then need to check collateral ligaments. If painful to walk on, use a pair of crutches, with partial weight bearing to as tolerated until able to walk more normally. Crutches will allow more normal walk and less limping and hopping and secondary back or opposite leg problems.
Hope it is nothing serious and you are back on your knees soon.

Sorry to hear Alfredo, hoping for a speedy recovery.

Thanks mates for the good advice. Thankfully I did many of the things that were recommended. Iced, braced, and rested. Friday the knee was markedly better. Yesterday almost forgot I was injured so much so that played a game of Wii tennis and pushed it a bit I'm afraid
So today it seemed to take a bit of a step back. Figure I'll be out of the water for a while till it is completely healed.
I was very encouraged in how much better I was from wed to thurs.
Thanks again all.