Busted Bicep

Apr 17
The East Coast was pumping - glassy with double overhead sets pushung down the point at Buxton. I couldn't wait to get in the water with my new twin fin. I hadn't ever been into twins much first time round, but this modern version had been so much fun in some pretty ordinary surf that I couldn't wait to try it out on the solid walls jacking up in front of me.

Without much thought I made my way across a bit of a gap onto the jump off rock and waited. The sets were breaking just outside and there was no problem hanging there till they stopped - or that's what I thought anyway! A slightly smaller wave came through and I could see it wasn't going to break until it hit the ledge I was standing on. There was no time to retreat back across the gap so I had to stick it out. As the wave hit I held my board above my head with one hand and hung on to the rocks with the other. The board was only about a week old and I didn't want it smashed. The wave hit the board hard but I managed to hang on. The trouble was my bicep didn't!

I felt a real snap in my arm as the wave hit the board, and while I could still hang on to it, I couldn't bend my arm anymore. The photo shows what happened to my bicep. When the tendon that attached the bottom of the bicep to my lower arm snapped the bicep just contracted into a useless ball near my armpit leaving the skin empty and floppy below it.

I've had it screwed back onto the bone but I'll be out of the water for quite awhile. In the past couple of weeks I've been missing out on epic points and East Coast swells.

The moral of the story being ...
If you get hold of one of these new twin fins Nick is making, you won't want to let go!
Oh, and don't be an impatient dickhead like me! Check the situation out properly before you commit yourself.

Cheers, Mark