Day 328! Well, an exciting morning of surfing with friends turned into a bit of a day of pain. I’m okay, as far as I can tell, nothing super major has happened. But I did get my first surfing related injury! A pretty banged up foot… but you’ll hear about what happened today soon enough.

After a failed surf outing, it was time to try again! I made plans with my friends Will, Pat, and Bella to go to the beach this morning and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer… well I’d at least be going to the beach no matter what.

(Just for reference, Bella and Pat work with me at the hotel and also are good friends of Wills!)

But, at 8am I texted my friend Pat and he was up. And eventually Will responded too asking if we could go at 8:30am. This time, I made sure he was actually up… so I let it slide. Jokes aside, Will came and picked me up and we loaded my surfboard into his truck.

I was super pumped, not only to be surfing this morning, but to be going surfing with friends!

We made our way to Pat’s place and picked him up as well… but then I realized I forgot the surfboard wax. So we swung back to my place before going to the north part of Pippi’s Beach.

The waves looked amazing this morning, with a lot of slow rolling waves coming in with a decent wave period between them. Also they weren’t terribly big either!

Bella hadn’t told us if she was coming or not, so we got ourselves a spot, waxed up our surfboards, and headed into the water.

Today was my longest surf session yet! Probably about an hour and fifteen minutes. But unfortunately, early on… I hit my foot pretty hard against the fin of my board. Which, let me tell you, didn’t feel great.

I cant remember if it happened during a wipeout or trying to dive under a wave. But either way, the fin is tough and sharp. Thankfully I didn’t cut my foot, so I kept on surfing.

It wasn’t very painful, at the time, and I ended up catching a number of waves. One of which was, what I felt like, a very real wave. I paddled for it, felt the board catch the wave, and then stood up feeling the power of the wave propel me! This wave also didn’t crest super early, like the ones at turners. So I was able to ride it longer than I’m used to. I was amped!

I of course took a couple nose dives, paddled for waves I couldn’t catch, and rode some not so great waves. But injury aside, I was having a blast!

Will was trying out a short board he found at his parent’s house. He did offer me to try it a couple times, but I felt like it wouldn’t be worth the trouble or risk of injury… especially already hurting myself from the “safer” board.

I offered Pat a turn on my longboard and he was excited to get back on a surfboard after a long time away. Neither him nor Will were big surfers growing up… which is a shock to me seeing how they’ve lived in a surf town their whole lives! I would’ve been in the ocean every day if I grew up here! But everyone had their own hobbies I guess.

Eventually Bella showed up and joined us in the ocean. But by this point the waves weren’t very surfable. So I took the board in and promised her that she could use it next time we went out all together.

We ended up chatting and getting knocked around by waves for a bit before heading in. By this point, my foot was starting to hurt a bit more… I was a little worried it might be more hurt than I initially thought, but I didn’t see any bruising or swelling yet, and I still had to walk to the car. So there wasn’t much I could do about it now anyways.

We decided to go grab breakfast in town, so we walked back up the hill to the cars.

We went to a restaurant near my house called Flinders Rose. To be completely honest, the food was subpar and over priced. BUT the company made it a very enjoyable experience and lots of fun conversations and laughter ensued.

We sat at the restaurant for a bit before Bella had to go to work and Will took Pat and I home. My foot was getting in the way of walking enjoyably by this point and I hobbled my way up the stairs to my place and after I took a shower, I immediately got ice on it and elevated it while lying in bed.

By this point it had started to swell… but no bruising really. So I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I’ve never broken a bone, so I had to assume it would hurt far more than this did… but also I know how easy it can be to break a toe. I was staying hopeful that it was just a bad bruise/contusion.

I spent the rest of the morning, and early afternoon, reading Words of Radiance. It was getting INSANE! I had two chapters left when I got a text from Will asking if I wanted to grab some beers with him and his friend Lachee (I’ve met him before, he works with Will and is also one of the local DJs).

I said yes and met Will downstairs and hobbled my way to the bowling club with him. Which thankfully is near my place too. Should I have kept resting my foot? Probably. But I was also wanting to hang out with friends.

We had a few beers and chatted about all sorts of things. Music, the DJ scene, social media, marketing, travel, society, etc. It was a lovely time!

They asked me if I wanted to go back to Lachee’s to hang more, but I had plans in 30 minutes to go jam with my friends Paddy and Sam. Lachee offered to drop me off at home because of my foot, which I very eagerly said yes to. I made myself a PB&J and then I made my way back into bed to ice my foot more.

I finished the book I was reading, it had a killer ending and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next one. But while I was lying there, Paddy pushed back our jam time. This gave me enough time to think and sus out my foot… to which I decided it’d be best if I just hung at home and rested it.

I hobbled around my kitchen making myself dinner. I made myself two tuna wraps, which I forgot to take a picture of. But while I was eating I started thinking… should I go get this checked out? Maybe it’s more than a bruised foot…

My plan is to see how it feels in the morning and decide from there. I am however a bit nervous about what my, not so great and very cheap, international health insurance will cover. But after chatting with my friend Will and doing a bit of googling as well, it turns out the Aussie healthcare is on the cheaper side. So that eased my mind a bit (it’s even free for hospital checkups for Australian citizens).

I’m hoping it won’t come to a hospital visit and tomorrow I can just wake up to a less painful foot. But I kinda doubt that will be the case… and it would probably be smart to get it checked on. AND my killer friend, Will, graciously offered to drive me to and from the hospital if I need to go! I got so lucky meeting this kind as heck guy!

For the rest of the night, I watched the newest season of Bleach. After over a year, I’m almost caught up to what’s currently airing on TV!

And then, I went to bed hoping for a speedy recovery so I can make sure I’m healthy to work and to get back to surfing ASAP!

Outside of this unfortunate injury… honestly I’m shocked it took this long AND with the more surfing I do, the more likely injuries are to come… I had an exceptional day! I’ve dreamed of being able to go out every morning with friends and surf. AND HERE I AM! 26 years in the making!

– Elie