Buy Boat-Blow Knee

[KarMobLSV06]

Here is a cruel twist of fate for you.

I bought a new 2006 Mob LSV on Monday 1/16/06. I "coach" my 16 year old's (we had him young, I am 36) intramural basketball team and hyperextended my right knee filling in at practice 2 days later Wed 1/18/06. Went to Ortho Surg today, he says it's a torn ACL and is doing MRI tomorrow, but he thinks it is an ACL tear by how far forward my tibia moves. I didn't even realize he was moving it.

So I have a decision. I'm a CPA with a mainly tax practice, so my busiest and most important time of year, to help pay for the new boat, is coming up. Busiest mid Feb to April 15. If I get the ACL surgery I won't be able to drive for 3 weeks and there is a 6 month recovery period before I can wakebooard, per the Doctor.

So, do surgery now and struggle for the beginning of tax season and hopefully get to wakeboard part of the summer, by end of July, or wait until after April 15 to have the surgery, make tax season easier and lose the whole wakeboarding season here in Ohio.

Anyone recover from ACL then wakeboard? Is 6 months too long of an estimate?

I really don't think it is that bad, it didn't swell up that much, I can walk on it, and it doesn't hurt in the places the doctor checked, but I guess the MRI will tell me.

Suggestion on recovery time?

[Nafplio]

I had the right knee ACL rebuild in '96 and an extensive left knee reconstruction in '03. Both injuries from soccer. I waited for a while on the first one. I could walk and work fine. Couldn't do any sports (not that I didn't try). I did the second right away. No regrets at all. The six month recovery is pretty average. You lose a lot of muscle in the first couple of weeks. So, the harder you work at it, the better you will perform after the recovery period.
Expensive procedure, in excess of 10K. The MRI alone is about $800.
My recommendation would be to do it as soon as you can. Six months of nothing but physical therapy is a torture. But a new boat and not boarding for over a year would kill me.

[BensonWdby]

I would think a few things need to weigh-in.
1. As a CPA are your clients coming to you or vice-versa? If they are coming to you dealing with the surgery might not be that bad. I would think you would be totally out of comission for a week. Then maybe able to take customers?

2. Your age - Over the last 35 years I have had to sacrifice several weeks of skining due to injuries. The older I get the more frequent. If you are 50+ you have to ask yourself how many more seasons you may actually have. In the answer is - not many, then opting to go for some kind of season makes some sense. However, if you 30-something, 1 sacrificed season may give you 30 or thirty more seasons in the future.

3. As much as you might want to 'Go For it', discretion really is the better part of valor. You want to be able ski after this season. Pushing it before you are ready could put an end to that - permanently.

Good luck
Dave

[tygger6069]

I skied on my blown ACL (blew it out wakeboarding, no less) all summer and snow skied all winter. Mostly because I was mis-diagnosed. The first orthopedic surgeons missed the torn ACL on the MRI. I had my surgery early September (a year after the "accident") and was back to full duty at work within 3 months. I was given a knee brace for support if I wanted to wear it during sports, and I used it mostly the first couple times wakeboarding. I would strongly suggest talking with your Doctor. Depending on how bad the tear is, you might be able to get away with having the surgery after the summer season. And physical therapy is a must. The better it is, the quicker you will get back into things. With a February surgery, you should be able to wakeboard by June with the use of a brace.

Good luck!

[gmarkham1]

I went through this last year...

due to work schedule I didnt get the surgery till the end of march, I was wakeboarding again in july, and pushing it pretty good by august. Wearing a brace of course...

YOu should have the optiion of wearing a good brace for the summer and having surgery in the fall... I kind of wish that I would have waited..

With a good knee workout(lots of physical therapy and highly recommend an eliptical machine- everytime my knee starts getting sore or if I tweak it a bit, I hit the eliptical pretty hard and it starts feeling better quick) and a brace You will get through, and if you have a partial tear like I did, and you reinjure... well then you have a full tear... still the same surgery( just a matter of when it catches up with you!

[KarMobLSV06]

Update.

I went ahead and had surgery on 2/22/06, very successfull, to try to get back on the wakeboard for part of the summer.

I've been rehabbing with Physical Therapist 2 times a week and doing my excercises regularly that she's told me to do.

It's been 5 weeks since surgery, post-op brace gone and my sports (waterproof) brace is in, I have to pick it up. Very excited about my progress, just need to build the leg muscles back up to normal strength. Quad muscle very weak after surgery and it is comimg back well.

I'll be back on the water, at least driving the boat soon and behiind the boat on the wakeboard by 7/17 (family houseboat vacation date) my goal date, if things keep going as they are now.

The bonus is it did not take away from my work except the week of the surgery. I worked 2 days after surgery, just didn't get 60 hours in that week-but 45.

So it has all worked out pretty well-so far.

Glad everything went well for you so far :)

[Ian Brantford]

Hydrofoiling is also much easier, at least on the legs.

I tried attaching a relavant picture (of me, making a jackass of myself on a hydrofoil), but got an error from the server. Maybe I'll try again later. Anyway, that's good news about your surgery and recovery. Best wishes!

Ian

[KarMobLSV06]

I've been looking at Air Chair's on the internet. I've ridden them before and thought it would be perfect for rehab time-kind of like a wheel chair on water!

I'm not too sure about wake surfing, but it looks like it is becoming very popular by the threads on this site.

So many different toys to buy, my wife said I've reached my toy budget for the year-the new boat. I was going for the Air Chair first since I know I like it before I talk her into (or just buy without her knowing) the wake surfing gear.

Thanks for the advice.

[Ian Brantford]

Yes, hydrofoils are pricey. But, they last for a long, long time. I do both wakeboarding and hydrofoiling, and I would say that having the hydrofoil has virtually doubled the value of having a boat. I can ride it for a long time, even after exhausting myself on a wakeboard.

BTW, my buddy who bought the hydrofoil did a ton of research on Web forums last year prior to purchase, and SkySki was the preferred brand over AirChair by a margin of about 50 to 1 in responses. That '1' later turned out to be an AirChair dealer, too! It's a matter of refined design over the years. Note: SkySki had a change of ownership a year or so ago, so things might have changed.

I have an email that I sent someone else a while ago, cobbling together my information about it (brands, the must-have options, the yahoo group, etc). I'll dig it up if you gain approval for a purchase. :-)

Ian

[Catdog1]

IAN,

Do you recommend the shock absorber, or can you go without it?

Yes, you definitely want the "shock tower". The default seat support is also known as the "rock tower", which should be sufficient reason to avoid it. :-)

I dug up my old email. Here are the relevant bits:

Official Web site: http://skyski.com (argh! -- requires Flash).

A professional using a hydrofoil:
http://www.foilfreaks.com/Videos/04Brad/GenoYauchler2004MarchAllOneRun.wmv

This video alone convinced my buddy to get a hydrofoil, and the device has multiplied our enjoyment of boating. Moderately choppy water, which ruins skiing or wakeboarding, is of little matter to a hydrofoil.

Only buy SkySki brand. The original brand, AirChair, is apparently quite inferior technically. Note that SkySki (the company) was recently bought by a guy who likes to promote his religion at every opportunity. Oh well.

You'll quickly outgrow the beginner model, so skip it. Get the mid-range model with the following options:

- upgraded bindings from CinchMax (http://cinchmax.com)

- Shock Tower (has an adjustable air-filled shock absorber under the seat)

- anodisation of the foil

- soft protective case for the foil

As a case for the ski part, just get a cheap wakeboard bag and cut a hole in it for the seat to poke through.

CinchMax is a dealer for SkySki, though I think that my buddy ordered his from East Coast Hydrofoils (http://www.eastcoasthydrofoils.com). Both are good. These businesses are typically one-man operations, so don't expect an instant response when there is good boating weather where they live. :-)

Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hydrofoil . This is where my buddy got opinions that were overwhelmingly in favour of SkySki over AirChair (except from someone who turned out to be an AirChair dealer).

The hydrofoil chair probably has the steepest learning curve of all the watersports. Even with lots of over-the-Internet coaching, my friends and I are just doing basic jumps (no inversions with recovery). However, once the skills are established, it is a much less tiring watersport than most others. Known riders range in age from 4 to 84. One dealer did his first inversion at age 61. Basic riding can be learned at much lower speed (i.e. 12 MPH) than most watersports, so there is little chance of getting hurt as a beginner.

After initial learnng, helmets are pretty much mandatory. Get them with ear flaps to save your eardrums. See http://www.pro-tec.net . I recommend a Neck Roll too (http://cinchmax.com/_wsn/page3.html). I also have CinchMax's "Release" product, but I don't think that it is a good solution -- it's merely an inexpensive one that works. It also slaps boat passengers in the face when the rope goes slack. I might buy a real pressure-release rope connector instead.

A hydrofoil needs very little boat power to pull it. Once up, the rider can cruise by hlding on with one finger. One rider's alias is "half-a-man" -- he's a double amputee with one arm and one leg missing. Use a SMOOTH start, not a sudden pull. However, once you start doing big jumps, you can take advantage of a big wake -- just like wakeboarders do.

Best wishes,
Ian

[Ian Brantford]

Sorry for the tardy reply. Yes, you want the shock absorber. I dug up my email from late last year, with the relevant bits pasted below...

Best wishes,
Ian

-----------------------------------------------

Official Web site: http://skyski.com

A professional using the hydrofoil:
http://www.foilfreaks.com/Videos/04Brad/GenoYauchler2004MarchAllOneRun.wmv

This video alone convinced my buddy to get a hydrofoil, and the device has multiplied our enjoyment of boating. Moderately choppy water, which ruins skiing or wakeboarding, is of little matter to a hydrofoil.

Only buy SkySki brand. The original brand, AirChair, is apparently quite inferior technically. Note that SkySki (the company) was recently bought by a guy who likes to promote his religion at every opportunity. Oh well.

You'll quickly outgrow the beginner model, so skip it. Get the mid-range model with the following options:

- upgraded bindings from CinchMax (http://cinchmax.com)

- Shock Tower (has an air-filled shock absorber under the seat)

- anodisation of the foil

- soft protective case for the foil

As a case for the ski part, just get a cheap wakeboard bag and cut a hole in it for the seat to poke through.

CinchMax is a dealer for SkySki, though I think that my buddy ordered his from East Coast Hydrofoils (http://www.eastcoasthydrofoils.com). Both are good. These businesses are typically one-man operations, so don't expect an instant response when there is good boating weather where they live. :-)

Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hydrofoil . This is where my buddy got opinions that were overwhelmingly in favour of SkySki over AirChair (except from someone who turned out to be an AirChair dealer).

The hydrofoil chair probably has the steepest learning curve of all the watersports. Even with lots of over-the-Internet coaching, my friends and I are just doing basic jumps (no inversions with recovery). However, once the skills are established, it is a much less tiring watersport than most others. Known riders range in age from 4 to 84. One dealer did his first inversion at age 61. Basic riding can be learned at much lower speed (i.e. 12 MPH) than most watersports, so there is little chance of getting hurt as a beginner.

Just getting up and cruising is a lot of fun. With anything more advanced, helmets are pretty much mandatory. It's too easy to get a lot of height -- followed by a big splash. Here is my recommended list of safety gear:

- helmet with ear flaps. See http://www.pro-tec.net

- Neck Roll. See http://cinchmax.com/_wsn/page3.html

- wakeboarding vest with siped exterior

These are all pretty cheap compared to the hydrofoil itself, and the body parts that they protect. They are all good while wakeboarding too.

I also have CinchMax's "Release" product, but I don't think that it is a good solution -- it's merely an inexpensive, fussy one that sort of works. It also slaps boat passengers in the face when the rope goes slack. I might buy a real pressure-release rope connector soon.

A hydrofoil doesn't need a lot of boat power to pull it. Use a SMOOTH start, not a sudden pull. However, once you start doing big jumps, you can take advantage of a big wake -- just like wakeboarders do.

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