STRANGE BEAUTIFUL LIFE

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Here`s a film from our friends across the pond in England. It`s Episode 5 of their "Strange Beautiful Life" series.

"Injuries suck. There`s no way of glossing over it and making it sound better than it is, but you try to. You kid yourself and you even start to believe it. `Oh, it`s OK. It won`t take too long.` You tell yourself over and over again. You start to fill your days with other stuff and you get on with it. But when you`re constantly striving for some kind of optimum wave riding experience to put a grin on your dial and it controls your every thought day in and day out, and then WHAM - it`s gone. Injuries really do suck.

It`s inevitable, I guess, at some point you`re going to kook it and things are going to go pear shaped real quick. One minute you think you`re God`s gift to surfing and then the next minute you`re rolling around in the white water wondering if your leg is still attached.

This episode of StRaNGe Beautiful Life was filmed in two parts. The first part was filmed just before I tried to be all Bruce ``look, no hands`` Irons and got a lip to the head, immediately confirming that I`m no Bruce Irons and yes, I do feel pain. Especially when tearing the Medial Collateral Ligament and Meniscus in my nobly knee.

Fast forward four tediously long couch ridden months where I got to know a rehabilitation elastic band really well and I`m back, good as new. Well, I`m notably chubbier and pretty damn clumsy on a surfboard, but I cant help thinking that time out of the water has given me perspective and a certain outlook that I`m sure was there before, but I feel different. It`s just when you can`t do something you love for ages, and when you finally get to do it again you fall in love with it all over again.

If I`ve taken anything positive from this injury it`s that we should all take a step backwards sometimes to appreciate things even more.

Hope you enjoy this episode and it gets your froth on to go surfing.

Cheers,

Stoker"