Brent busts his neck surfing cyclone's
Eish, it's always heavy when an ou breaks his neck out in the surf, but it's even worse when it's one of our own locals.
Local ballie Brent Sinclair left PE 10 days ago on what was going to be a lekker solo holiday up the coast - just him, his dog, his board, and 4 fishing rods. Things started out great, hanging at Coffee Bay in the Kei for a coupla days, diving out some crays, catching waves, chilling.
He then headed up to Port Edward, and civilisation, where he found out watching the news that there was a cyclone klapping the Kwazulu Natal coast and he was going to score himself some serious waves. For 2 days he did just that. Finding his groove in the heavy beachies of the south coast.
However, the swell got bigger and heavier with each passing day and on the 3rd day there were some serious rips pulling through the beachies. For those of you who aren't familiar with the south coast, the drop-off is pretty acute, which makes for some insanely strong water movement.
Brent found himself caught in a hell-rip after catching a wave, and was just getting held in the same place -he couldn't paddle in cos of the rip and couldn't get out cos of the heavy sets pounding the sandbar. Between a rock and a hard place - literally - as he was about to find out....
Local ballie Brent Sinclair left PE 10 days ago on what was going to be a lekker solo holiday up the coast - just him, his dog, his board, and 4 fishing rods. Things started out great, hanging at Coffee Bay in the Kei for a coupla days, diving out some crays, catching waves, chilling.
He then headed up to Port Edward, and civilisation, where he found out watching the news that there was a cyclone klapping the Kwazulu Natal coast and he was going to score himself some serious waves. For 2 days he did just that. Finding his groove in the heavy beachies of the south coast.
However, the swell got bigger and heavier with each passing day and on the 3rd day there were some serious rips pulling through the beachies. For those of you who aren't familiar with the south coast, the drop-off is pretty acute, which makes for some insanely strong water movement.
Brent found himself caught in a hell-rip after catching a wave, and was just getting held in the same place -he couldn't paddle in cos of the rip and couldn't get out cos of the heavy sets pounding the sandbar. Between a rock and a hard place - literally - as he was about to find out....
Next thing he looked up to see this solid 6ft set looming down on him....and with nowhere to go, he decided to bail his board and dive under the wave...but the mother-load exploded right on him....pushing him right down to the bottom, where he klapped his pip on the rocks a tit shot. In Brent's own words "I got brained!"
His whole body went numb and he couldn't move his arms or legs at all. Luckily he'd taken a pretty good breathe before diving under, and together with the fact that he was now pretty dazed and confused by the hit on the head meant he didn't panic and managed to make the breathe last a bit longer. He finally popped to the surface when he managed to gulp another breathe before getting hammered by the rest of the set.
Luckily for Brent the lifey's had spotted that he was in serious trouble, and were out there really quick to come grab him. He managed to tell them that he thought his neck was bust, so they knew to try support him properly. The other 4 ou's who he was surfing with at the time came to his aid as well, and helped the lifey's get him back to the beach and up to the lifeguard station, using his board as a stretcher.
They stabilised him and got him off to ICU at Margate, where they put him into a CAT scan to suss out what was going on with his neck. You know the saying about do you want the good news or the bad news first...well, Brent got downright weird news! The Doc came back and told him he'd not only bust his neck now - but he'd actually bust it twice before as well! The previous 2 times Brent had just thought he's tweaked it pretty bad, even going off to the chiro to get it sorted!! Turn's out Brent might just be the cat with 9 lives...
Anyhow, he'd bust his neck good n proper, with C4/5 and C5/6 being stukkend, and pinching on his nerve just for good measure. So into a neck brace it was. Brent's now just waiting for the surgeon to give him a slot in his diary to do the op. In the meantime he's hanging at a little B&B til he has to head back to hospital for his op. Not too comfy with some serious pins and needles action in his arms and legs, and pretty dysfunctional hands cos of the pinched nerve issue. He says it takes him about 10 minutes to tie his shoelace!
So we wish Brent the best of luck for his op and a speedy recovery thereafter!
So c'mon ou's - show Brent some good ol PE karma and send him an email or Facebook message to wish him well, the poor ou is stuck up there on his ys at the moment.....so some good wishes from his home town will most definitely help out!
Facebook message him here.
Or send him an email here. (brent-sinclair@mailbox.co.za)
Or give him a buzz on 0780591106
His whole body went numb and he couldn't move his arms or legs at all. Luckily he'd taken a pretty good breathe before diving under, and together with the fact that he was now pretty dazed and confused by the hit on the head meant he didn't panic and managed to make the breathe last a bit longer. He finally popped to the surface when he managed to gulp another breathe before getting hammered by the rest of the set.
Luckily for Brent the lifey's had spotted that he was in serious trouble, and were out there really quick to come grab him. He managed to tell them that he thought his neck was bust, so they knew to try support him properly. The other 4 ou's who he was surfing with at the time came to his aid as well, and helped the lifey's get him back to the beach and up to the lifeguard station, using his board as a stretcher.
They stabilised him and got him off to ICU at Margate, where they put him into a CAT scan to suss out what was going on with his neck. You know the saying about do you want the good news or the bad news first...well, Brent got downright weird news! The Doc came back and told him he'd not only bust his neck now - but he'd actually bust it twice before as well! The previous 2 times Brent had just thought he's tweaked it pretty bad, even going off to the chiro to get it sorted!! Turn's out Brent might just be the cat with 9 lives...
Anyhow, he'd bust his neck good n proper, with C4/5 and C5/6 being stukkend, and pinching on his nerve just for good measure. So into a neck brace it was. Brent's now just waiting for the surgeon to give him a slot in his diary to do the op. In the meantime he's hanging at a little B&B til he has to head back to hospital for his op. Not too comfy with some serious pins and needles action in his arms and legs, and pretty dysfunctional hands cos of the pinched nerve issue. He says it takes him about 10 minutes to tie his shoelace!
So we wish Brent the best of luck for his op and a speedy recovery thereafter!
So c'mon ou's - show Brent some good ol PE karma and send him an email or Facebook message to wish him well, the poor ou is stuck up there on his ys at the moment.....so some good wishes from his home town will most definitely help out!
Facebook message him here.
Or send him an email here. (brent-sinclair@mailbox.co.za)
Or give him a buzz on 0780591106
