Surf Competitions and Injuries

At the end of winter semester I had a little surfing accident. I've been surfing in Hawaii for 4 1/2 years and never gotten any serious injuries before. But then, I got hurt at Castles! I've never gotten hurt on the north shore and I got hurt at Castles (the safest place to surf in hawaii)! Anyways, I was with my friends Dan and Jess. We had been out for about 1/2 an hour. I caught a wave and got up, then after I jumped off my board, it hit wave behind me, flew up, and hit me on the head. It hit me pretty hard, so I reached up and felt the top of my head. Then I looked at my hand and it was covered in blood. Luckily Jess was right by me, so I told her to get Dan and paddle in because I hurt my head. Then I caught a wave in to shore and walked to the dry sand. By the time I walked from the water to the dry sand, I was completely covered in blood. I am SO grossed out by blood so I was kind of freaking out.

My friends came in and helped me wash off at the beach showers. They wrapped a towel around my head and we sped to Kahuku hospital. (It is just a minute away from Castles). We got the hospital and headed in. I only had my swim suit on with Dan's flannel shirt on top and no shoes. The people at the emergency room rushed me in and had me lie down on a bed. Dan tried to call and get a hold of my family, but I didn't have my phone and couldn't remember any phone numbers. (He accidentally called Jess's mom on her phone and told her that her daughter had had an surfing accident. When Jess's mom asked which daughter, he said Ashley and she told him she didn't have a daughter named ashley (: )

The nurses tried to get my head to stop bleeding while they waited for the doctor. They used a TON of towels and tried to get it to stop for about 2 hours, but it just wouldn't stop. Then the doctor came in. He said that my head wouldn't stop bleeding, so they would just start giving me stitches. He gave me some shots in my head and i HATE shots more than anything ever! I can't even hear people talk about getting a shot or it makes me queasy! Then he started to clean my head a little bit. After he realized that it was me, and I found out it was my friend's cousin and he had given me a ride to the airport before! He said he couldn't recognize me at first because my hair was all red! He said the board had burst a blood vessel (gross) Anyways, then he gave me 8 stitches. After that, the nurses helped me wash my hair and then wrapped a TURBAN on my head! A turban that i had to wear for the next 24 hours! After we left the hospital (3 1/2 hours later) we went to Kahuku Grill for hamburgers and then went home. Bad news was I had to keep the stitches in for 3 weeks and couldn't get them out until the day I was leaving to AZ for Christmas. No surfing for a month ): !!!!


Luckily there were a ton of SURF COMPETITIONS to watch and also I had to study for finals. I went to all of the Vans Triple Crown surf competitions. The best was the Pipeline Masters, of course!! Also, I went to the EDDIE AIKAU surf competition!!!! (It was actually the day after my surf accident, so I had to put a hat over my big turban head! Anyways, the competition was AMAZING!!!!! Everyone from our school ditched class to see it. The Eddie as a surf competition at Waimea that only happens when the waves get 20 feet or larger( which is really 40 feet waves from the front). I went to the comp early with some friends, we had to park about a mile away because the roads were packed. Then we ran to Waimea and found a spot on the sand to watch. After awhile I met up with my friend Dan and we walked down to the rocks, right next to where the waves were breaking. It was SO awesome to watch from there because we were right next to the surfers!!!! I could have stayed and watched forever! I love living in Hawaii!!