Surfing looks like plenty of fun to the spectators, but riding the waves is not a cakewalk. The ocean can be unforgiving, and it could just as easily put someone in trouble. Regrettably, Kelly Slater had to experience the latter.

Slater got into a horrific accident while surfing in Jeffery’s Bay in South Africa. The accident left him so seriously injured, that he is still suffering from the after-effects of that unfortunate event.

It was while Slater was trying to ride a barrel wave, that the injury happenned. Not only was he in acute pain, but he also had to take a 30-hour flight back home and suffer through the journey before getting surgery.

A Barrel Wave and A Broken Foot

While the surfer was trying to ride the barrel, the whitewash pushed his surfing board into his foot with immense pressure. The pressure was so high, that his foot immediately folded over, and the bones shattered.

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“I broke my foot really bad”, he says. “Displaced and shattered a couple of bones. And I had a second surgery to take all the hardware out which was like a whole other recovery event.”

The incident happened during the Corona Open J-Bay event in the year 2017, and it’s not a surprise that Slater was not at all pleased to be in the trenches due to his injury. While riding the barrel, he got confused between staying on his board or jumping off, and that hesitation cost him dearly.

Slater’s gruesome foot injury forced him to pull out of the event and go into a long drawn-out recovery with two surgeries awaiting him. But unfortunately, his ordeal did not end there.

When he almost got to a point where he was back to his old self again and was starting to get back to surfing after his recovery, he suffered yet another injury. Due to the residual scar tissue from his previous injury, he tore his Plantar Fasciitis, which is a thick band of tissue that runs from the heel bone to the toes.

For Slater, this tear was even worse than his foot fracture. “I would say that injury was probably more painful and longer lasting than the… than the bone break. Yeah, I struggled with that for a good 6 to 8 months.”

The After-effects of Slater’s injury

Unfortunately, Slater’s foot will probably never be the same again. The 11-time World Surf League champion still feels the aftermath of the injury he suffered. “I get a lot of swelling and the first 24 hours I land anywhere on my foot it’s really painful because it has gotten inflamed”

Slater has permanently compromised his foot, and his Lisfranc joint (the point where the metatarsal bones connect to the rest of the foot) has lost its mobility. “The foot.. the foot I don’t think will ever be the same.”

Slater probably made it worse by not waiting long enough before getting back in the water. But for the iconic surfer, it seems like he just couldn’t help himself.

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