Lucy Campbell’s Return From A Knee Injury
It’d be a rare surfer who hasn’t once had to sit out a couple of weeks of waves whilst nursing an injury. It’s frustrating whilst you’re healing, and it’s frustrating when you finally get to catch a wave again, and you realise that your surf-specific fitness has slipped during the time-out of the water. If surfing is your job, an injury is an even bigger hurdle, and frustration.
C-Skins team rider Lucy Campbell has recently returned from a couple of months rehabilitating a knee injury. We caught up with her to find out how she approached and expedited her healing. This, is kneehab: save it to refer back to the next time you’re sidelined:
So, Lucy, what did you do to yourself that parked you on the bench for the best part of the Australian summer?
I managed to pick up a decent case of tendonitis, or tendinopathy as it’s also called, in both of my quadriceps just above my knees, and also in my Achilles. It's basically lots of micro tears in the tendon, and then as those tears heal they get a sort of calcification on them like a little hard growth, and then that hard growth rubs against and tears the part of the tendon next to it. It’s not very nice.
It’s an overtraining and overuse injury, but we never really got to the root cause of it. I had had a really busy time packing up our house in the UK ready to move back to Australia for the winter, then competing in [and winning] the Nationals and then I went and did a trip to Scotland that was very physical before heading here to Australia and jumping straight into summer here. I think that I just didn't give my body enough time to wind down and recover properly. I feel like this is a lesson that the universe keeps trying to tell me, just to slow down, but I never learn.
I tried to ignore it for a little while, probably for a month or so, and carried on surfing thinking that it would get better by itself. Then I went to see an osteopath here and he told me that it wasn’t going to get better without resting up. He was of the mind that if surfing doesn't hurt it then you can carry on, but surfing was definitely making it worse so I then had to accept facts and I took just over two months out of the water.
How did you approach healing and rehabilitating, and keep training to prepare for when you could surf again?
The rehab was quite a boring process. At the start, the only thing that didn't flare it up was gentle walking and so I was able to go for a 20-minute walk every other day, and that was it. As you can probably imagine, that drove me a little bit crazy! It was definitely tough. I think for anyone who's routine has changed suddenly, and especially when sport comes with so much serotonin and all the happy hormones that get released when you exercise and then suddenly you’re cut off from those, it can be quite tough to adjust and stay positive through the injury.
I think that if I had taken the rest as soon as my knees and heels started hurting, then I probably would've only needed to be out the water for one month instead of two, so there’s a lesson there for everyone!
For a little while I had to be really careful about the load and strain on my whole body, because my injury was caused by inflammation from overuse. I was able to do some upper bodywork and tried to keep fit for paddling, but I had to judge how each session felt afterwards and the following day. Then gradually once I had brought down the inflammation and was able to do a little bit more on my knees and my Achilles then I was able to build in strength and control.
With tendons you have to load them to get through to recovery and to try and stop them from degrading, so I was doing loads of work on the machines in the gym because they were really controlled movements. I was trying to build up lots of strength through those and then eventually over the last couple of weeks I've been able to build in running again and some really steady bodyweight squats and lunges and things like that, just gradually.
To ensure that I that once I was all healed up, I was ready to get back in there, I really focused on core work and bodywork so that I stayed strong for paddling. It felt really good to be able to get into the gym and do my rehab, and do some upper body work, just for a little bit of normality and even though I felt like I was probably going backwards with surfing, I was progressing with something else at least, and was able to keep moving.
Two weeks ago I was able to go surfing again. I'd been for one or two fun surfs on a big midlength and just stood there, gone along the line, and tried not to turn, just to get in the water because I was finding it really tough sitting on the sidelines. I’m so lucky to get to spend half the year here in Australia, and in the summer the water’s clear and I can surf in a bikini, and I was missing that so much.
How did you adjust your mindset, frame it, and get through the frustrations of being out of the water for a stint?
Developing a positive mindset through an injury is definitely tough!
I was just trying to see it as something that isn't going to go on forever. It's not a long-term injury so I tried to shift my mindset to focus on the fact that the more I rested, the quicker I'd be back surfing. Resting and doing nothing was my way of moving forwards, which felt so backwards to me. That was also a really strong reminder of how lucky I am that it feels this tough to be away from my normal lifestyle for that long.
In the grand scheme of things, two months is not a long time, and it gave me an opportunity to focus on other things other areas of my life.
Did you just do a bunch of physio exercises, or did you attack this in a more holistic way?
I definitely took a whole-body, holistic approach to recovering and getting back surfing as soon as possible. There's an incredible wellness centre locally in Ballina that has saunas, ice baths, a magnesium bath and also compression boots, so I really made the most of that and they were so incredibly supportive.
Alongside seeing an osteopath I was also getting some dry needling [a modern Western technique similar to acupuncture that targets muscle trigger points for pain and mobility] towards the end and that was incredible. I really wish I’d gone and got that earlier - I noticed a huge difference from getting that done.
In terms of nutrition and things I tried to cut down on, I did a fast to try and bring down the inflammation in my body to help with healing. I cut out alcohol and caffeine as well just to try and really give my body the best chance, because I think my body was probably quite inflamed all over. Then I just tried to eat really clean, and looked into the best anti-inflammatory diet and what things supported tendon healing.
I was meditating and journaling, which was a really nice stage in my day. I’ve always enjoyed and found a lot of value in journaling. I went on lots of nice little walks and tried to focus on controlling the controllable elements and letting the uncontrollable ones go.
Tell us about your first surf back and how it felt...
Oh, my first surf back on my normal short board I couldn't stop grinning. I was all over the place, my timing was so off, I kept missing sections and I felt so, SO, off the mark, but I was just so happy to be out in the water. I scored such a good day at the point here in Lennox Head and got a really quiet window, so I was able to get loads of waves and try and feel it all out. I’ve been back surfing for two weeks now and I feel like I'm finally getting back to some sort of level where I was before, which has been frustrating but I'm just so happy to be able to get in the water every day again. My joy at being able to ride waves again has way overpowered any sort of frustration I’ve had at not being back to surfing at my best already. Healing takes time, but it’s a reminder of how much I love surfing and how grateful I am for a body that can do this. It’s great to be back.
Sunset film photography by Alisha Tinsely
Surf images by Simon Williams
