Bad knee – advice please

[nicor]

I cranked my knee last winter doing a back roll. Afterwards I still had good mobility, no pain walking and going upstairs, but lots of pain going down stairs. The pain finally subsided, but now whenever I kite on a TT I aggravate my knee and the pain reappears.

I got a surfboard recently and after a couple of times out and my knee feels great, no pain. Then I was out yesterday in a nice breeze on my TT again, and today my knee is really aggravated...

I think it is the twisting motion that is aggravating my knee. On the surfboard both feet are angled towards the front of the board (the way I would skateboard), but on a TT my feet are in a duck position and I’m really twisting my bad knee when it is at the back of the board. It could also be that I’m holding much more power on my TT than my surfboard, I mean I can really feel the power when I’m edging during a gust.

I was thinking about getting some adjustable foot pads that would reduce the duck positioning of my feet. Is this a good idea to reduce the twisting?

Another option would be to try and get a brace to prevent twisting of my knee. Anyone have any experience with them?

Worst case is to stick with a surfboard from now on, but I do like my TT and it’s a little more practical around here.

[pj sofine]

Might be a good idea to have it looked at by a knee specialist. Otherwise just shooting in the dark.Soon you'll be getting medical advice from kiters!

[Soleas]

Sounds like you need to go check your knee. Doesn't sound serious but I'm not a doctor. I had a bad knee accident 3 years ago on my good back leg. Blown ACL, teared meniscus and side knee bone crack from a kiteloop and three years later I just feel my right leg weaker than the left after a looong session, that's all. No pain, no swelling just a little more tired than the other one. I ride a twintip and push hard like before the accident.

So in general you shouldn't have pain etc.

[sw67]

I had the same issue - get to a physio

I did some tests and had lost a lot of muscle on one knee - this was due to adapting the way i walked after the injury.

I did 5 months of exercises to strengthen and re-align the knee inc 4 physio trips

My knee is fine now but i have kept up the exercises

[airsurfer]

+1 for good professional sports physical therapy they can usually tell if its something that can be rehabilitated or worse. In my case I already had to have surgery but I saw a lot of people get "fixed" with hard work at therapy and avoid surgery or further damage. Now I understand how pro athletes recover from injuries so fast.

[TommyDuotone]

+1 for the surfboard.
also highly recommend icing your knee after kiting(15 minutes). A bag of frozen peas works great.

Here's another way to ice that I learned from a physical therapists that's convinient and takes less time: Fill a small paper dixie cup to the top with water and put it in the freezer. When the cup turns to ice, flip it over and hold the bottom end with your hand. You can can give yourself an ice massage over the area and peel layers off the cup as the ice melts. The ice massage penetrates deeper/faster so you only need do do it for 7-10 minutes. Good luck and hope it heals up

[topmick]

Your symptoms sound very similar to my own...knee pain after powered up riding on TT or strapped surfboard with boosting etc. Pain was strong so I went to a specialist and after a CT scan found I had a small tear to the meniscus (left knee). The specialist was keen to operate but was advised by others not to rush in with the knife and see if it settles first as you can still have the Op down the track as a last resort.

So I started riding surfboards strapless and have not had any knee pain since.

[tony montana]

After breaking pelvis lost a lot of muscle quad ended up knee problem,get surfboard underground kipuna easy on knees,best exercises stand on bad leg drop couple inches do this any chance you get ,spin bike gentle peadling no resistance same road bike,flat no big hills,try not to aggrivate problem,knee problems take a long time to heal,hold off on surgery it will get better,Tony

[TracyS]

I tore my miniscus and sprained my MCL June 1st of this year. I got an MRI to confirm the damage. Surgery is optional based on how much pain I have. I have decided not to get surgery. Instead I bought a brace from Donjoy. They have all sorts of models, but I bought the next best thing to a custom brace, which is called the Armor. I went to their website and used their guide for measuring my knee, then I purchased one on ebay for $160. I started kiting the day I received it in the mail, which was exactly 4 weeks from the day of my injury.

It has been a few months now and I kite almost every day with my brace. I have met a few others who said they used Donjoy for a few years but they prefer the CTi. I am thinking about getting a CTi now.

The Armor works decently. The only problems I notice are that the velcro loosens up when I get it wet and I have to adjust it often. And when I jump and have some hard landings, the brace gets a lil tweaked up. I assume that is to be expected.

I have slight pain still. but nothing that holds me back. I do sometimes tweak it a bit if I lose my board and my ankle twists, even while wearing the brace.

[vman]

I tore my miniscus and sprained my MCL June 1st of this year. I got an MRI to confirm the damage. Surgery is optional based on how much pain I have. I have decided not to get surgery. Instead I bought a brace from Donjoy. They have all sorts of models, but I bought the next best thing to a custom brace, which is called the Armor. I went to their website and used their guide for measuring my knee, then I purchased on on ebay for $160. I started kiting the day I received it on the mail, which was exactly 4 weeks from the day of my injury.

It has been a few months now and I kite almost every day with my brace. I have met a few others who said they used Donjoy for a few years but they prefer the CTi. I am thinking about getting a CTi now.

The Armor works decently. The only problems I notice are that the velcro loosens up when I get it wet and I have to adjust it often. And when I jump and have some hard landings, the brace gets all tweaked up. I assume that is to be expected.

Great info, can you please provide me with the websites for the braces you recommend


I have slight pain still. but nothing that holds me back. I do sometimes tweak it a bit if I lose my board and my ankle twists, even while wearing the brace.