Maynard counts himself lucky after surf training accident
CURRUMBIN ironman Jackson Maynard is counting his blessings after being cleared of serious neck and back damage after an accident in the surf.
Maynard was completing an ironman session with coach Michael King when he went to jump a wave but was flipped forward, landing on his elbows in knee-deep water sustaining back and shoulder injuries. After stumbling, dizzy, from the water, Maynard was attended to on the beach before taking himself to hospital where he spent a nervous few hours before being cleared of any breaks or serious issues.
“I jumped over a wave and it clipped my legs and flipped me forward and I braced myself with my elbows and “scorpioned’’ myself, so my legs hit me in the back of my head,’’ May- nard said. “There was just a heap of loud cracks and I kind of stood back up and I was really dizzy and seeing stars and I just stumbled out of the water.’’
Maynard sustained damage to his shoulder capsule after partially dislocating the joint and has severe bruising to his back but is counting his blessings after avoiding neck injury.
“Even the doctor was surprised I braced myself with my forearms and that I didn’t try to put my hands down because he reckons if I’d put my hands down I would have crumbled (and gone headfirst into the sand).
“I immediately thought I’d done something like that but thank God I hadn’t.’’
Maynard admitted he suffered a fright before being cleared by doctors, able to think only of good mate, Burleigh ironman Wes Berg, who broke his neck earlier this year when he speared into a sandbank while surfing.
“The first thing I thought of was Wes,’’ Maynard said.
After failing to requalify for the Nutri-Grain series last summer, missing the cut-off by a point, Maynard hoped to take part in the opening Summer of Surf round on the Sunshine Coast next weekend.
“I’ve just got a messed up shoulder at the moment,’’ he said. “But it’s looking good.”