Photo: WSL/Aaron Hughes
A few weeks back, during this season’s Western Australia Margaret River Pro, finals day unfolded with explosive surfing (JJF’s 10!) at moderately-sized Main Break. Dreams were crushed due to the Mid-Season Cut, dolphins joined the party, Jack Robinson defended his title as best in the west, and Gabriela Bryan won her first CT.
Meanwhile, across the bay at Main Break’s much heavier counterpart, The Box, a handful of competitors and slab whisperers opted for a free-surf session on finals day. The Cola Bros, Caity Simmers, and Nate Florence were out there. And unfortunately, CT surfer Sophie McCulloch took the beating of the morning, breaking her back on The Box’s reef.
We hit up the Sunshine Coast native – who, fun fact, also happens to hold dual degrees in Biomedical Science and Marketing – to hear what happened.
“I had already fallen out the front of a smaller wave that morning,” Sophie explained, “so I was determined to put my head down and paddle for a bigger one. It wasn’t quite a set wave, so it didn’t let me in with the chip, and I didn’t paddle hard enough to get under it and make the drop. I ended up in the lip and had to try and pin drop. It wasn’t until I got sucked back around a second time that I landed on the ledge, butt-first, and compressed my spine. I felt a big crunch and instant pain, so I knew it probably wasn’t good.”
After a slam that hard, that brutal, Sophie surfaced in a state of shock. She continued:
“I was pretty rattled, but once I regained composure, I realized I probably wouldn’t be able to paddle in and walk back to my car. I paddled back out and asked Chris [Whitey], for a lift over to the WSL event skis. By now I think shock had set in, so the pain had subsided a bit, and I got my hopes up that maybe it wasn’t too bad.”
It was bad. She took an ambulance to Busselton Hospital, where an x-ray confirmed a substantial fracture to her T12 vertebrae. From there, she was airlifted to Royal Perth Hospital, where she got more scans. 48 hours later they released her in a brace.
Days before the injury at The Box, Sophie was relegated to the Challenger Series with a Round of 16 loss to current world #1, Caity Simmers. But now, her return to competition will be delayed even further; coming back from a broken vertebrae ain’t easy.
“While I am absolutely devastated to be sidelined again,” Sophie said, “it’s quite easy to maintain a positive perspective because I know just how lucky I am that the injury wasn’t worse. I feeling very fortunate to be back on the Sunny Coast with friends and family. I’m in a brace for three months, and will hopefully return to the water shortly after that, but I’m not entirely sure when I will be back competing.”
Here’s to a speedy recovery.
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