It goes without saying that aerial surfing is tough on the lower extremities. It was an air attempt, after all, that took out John John’s knee last year in Bali (he’s now going under the knife to have it fixed). A similar fate took down Coco Ho in Waco, Texas last week, when she suffered an MCL tear following an attempted tail-high reverse.
On Thursday, Ho took to Instagram to announce that her injury has caused her to withdraw from the upcoming Corona Open J-Bay. It’s her first missed event in over a decade.
“Pains me to say I’ll be missing my first WSL event in 11 years,” she wrote in a post. “I had to officially withdraw from JBay as I suffered a minor tear in my MCL the other evening trying to be a ladybird 🕊😂 Only up from here.”
While Coco’s J-Bay exit now leaves a major hole in the J-Bay heat draw, and she’ll be seriously missed, it’s notable the women’s CT vet is fine-tuning her air game and incorporating punts into her repertoire in earnest.
The bum knee does beg the question, though, if the risks associated with going to flight school (torn ligaments, sprained ankles, etc.) are even worth it for high profile CTers that have managed to forego aerial surfing for so long. Most – including Steph Gilmore who commented on Coco’s post, “Airs are so dumb” – likely make that exact calculation and prefer to stay in fighting shape.
We wish Miss Ho nothing short of a speedy recovery and are also secretly hoping once she’s well (whether at Surf Ranch, France, or Portugal) she gets delivered an air section and lofts to the moon.
