In mid-January, a very large swell smashed into the Hawaiian Islands. Pe’ahi was huge; it was of those swells that made waves that nearly defied belief. Most of the usual suspects were there, and most of the usual suspects were very, very excited. Nathan Florence was one of those usual suspects, and it’s likely that his heart was pounding as he looked at the swell report. He’d been pretty lucky, injury-wise, up until then, but this time he wasn’t getting away unscathed. Things went bad on one particular wipeout.
“Turns out I have a compression fracture on my T12,” Nate wrote in an Instagram post. “A.K.A, I broke my back.”
Nate’s spirits are in good shape. All things considered, his injury could have been far worse. He has no damage to his disc, nothing out of place, no pressure on his spine, and surgery isn’t required. Nate, who is an avid workout enthusiast, credits his dedication to deadlifts for keeping his injury relatively minor.
“Deadlifts are to thank, I believe,” he told The Inertia a few days after his injury. “Just bone that needs healing. I’ve been told about six weeks and then do x-rays to make sure it’s healed,” he told me. “Then I’m good to go. It was the best possible break for a broken back injury. Rehab is just to let the bone heal, body weight exercise; nothing that causes pain.”
In his latest YouTube offering, Nathan explains in great detail what exactly happened.
