Half a year ago, world champion longboarder Harrison Roach had a brutal collision with his board – requiring brain surgery, a whole load of recovery and nearly killing him in the aftermath. The crazy thing is, none of the surf world even realised, until Harrison posted on his social media a few days ago.
Last week, the 2022 longboard champ rode his first wave in six months after fracturing his skull in February. By April, Roach needed brain surgery, which required his face to be peeled off – like the film Face/Off, and built back together.
Harrison was determined to not share his story on social media until there was a happy ending — and was given the all clear Sunday.
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His post reads: “I just rode my first wave in 6 months. In Feb, my board hit me and I was rushed to Royal Brisbane Hospital – fractured skull, fractured right frontal sinus cavity, air on the brain.
“In April I had brain surgery – they cut me from ear to ear, peeled off my face, cut a window through my skull and removed the bone before piecing everything back together with a few titantium tidbits and 58 staples. Post op, I had a bleed, a week later it worsened and I got a fresh surgi-sponge in prep for Face/Off the sequel.
“Luckily, like the movie, which was shit at first but got better with age, the surgeons decided to give it some time to gather critical acclaim. While I’ve been tempted to flood your feed with zero-context hospital posts over the last 6 months, I thought I’d wait to be able to share a happy ending, which came this week in the form of an ‘all-clear’ from the Neuro team.
“I know a surf injury isn’t a big deal with what’s going on in the world right now (and rightly so), but it has been a big deal for me personally. So, take this excessively long caption as my cathartic exercise in closure. And if anyone has the number for the guy at Gath, I’m in the market for a helmet.”
Harrison isn’t always on a log. Few years back, he traded it in for a few shorter whips, and rode them equally as classy. Wishing the Noosa-long champ a speedy recovery.
