Injury Report: Jordy Leaves Hawaii With A Sore Rib And M-Rod Gets An Extra Ear Canal

As you probably well know, the Hawaiian tour leg is in full swing and the waves have been unseasonably gripping. 

“This is the best early season I’ve ever seen out here,” said the sinewy Q vet Evan Geiselman, between packing windy Pipeline funnels in his glistening Gath.

“It’s been absolutely cooking,” Mitch Crews confirmed. “We’ve been getting psycho waves at [redacted] almost every day and there’s been nobody out.”

You might also have seen the Haleiwa event, which has been more or less firing throughout, with a stunning crescendo all but guaranteed for finals day.  

While we’d need to ask Sean Collins (RIP) if this is officially the North Shore’s best early season, the point is that QS and CT surfers, for the first time in a long time, are experiencing Hawaii in all its glory during the Triple Crown window. Whether you like to surf Haleiwa, Sunset, Freddie’s or Pipe, you’ve been getting your fill with back-to-back-to-back-to-back northwest pulses and (mostly) tolerable winds. 

But with great swell comes great opportunity for bodily harm—especially on this abrasive line of coast. Below we’ll chat about two of the most noteworthy injuries to occur this week, courtesy of that jagged stretch of concrete between houses Bong and Stone. 

Jordy Smith

You might have noticed a big fat zero next to Jordy’s Round 4 Haleiwa heat. 

We know what you’re thinking, and no—Jordy didn’t pull a Toledo at Teahupo’o in 2015, earning the illustrious easter egg by failing to catch a single wave in his heat. 

Rather, Jordy pulled a Toledo at Teahupo’o in 2014, refusing to show up whatsoever on account of a niggling injury. 

In Toledo’s case, it was a sprained ankle (one that didn’t stop him from winning the US Open a week earlier, but that apparently made going straight at Teahupo’o an impossibility). For Jordy, it was a rib injury, procured while surfing Off the Wall on the morning of his Haleiwa heat. 

Jordy posted this to his Instagram shortly after: 

Thanks for all the messages wishing me well. Hurt my ribs surfing yesterday . Its really not that bad. Just landed funny and woke up a bit tender so I decided to pull out of Haleiwa. Its a goal of mine to win the Triple Crown but my focus this year is #pipeline just going to let the ribs heal up and see how I feel for Sunset. 

According to inside sources, Jordy has returned to California to get his chest marimba checked by the doctors. If all keys are still in tune (meaning it’s just a bruise), the big fella will return to Hawaii shortly to prepare for the Pipe Masters, where he will be competing for his first World Title.

Even if X-rays indicate that one of his ribs is broken, we don’t expect a little bone fissure to stop Jords from chasing his best chance at a Title. He’ll rub some dirt in it and lose to Medina the traditional way. 

Michael Rodrigues

Yesterday, while surfing large and what most called angry/ugly/dangerous Pipeline, Brazil’s Michael Roriguez suffered a sizable gash above his ear. It’s unclear exactly what caused the injury, but his IG video (below) sure makes it look like a fin/board gash (as opposed to a reef wound).

While we can’t know for sure what maimed Mikey, the circumstances were as follows: 60-80 people in the highly concentrated lineup, sun setting gorgeously in the southwest sky, and the biggest clean-up set of the evening comes through. We’re talking about a 12-foot second reefer—one that caught and swept the entire lineup in its turbulent fury. 

As is the case in any lineup with mixed board sizes, fear thresholds, and abilities, some people ducked (with board) and others dove (without). It was a yard sale of Biblical proportions, with even the duckers losing their board after being submarinally wrestled by the foam, meaning that a collision between surfers was largely unavoidable. 

It just so happened that M-Rod was the one who caught the brunt of (probably) another surfer’s fins—if not, somehow, his own—to his head. 

His message on Instagram reads (something to the point of): 

Yesterday I made my first 10 points in pipe, but it wasn’t on that wave [referring to the first photo in the IG swipe post], it was in my head [laughs] what a fright! But thank goodness it’s ok! No words to thank the guys who helped me out of the water and get to the hospital, all the lifeguards there from pipeline and everyone at the hospital!

M-Rod is rated lowly on the QS and sits at number 24 on the CT, meaning he needs a result at Pipeline if he wants to stamp his Tour card in 2020. This injury, while not insignificant, shouldn’t keep him Michael out of the water for long.

If you’ve gotten staples before, you know that the best place to get them is in your head, because from the skin’s perspectove, it’s the most stationary part of your body. All M-Rod will need is a swimming cap, some duct tape, and potentially a helmet, and he’ll be water-ready. 

More as the bashings continue.