Ryan Callinan hurts leg, recovers, hurts other leg

With the sound of torrential rain in the background, Ryan Callinan answers my how-are-you with a sighed ‘Yeah, ok.” Not good, just ok. Why? He’s in flooded Burleigh Heads, nursing a swollen trotter and bruised morale. On the first morning of the Billabong World Junior Champs (the reason he’s on the Gold Coast), Ryan busted his leg, badly. The injury extinguished the natural high the kid’s been on lately. In Bali last year, during a freesurf at the Oakley World Juniors, Ryan blitzed a backside air-reverse in the shorebreak and snapped the fibula in his right leg. He spent nine weeks landlocked and had been back in the brine for eight weeks prior to the Burleigh crash. Back to back injuries? It doesn’t get any worse. But, Ryan’s positivity is all-but incorruptible. Stab: You must feel like you’re made of chalk.Ryan Callinan: I got the MRI test back yesterday and they said it was a grade three tear to the ligament in my left ankle. But, a couple of people have looked at it and said that the doctors might’ve over-exaggerated it, ’cause I’ve got full movement and I can walk on it. So, I initially thought it wasn’t bad at all, then I was told it was really bad, now I’m back to thinking it’s not so bad again. Hit me with a play-by-play.I did it the day the contest started. I was mea nt to be second heat of the day and was having a freesurf before the first heat paddled out. I was coming in at like, 8am. I was supposed to surf at around 8.30am. Then, last wave in, I tried a backside air-reverse. As I landed, I compressed really hard over my back (left) foot and went so far down that I couldn’t compress any more, so my knee twisted out but my foot stayed planted. It was exactly the same as in Bali, a backside air-rev, but just the other foot. I missed my first heat, but it was a no-losers round. Then I tried to surf my round two heat ’cause I didn’t think it was that bad, but every time I got up it was hurting and I couldn’t really turn. Are you ever gonna do another backside air-reverse? (Laughs) I dunno… it’ll probably take me a little while, I’m so scared of them now. When’s the Ryan Callinan signature boot coming out? Well, they said that I shouldn’t wear the boot ’cause they don’t wanna restrict all the movement I’ve already got. So, I should be able to just walk around and all that stuff. You kinda sound like you’ve already overcome this, mentally. Yesterday I was devastated because they told me I’d be out for three-eight weeks. I’d just been out for eight weeks with a broken fibula, then I was back in the water for around eight weeks, now I’m facing another however-long out again. It’s frustrating ’cause I was just feeling like I was getting back to 100 percent. I’d done a couple of airs and landed in the flats, and it had felt totally sweet. But I’m going up to Brisbane today to get an injection in my ankle and they think it should be all good in a week or two, or a few weeks. I’m hoping I’ll be right to do the Breaka Burleigh Pro, which starts on the eight of February. Hopefully I’m just getting all my injuries outta the way early. I’m ok about it all. Shit happens. – Elliot Struck Below, pre-injury Ryan in Billabong’s Blow Up. [showvideo]