The New Normal: A Pandemic + Broken Leg Are Keeping Oscar Langburne Out Of The Water

When Oscar Langburne’s new clip dropped on Friday we were inclined to post it straight away. Then we heard the news that 17-year old Oscar broke his leg that morning landing an air at a central coast beachie. 

Initially, this interview wasn’t going to be a part of the ‘New Normal’ series, but then Mike pointed out that talking about what you’ll be doing while homebound with a broken leg meets the criteria. 

Anyway, above is Oscar’s new clip from Raglan in New Zealand. It was initially meant to feature both Raglan and some right handers from other parts in Oz, but the global lockdown and travel restrictions put a hold on that. Below is a short interview with Oscar about what he’ll be up to now he’s truly landlocked with a broken leg. 

Stab: How are you feeling? [Oscar had only left the hospital after surgery a few hours beforehand].

Oscar Langburne: Ahhh pretty fuzzy, so excuse me if I get a little jumbled. 

[Laughs], no worries. So what happened? You broke it at pelos right?

Yeah trying an air, pretty done with airs after that. I did a straight air and landed in the vee between where the whitewash is coming up and the back of the wave. It pushed my board up and put my leg in an awkward position, then it broke. I was surfing with Joel Vaughan, his little brother Hughie and Molly Picklum who are like the best juniors in Australia in my opinion. We were getting filmed by Nick for different stuff but I’m probably glad I haven’t seen it. I have to say massive thanks to them all for getting me off the beach. If you know the beach it’s a fucking trek, for kids it would have been like carrying Cardosa the panda up the stairs at Ulus haha even tho I’m probably like 55 kgs

Which leg? Was it your tibia?

My front leg, my right one. Yeah a spiral fracture on my tibia.

What’s the prognosis… how long are you going to be out of the water for?

Expected to be two to three months, so not too long. And the surgery went pretty well so hopefully it’ll be okay. 

Well I guess you wouldn’t have been travelling or doing anything too exciting anyway.

[laughs] yeah it’s the perfect time to break your leg as a surfer if you’re going to break it. 

I guess you could say that.

There’s so many worse things happening in the world right now with a lot of people doing it really tough, so I’m trying to remain positive. Me not being able to surf for maybe three months or whatever isn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. 

It gives me time to focus on a few other things I’m interested in. I can shift away from focusing on surfing all the time for a little bit. 

Did it ruin any plans?

I was planning on going down to Winki [in Victoria] and get on some rights for the second part of the clip and possibly north coast points. Then the borders were closed so that got put on hold anyway. Other than though I was just planning on hanging around home and going up and down coast. I had a trip in April that’s now obviously gone whether I had a broken leg or not, Indo looked likely mid year and possibly a boat trip or two after that and then no idea. I’m not freaking the waves will always be there.

So are you planning to do that after this is all over and your leg is healed?

Yeah for sure its going to be get this right hander part done when I feel 100%.. I have another clip to release in about 6-8 weeks. Something a bit different, a bit more dynamic than this recent clip as some people think it’s all going straight and highlines.

Some rights maybe…

There will be some rights [laughs], but just different types of waves and a different vibe. 

Is that something you’re conscious of mixing up between clips?

Yeah, something I find odd within surfing is that for some people if it’s not hacking away, belting man turns or whatever than any other form of surfing is worthless. It’s like they are talking about the UFC or something strictly competitive, not something that started for people to get out and have fun.

Most of the people I admire seem to have an awesome balanced take on surfing whether they did comps or not. People like Dane, Tom Carroll, Rasta, Steph, Rob Machado and what not.

What are you plans now for the next three months?

Going to try and be as productive as I can. Reading a bunch and maybe an online course as well, just in something that interests me. 

What’s on the bookshelf?

I just started reading this Nick Cave biography and a Keith Richards bio lined up after that. I’ve been reading the news a fair bit as well.

Well, yeah, you don’t want to too in depth though or [the news] is super anxiety inducing. 

Yeah, staying up to date and informed but not reading it all the time. You don’t want to start getting obsessed about all the horrible things happening.