Gold Coast bodyboarder Jake Stone takes on Tahitian monster after horror injury

HARDCORE bodyboarder Jake Stone should be on crutches after he broke his leg so bad bones splintered out of his skin three months ago according to his doctors.

Professional bodyboarder Jake Stone has miraculously recovered from a compound fracture to his lower leg ,and gets a quick surf in at Tugun before heading off to compete at one of the most dangerous waves in the world. Picture Glenn Hampson

THREE months ago hardcore bodyboarder Jake Stone broke his leg so badly bones splintered out of his skin.

Tomorrow he will board a plane bound for Teahupo’o, Tahiti, to compete in the second stop on the bodyboarding world tour.

“It was pretty gnarly,” Stone, 26, said of the trampolining injury at the Air Factory in Burleigh.

Jake Stone injured his leg from landing too hard while trampolining in Burleigh.

“I busted the bone out of my skin landing with too much pressure. It felt like I was going to fall through the trampoline, but instead I just heard a snap.”

Surgeons at Gold Coast University Hospital told the Tugun athlete he wouldn’t be able to surf for more than a year when they inserted a metal rod from the main tendon in his knee and down his shin bone.

Jake Stone’s leg while he was in hospital.

An x-ray of Jake Stone’s leg after the accident.

“It sounds funny but the injury was a bit of a wake-up call, like, from the moment it happened I just got back to work right away.

“I didn’t want to be negative about my injury, I’m just going to try and go get it (a world title).”

After hitting the gym a week after the injury, he was back “messing around” in the water five weeks after the accident in mid-January.

Stone said Teahupo’o, a heavy wave that broke on a notoriously shallow reef, was a “perfect” bodyboarding wave because it allowed riders to drop through the air into the barrelling wave.

Jake Stone taking on a massive wave.

“We free fall into the barrel which is quite beautiful,” he said. “The wave is nothing like the Gold Coast.”

The professional bodyboarder said he had surfed in 33 countries, including cold water monster waves in Ireland. He admitted he felt some aches and pains in the leg but would not let that affect him in Tahiti.

“I’m just super amped to get over there. My leg’s not as strong at it was, there are still a few aches and pains.

“I’m going to try and win the competition,” he said.

Professional bodyboarder Jake Stone has miraculously recovered from a compound fracture to his lower leg. Picture: Glenn Hampson