So who all has destroyed ankles from bad landings?

Jump #58.... probably a late flair. Left ankle dislocated with trimalleolar fracture. Plates and screws in ankle to hold it together.

Sucks...badly. Very very eager to jump again. I think this has made me more passionate towards the sport. Very disappointed in myself and need to go back out there and "fix" it ASAP.

While I was waiting for the ambulance, the jumper that assisted me said he broke both ankles on a hard landing in AFF. Ouch!

Just wondering who all has biffed it on the landing and how they are doing these days after recovery. How long did you take off jumping? What changes have you made because of your prior injury?

Also, what did you do to stay as current as you could without actually jumping? What did you do to minimize the urge to be in the sky again?

This is all too new to me, from actually skydiving(I'm a noob still) to needing surgery and being without a limb for a few months...I don't know what to do with myself or what to make of this.

Just needed to talk with people that understand...the DRs and nurses think I'm insane to want to be back in the air asap.

I feel very unlucky right now. Like the world is giving me a big middle finger...

Hang in there. Many of us have been sidelined because of injuries - minor or major. This forum helped me through a lot of it, as did a Facebook page for injured skydivers. Keep in touch, watch videos for encouragement, talk to your coaches and don't beat yourself up. Most people don't understand how we could get injured and still want to jump. This is a dangerous sport. But it is also life-saving for a lot of people. If you love it, and it sounds like you do, just learn from it, work with coaches & mentors and persevere. And find some good ankle braces and Van's:)

8 minutes ago, dkvkb said:

Hang in there. Many of us have been sidelined because of injuries - minor or major. This forum helped me through a lot of it, as did a Facebook page for injured skydivers. Keep in touch, watch videos for encouragement, talk to your coaches and don't beat yourself up. Most people don't understand how we could get injured and still want to jump. This is a dangerous sport. But it is also life-saving for a lot of people. If you love it, and it sounds like you do, just learn from it, work with coaches & mentors and persevere. And find some good ankle braces and Van's:)

what facebook page is that? Could you tell me? Thanks!

9 minutes ago, David Wang said:

what facebook page is that? Could you tell me? Thanks!

just messaged you!

Dear Cocwheats,

I have sprained my left ankle a couple of times while landing, but never broken a bone. Knock on wood!

You will notice a lot of  swoopers and tandem masters will have ankle braces on and high top shoes. 

I blew my ankle up on a tandem work jump. Weird winds that day and I got some lift and then sink off a thermal on final, we landed hard despite a flare to my toes. I let my legs take as much of the impact as possible, and my left ankle "stuck" as we continued forward.

The result was an unharmed student, and a dislocated left ankle with a bimalleolar fracture. It looked like my fibula was hit with a sledge hammer, and I had several surgeries to include external fixation, then internal fixation with one plate w/ 6 screws, and another 2 screws on the opposite side.

It was 3 months before I was weight bearing, and almost 9 months before I was jumping.

Do as much as you can to maintain mobility in the ankle, and do as much PT as you can get coverage for. Don't rush back to jumping, and also work on your balance and proprioception.

I am probably 95% 5 years later. I do have less mobility in that ankle, and it does get cranky sometimes, but most days I barely noticed that it happened.

Best advise I can give would be to get a knee crutch if you have any extended period of time before getting weight bearing. Google iWalk 2.0. It will make your mobility 10000x better and it will help will help you fend off some atrophy in the upper leg. Worth every single penny.

I flew into a brush with lots spikes in it on my 27th jump I think. I still remember pulling out the spikes one by one, not as bad but still sucks. Hang in there buddy. 

Blue skies

Dear Doug H,

There but for the grace of God go I.

Turbulence slammed me into California's hard pan desert more times than I care to remember. During one of those landings I heard (via bone conduction) bone-breaking noises. Thankfully I stood up and walked away.

My friend Brian agrees with your advice about knee crutch/trolleys. A few years back he crushed his heel when turbulence slammed him into a beach. He visited the DZ a week later on his knee crutch/trolley, but it was most of a year before his heel bones were strong enough to jump again.

I had fifty-odd jumps when I had my first reserve ride. To add insult to injury, I landed in a ditch.

My ankle was swollen and some ligaments were damaged. I did not need crutches but was to walk slowly and try not to limp, since limping is a "habit" you then need to unlearn. I went back to jumping when I could walk normally again and when the ligaments had healed in the opinion of a physical therapist. The physical therapist advised my to use sports tape on my ankle, which I did and which worked fine.

I was very nervous during the plane ride up, but after exit the anxiety left me as I got stable and  I felt great. This is over a decade ago. The ankle is not troubling me very much any more.

I also sustained a serious shoulder injury from when I had to land in turbulent conditions on rock hard dirt fiveish years ago.
The PLF did not go picture perfect, but had I attempted any other kind of landing I am sure I would have needed a noisy taxi with blue lights on.
I took a short spell off jumping, but not very long. Five years later, shoulder still gets stiff and sore occasionally.

Then the injury to my knee, which was by far the worst for my skydiving career. I had to leave off jumping for approximately half a year. Again, no crutches, but walking normally was not an option. I had to take short, slow steps and be very aware when walking. Stairs were out of the question. I slowly built back to walking normally and now, two years later, the knee still occasionally likes to give me a reminder that it was injured. When I got back to jumping, I PLF'd the entire training season (~100 jumps) no matter how good the landing. The irony is that this was not a skydiving injury at all, but that I sustained while in our f*rst ballroom dancing competition, when my wife and I had a collision with another couple.

Thanks for the replies! They help!

Ankle actually feels like I could walk on it. Very minimal pain. The top of my foot however is freaking excruciating still after 2wks. I'm REALLY hoping they didn't miss something that will set me back more so . You'd think they'd have x-ray'd my foot and shin since I didn't know my head from my butt after the first round of drugs...but I don't know. Haven't been able to check out the DVD of x-rays yet and my follow-up appointment should be within the next week.

Fingers crossed. I want to be back in the sky so bad...I had JUST gotten comfy going from belly to back to belly and hanging out on my back without spinning out of control too!