Last year Cody French was telling me about this crazy injury he just had and when I saw footage of him barely able to walk, I was shook. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I ran into him at the skatepark, killing it on his skateboard! So awesome to see.
Below is a little interview I did with Cody as well as a sick part he filmed before his injury.
Keep it up Cody, it’s inspiring to see someone over come obstacles like this!
So Cody, you got a pretty serious injury last year, do you feel like telling us what happened?
Long story short, I was skating at the Ward skatepark in Guelph, trying a trick off a drop. I fell a few times and bruised my hip. Then I took a flight to California for a couple of weeks and fell on a warm-up trick at the Hollywood high-school and my hip felt weird after that.
I ended up flying home after a couple of weeks and got a bunch of MRIs and CT scans done. The results came in and I was told I needed hip surgery. From what I roughly understand, they shaved my bone down because I chipped it falling and the bone healed wrong so they had to reshape It. It was super confusing, to be honest.
What procedure did you have to go through to get your hip fixed?
I had to keep switching specialists around Ontario to do the surgery on my hip, eventually after finding the right doctor in Toronto at St. Michael’s Hospital, I booked the surgery and got it done September 10th, 2018, I was in the operating room for 8 hours. Then the journey began, my mom helped me shower, put on clothes, make food, drive me around, and help carry me to bed because I literally couldn’t walk because I was scared to fall using crutches. I had to do 3 months of bed resting. I saw a physiotherapist 5 times a week in Toronto and Durham, also I did specific physio from home with exercises & goals I needed to attain. The exercises were terribly painful and when bike riding began, it was exhausting. I also had to see a specialist once every 6 weeks in Toronto with my doctor as a follow-up. It was mentally exhausting, I had to stay off instagram as much as possible because all I saw was skateboarding and it was driving me insane!
Is this a common injury amongst young people?
No, the doctor said it’s pretty rare at my age to be having this surgery, but also a good thing because I’m so young and will heal quickly and stronger. He spent a lot of extra time on me during surgery to make sure everything was perfect.
What was the scariest thing for you, were you worried you were never going to walk or skate again?
YES! so scared and worried! When I woke up from surgery I had no feeling in my left side waist down. I was terrified, but it was just a nerve block that eventually would fade away; which it did for the most part. First couple months though I thought for sure I’ll never be able to skate again but stayed positive with the help from my mom and doctor.
How is the recovery going?
The recovery is going good, still very sore but still attending physio and follow-ups with the doctor. The doctor said it would take a full year to get back to 100%. I’m currently at around 9 months and I’m feeling good, back skating roughly every day, and working on getting most of my tricks back.
Any clips in this edit filmed since your injury?
Sadly no clips in this edit are filmed since I’ve been back on my board. I’m currently working on a new Vx part tho as we speak! I’m stoked.
filmed by TJ Rogers, Mike Burton and Kirk Harriott
Edited by Jesse Landen
