Greetings fellow paddlers,

I emailed this to Jeroen and he suggested I post it...
Maybe I should've titled it "AM I THE ONLY GUY ON THE PLANET WITH THIS INJURY?!"

Here goes, I've been kayaking for about 11 years, average around 2x a week on our local river (Limmat in Baden in case you're interested), plus winter pool 1X a week, some local whitewater.
I started in various boats, really got going in an old Dagger Blast, then got a used InaZone in 2000, and in the summer of 2006, looking for something a bit more playful, got another Pyranha, the S:8 225.
Note that I sit VERY comfortably in this boat. (I'm built totally wrong for kayaking, being 1.87m & 80 kg..)

I've paddled the S:8 a lot, trying to learn how to cartwheel etc., I *love* this boat...

While trying to cartwheel and generally playing under the Holzbrücke here in Baden this past June, I tipped over and, in the middle of rolling up, felt a sort of *snap* and some MAJOR pain in my right knee (right side roll)...I immediately got off the river (fearing I'd done something MAJOR and/or that I may not be able to roll again, at least on that side) and stayed out of the boat for a couple of days.
The knee otherwise felt fine, no swelling, no pain in any other sports (cycling, running, walking, etc).

To make a long story short, it seems that I ruptured the LCL (they've examined me and done MRI etc)
<www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001079.htm>
A few weeks later while playing on a river in France, I felt a similar pain (though not as bad) in my left knee!

I want to stress: I sit VERY comfortably in the S:8 - and have rolled it, I don't know, hudreds of times...also in the pool in winter etc. Never a hint of a problem, and I telemark too

Pretty much all summer it's hurt to enter the boat, then it gradually subsides (2 minutes or so), until I do the first roll, which hurts for a minute or two, and then it's ok.

One Scary Thing the Doc said: "the MRI suggests an initial (strain/sprain/stretch/tear) which has been
re-injured a number of times" *ulp* which makes sense in light of the fact that I continued kayaking all summer...

Since it wasn't going away I went and got it checked and following doctors' orders I've wound down paddling (and in any case our season practically ends pretty quick here, at least during the week). i've been doing ultrasound and some rubber-band-excercise with the legs, taking Ibuprufen (hot stock tip...) But last night I gingerly went out with our Beginners' class, had some great surfs, did a few rolls,
and all in all, it's much much better..but I'm scared it will become chronic and/or return...I couldn't imagine not being able to paddle.

So my Very big Question is: has anyone ever heard of LCL injuries arising from kayaking??

AM I THE ONLY ONE ON THE PLANET...?!

Pretty uncommon to damage your LCL paddling but I can see how one could do it... If I were to venture a guess at this, chances are you have weak LCL and that is why this is happening

I would not believe that you are going to be done forever but I woudl strongly suggest you take part in lots of stretching exercizes and strength training... If you can get the supportive muscles around your knees to beef up you would limit the chances of re-injuring them

ANother issue you might be runnin into is it is easier to re-injure now to really keep up with strength training

....

As far as paddling goes, Perhaps if you move you thigh braces closer to your body.. It might limit the lateral forces you put on your knees and thus might limit the extent of an injury

Good luck and keep us posted

If I can help out in greater detail, feel free to either post up here or you can PM me if you need some more specific information