So I was out paddling last weekend and had a reasonably scary experience! I got in at the beach and took a couple of strokes out passed the tiny waves and felt my back 'seize'. I tried to stretch it out and move it about then took another couple of strokes and simply couldn't due to the excruciating pain! Unfortunately the tide was going out which meant I ended up about 200m off shore and couldn't paddle standing or on my knees! I had my phone in a case sitting on the back of the board attached to my leash but couldn't twist to get back to it and I was concerned that if I got into the water I wouldn't be able to get back on the board. After trying to stretch and move for about 30mins I ended up paddling back in basically using my forearms and wrists! Had to call an ambulance to come and get me as I could barely walk, let alone bend to get into the car! After the day in hospital on pain killers my back is still painful and I don't think I'll be back on the water for another week at least! Needless to say, my wife isn't keen for me to go out on my own again!

If you pinch a disc ,it turns all your muscles into a spasm ,and it locks up ,which sounds like you've done .
do some warm up exercise s .before going out next time ..
if you've rupture a disc ..which is very painful x2 .it could be 3 months .
i go to a bone cruncher for a aline ment .
hope you recover ,sore backs are not nice .

remember .warm up .its a contact sport .

At the hospital they basically addressed the pain rather than focus on figuring out what was wrong, fair enough as I went to A&E. I've got an appointment with my doctor tomorrow to hopefully get booked in for a CT or what not and we'll go from there. I have been doing a lot of core exercises given to me from my physio to help with knee issues that relate to balance issues coming from a weak core, so perhaps I've overworked them. But hey, I'm not a doctor so I'll wait and see what the go is. The most frustrating thing is doing an injury when doing something you love and then not being able to get back into it!

Osteopath work wonders for me with L4 L5 S1 issues

Hi Stubear,

In September 2015 I had a similar incident. Early afternoon, waist high ultra relaxed sup surf and suddenly I felt kind of electric discharge through my spine and a feeling of disconnection/instability between upper and lower back. Immediately my back got locked in a kinda 155? (180? being standing up). I got myself and the gear out of water with enormous difficulty.
That evening, If I was seated in a proper position, I would forget I had anything wrong. If I tried to move, the pain returned.
Day after I had physio massage which helped a lot for the contracture. This was the short term.
Fast forward, I went to the GP,orthopedist and finaly to a neurosurgeon.
I had CT scan and later a MRI (which is much more adequate for this diagnosis). The root cause for this incident was a pinched nerve by L4-L5 bulging disk.

It has been more than 1 1/2 years since the incident and it never repeated. But a lot of big surf wipe outs did :).
In the beginning I was afraid I could not do SUP anymore, my most beloved sport. But later I found that was not the case.

My lower back are still a issue that requires daily attention. My strategies /advices are:
- There are plenty nice clips in YT teaching exercises for lower back pain. Learn a few. They work.
- Check out "Foundation Training". It really works!!!
- Move. Walk, run lightly, whatever. Being sedentary is the worst thing one can do. (My job is mostly being in a desk in front of a computer).
- I stopped using my race sup for anything but small wave surfing. I prefer to save my back for my favorite part of the sport - wave riding.
- I returned to longer boards. Too short paddles and tiny boards can stress a lot.
- I became more aware of my paddling posture. Watch your stance.
- Always do an adequate warm up.
- Finally, just in case, I researched a plan B. I know it's quite effective and minimally invasive - Intradiscal Ozone Injection for Disc Herniation http://www.ijssurgery.com/10.14444/1017


PS: Exercise (like Pilates) in a non acute phase is much more effective than pills.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04p2rqy


Hope your back heals fast!

getting a scan can be helpful if there are 'red flags' - which are signs and symptoms physio's are trained to look for. If there are red flags presents, an MRI or CT can be useful (CT can be bulk billed from GP but also about 1000 xrays worth of radiation) MRI is about $250 from either physio or GP referral and offers much better resolution when look at nerve root compression etc. If there is just back pain, technically - imaging isn't indicated which is an interesting one as there are many health practitioners that over service in regards to imaging and then point out 'all the things that are wrong'. If you get a scan of your back, make sure you see a practitioner that can treat the person not the picture. There is lots of research on people who have disc bulges on MRI - yet absolutely no pain. Think of disc bulges are less of a mechanical issue and more of an inflammatory one. Appropriately guided exercises as other have said is number one but I would avoid the google search strategy on this one.

Some great advice here guys. I'm going to have an MRI today, one of the concerns the Dr's raised is that I'm only 34! Long way to go yet hopefully! Anyway, we shall see, but I'll definitely be looking into the Pilates.