From the operating room to the green room. Photos: YouTube//Screenshot
Back in February, Soli Bailey fell while surfing in Hawaii. He’s fallen a million times, but this time, something bad happened. He ruptured a disc in his neck that pressed into his spinal cord. Surgery, setbacks, rehab, and more rehab were in his future, and he had to face the fact that his future might look a lot different than he thought it would. Now, he’s got a film out called Bonehead that tells a tiny bit about the before, and the after.
“Bonehead is the story I never thought I’d have to tell,” Bailey wrote. “Earlier this year, a neck injury in Hawaii pulled me out of the water for six months and forced me to face the possibility that surfing, and life as I knew it, might never look the same. A ruptured disc pressing into my spinal cord, surgery, rehab, and setbacks. It was heavy.”
At first, Bailey thought that he’d just tweaked his neck. Soon, though, it became obvious that something far worse was going on.
“What began as discomfort turned out to be something far more serious, where a disc in my cervical spine had ruptured and was pushing directly into my spinal cord causing compression and symptoms in my arms,” he explained. “I’ve been confronting the very real possibility that my life may never look the same again.”
And so the hard work began. Recovery is never an easy road, but Bailey was determined not to let that little disc write a new future for him. In July, five months after he got hurt, he underwent surgery to repair the damage. After months of hard work and recovery, doctors gave Bailey the all-clear. So he did what he’d been dreaming of doing the whole time: he packed a boardbag, flew straight to Indonesia, and got barelled off his head.
