Hi everyone,
I had cartilage regeneration surgery on my left ankle last summer, but unfortunately, it wasn't successful. Now I'm still in pain and unable to walk well. My doctor recommended ankle fusion surgery (locking the joint with bolts) to relieve the pain.
I've been surfing for nearly 40 years and I truly love it. The thought of not being able to surf anymore makes me very sad every day.
I'm searching for someone who has had ankle fusion and was able to return to surfing-or any kind of sports. I absolutely want to go back to the sea!
If you have any experience or advice, I would be so grateful to hear it.
Thank you so much.
- Nobuko

That's really bad luck. I haven't had this problem, but with a fused ankle, any type of surfing upright is going to be virtually impossible. If it was me, I would be switching to riding a bodyboard or belly board. At the end of the day, it's all about being out in the ocean and sunshine, enjoying the pure pleasure of riding the waves.

Take up snowboarding

Hi,

I just saw your post. Hopefully I am not too late.

Don't get your ankle fused. Get a ankle replacement. I was in the same situation as you ten years ago. I had an ankle replacement on my right ankle. I have since had my left ankle replaced and am still surfing at age 66. A fusion will lock the joint with no movement at all which will eventually cause other issues. Good luck an don't give up hope!

Hi, some more data for you. I am a 54 yr old male as of 2025, I have surfed for 30 years. I had some trauma on my rear foot ankle 20 yrs ago. Ever since that injury I have had zero dorsiflexion, I could still surf, but just worse. In the last couple of years as the bone spurs increased making even plantargrade difficult, I just made a rear foot bootie with a heel lift, this kind of helps, but you still surf like crap, I still enjoy it though. I am based in Perth Western Australia. So 2.5 years ago I went to an ortho here to try and see about getting some dorsiflexion back (sure, I should have dealt with this stuff 20 years ago after the initial trauma, but I was working overseas at that time and only returned to Australia about 5 yrs ago). So the ortho went ahead and did an anterior decompression to remove bone spurs with minimal pre op investigation (just an xray, no CAT or MRI). Unfortunately all this did was remove any protection for the joint, i.e. the spurs were a result of poor biomechanics probably from poorly healed soft tissue and maybe some subchondral bone lesions from the previous injury (severe inversion followed by a severe hyper dorsiflexion injury 3mths later). So fast forward 2.5 years to now (mid 2025) and my joint has essentially eaten itself and I am close to end stage OA, I hobble, weight bearing is hard, can't walk 100m, but if I brace it and tape it and heel lift it, I can still get out there, but it is getting dicey. So, after completely destroying my ankle, all the old ortho says is "oh, you are too young for a TAR, its fusion for you". I am seeing him next week and am lining up a 2nd opinion with another ortho team who are ankle only and from a different private clinic but also work at the same public hospital and they will both be in house on my appointment day (long story there), but the new guy is more of an ankle specialist ortho as opposed to an ortho who does hips/knees and ankles. So I will see what he says, I am definitely a somewhat complex case although I am healthy and a non smoker/drinker, but at the end of the day if the facts point to it being in your interest to do fusion, I would go for it, if he says you could go either way, maybe go TAR as long as it is 4th gen. So, in summary, if you are getting fusion only noises from them, perhaps try for a 2nd opinion with an ankle specialist ortho as it is a rather large decision. But you have to be open to the facts regardless. Apparently fusion is not the end of the world, you still have movement in your subtalar and forefoot joints, but they potentially can wear out in 20 yrs with additional OA, however fusions have been shown to be more robust than TARs, just with a horrible 3+months off the joint at the start to get the fusion. You can still surf with a fusion though I am sure of it, I have surfed with no dorsiflexion for 20 years as I said. I have taped the back foot ankle to simulate a fusion, you can do this and test it, you can still surf. Use zinc oxide athletic tape (around 4cm wide which is standard for ankles), it will not stretch and stays on for your surf. Use a heel lift to get fake dorsiflexion with a plantargrade ankle.

Nonko, are you still put there? How did you fare?