Albee Layer has offered a very open and honest account of his recovery from a head injury sustained at Jaws though his Instagram page. (He suffered a serious concussion during the Jaws Challenge in 2019.)
You hear a lot about the wipeouts big wave surfers suffer, but not really much about the rehab. The world moves on pretty quickly to the next big day and the consequences of the pursuit almost glossed over. With head injury and concussion in the news re other sports recently, it’s great to see Albees recovery and updates.
“Saw it’s brain health awareness month or something so here’s an update on mine.
“A lot of people have told me how stoked they are to see me back to normal since the concussion in 2019. I really appreciate that but the truth is I’m not and never will be whatever I considered normal before.
“It’s been over 3 years. I’ve been through lots of treatment’s, tried prescribed meds, meditating, therapy, fucken spirit quests you name it. I’m still a bit different. I can be shorter to anger (directed at myself), shorter to negative assumptions (very anxious) and even worse than I was at social interaction, which lead to a lot of self medicating that made things much worse.
“I’ve fucked up relationships and am generally a bit harder to be around. A lot of these traits I already had but they have been exaggerated since that wipeout.
“I did good at jaws this last run not cause “I’m back” but both because I was confident with my preparation, but also cause I had that “fuck it, nothing to lose” attitude. Which isn’t sustainable. So I’m still finding a balance there.
“Any way I have come a very long way since the worst of it and spend most days happy and still driven. I appreciate the people close to me more than I ever have. I’m now trying to move forward with a much more sober and clear headed approach and it feels like my best decision yet.
“I talk to a lot of people with head injuries on here so for anybody on similar journey, the point is don’t let the lows consume you and be okay with changes. Just keep putting in effort. Nothings permanent.”
