AMRAP 20 Minutes:
5 Pull Up
10 DB Push Press
15 Box Jump 24/20″
Many of our afternoon members know Thomas and Stacey Moore. Travis and I got an email from Stacey a week and a half back letting us know that Thomas had broke both legs kayaking, would require multiple surgeries, and that they were moving away to be with family where a wheel chair would be accommodated better. I let Stacey know we’d take care of their membership cancellation and if there was anything we could help with to let us know. I was wondering how you break your legs in a kayak???
Before I give you the rest of the story, you guys should know that Thomas isn’t your average paddle around the river kind of kayaker most of us think of. He’s into the gnarly hardcore kind of kayaking where you go places that really weren’t meant for humans to be navigating.
Photo by Tom Janney
Here is a video I found of him and his buddies from a couple years ago in the same area where this incident happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRD76fGZnXI
About a week later, we heard from Thomas via email and got the story. Here it is:
Travis/ Justin,
Hey guys, I wanted to take some time to tell you a little bit more about what happened and what’s going on now. I have nothing but time on my hands now so I thought I would share. Last Friday I was kayaking the middle fork of the San Joaquin river below Devils Postpile National Park. This section of river is a multi-day trip that takes about 4 days to complete and this was my fifth year in a row to do this river and is one of my favorite. This stretch of river is rated class V+ and is considered one of the hardest most committing canyons in North America. This river has it all in terms of what I look for in whitewater. Though there is great risk, the reward cannot be described in words. I was with four friends and we put on the river last Wednesday and planned on taking off on Friday. Friday morning we started kayaking around 9 am and shortly after we started things went incredibly bad.
Photo by Darrin McQuoid
While running a rapid I got offline and got pushed in a place I did not want to be. This resulted in getting pinned underwater with the front of my boat pinned in some rocks at about a 45 degree angle. I immediately knew and could feel that my boat would not come free and that I must exit the kayak in order to survive. I pulled my spray deck which is something I wear to keep the water out of the boat. Once I did this I tried to climb out of the boat. This proved to be very difficult with all of the water hitting me from behind and filling the boat. I finally managed to get my legs barely out just past my knee and that is when the most excruciating pain of my life began. I was now trapped just past the knee being violently torn down stream meanwhile still under water. I tried like hell to get free but it felt hopeless. I was in so much pain and I was losing oxygen. It was at this moment that I thought that it was over. I thought of my wife and realized that I would not only drown to death but it would be a violent torturous death. I thought I just can’t go out like this! It took every ounce of strength I had to push, wiggle and tear my legs free. It wasn’t until each one of them fully dislocated sideways that it gave me a better angle to finally get free.
I then floated down stream and was rescued by my friends who gave me a number of pain pills and splinted both of my legs. We hit an emergency beacon and four hours later a
CHP helicopter hoisted me out of the river and took me to Fresno.
As I look back on it now I truly believe the training I have had with you guys helped me prepare to push myself further than I ever imagined possible. Almost every time I come to CF East Sac, I do my best to give it my all. I did join to be fit but what I get the most out of the workouts is finding out just what I am capable of. I enjoy pushing myself to a place physically and most of all mentally that tests something I did not know I had in me. While I am not sure when I can come back I really do want to and am bummed I wont be there for sometime. Quite often I read the hate articles on why people shouldn’t do CrossFit. All I know is that training with you guys has allowed me to get to a place both physically and mentally that I think helped save my life. Thank you! From the bottom of my heart.
So I dislocated both knees, tore three out of four ligaments in both knees, and ripped off the right patellar tendon which resulted in a tibia fracture. I had surgery on both legs last Saturday with plans for future surgery. Currently I have four external metal pins in each leg connected by metal rods that keep my legs straight. Either today or tomorrow I will be transferring from a hospital here in Fresno to UC Davis where I will begin some rehab. Once again, Thank you.
-Thomas
Thomas will be at UCD for another day or two doing some rehab. He informed me yesterday that he has learned to get in and out of his wheel chair and put a pair of shorts on by himself.
We are so glad Thomas had the strength to support his will to survive. We will all be thinking of you and Stacey and wishing you the best recovery. Hopefully we will see you come walking through our doors again ready to start over on rebuilding your invincibility. He’s already doing pull ups again even with his legs literally bolted together with an erector set.
You can find the KCRA news story on Thomas’ incident here with a could photos of the rescue.
http://www.kcra.com/news/local-news/news-sierra/hurt-sacramento-kayaker-rescued-from-remote-sierra-river/26375746#!0hFZ8
