So, a lot of you were probably wondering why my name hasn’t popped up at the Dew Tour or X-Games this season. I had a long winter last year rehabbing a blown ACL and days before I was supposed to be in NZ for my first on snow training it re-tore. Everything I had fixed, my ACL & medial meniscus, blew up. Popped like bubble wrap on the take off during a tramp session. I was 10 months out and following the rehab protocol to a T. Sometimes these surgeries just don’t go our way. Its now been 4 months trying to figure out “the next step”. I hadn’t lost any of my muscle from the re-tear so I was able to keep skiing with a knee brace. I was skiing hoping to be able to feel good enough to compete at Big Air during X-Games, but the meniscal tear and instability caused too much pain when I pushed myself. Backseat landings don’t feel so good without your ligaments holding you together. I kept up at the gym trying to bulk up and create psycho mass in my surrounding muscles. It helped a lot, but it was the twisting on take offs that threw me off big time. At this point it had been 3 months and I was starting to lose my mind. I saw it as training time, and skiing, just being thrown out the window. I started asking around and researching online about other options. The same thing kept popping up. Synthetics grafts.

The synthetic graph sounded extremely appealing . Less invasive surgery and exponentially quicker recovery. I could be back skiing 8 weeks after surgery with minor muscle loss and the confidence in a stable knee. The unfortunate thing about syntheticis is that, because it is so new, there are no long-term follow ups. The best research has approximately 5 year follow ups.

I was put in touch with a few high profile action sport athletes who underwent a surgery called LARS ligament. After many lengthy phone conversations, and me questioning away I came to the conclusion that this is my best option for the time line I have. These guys were blown away by how strong and quickly they came back. I almost feel like a Guinea pig going into this but after hearing personal experiences from these other athletes and how happy they have been with the outcome I have concluded this is by far the best option for the time frame and goals I have.

“LARS is composed of polyethylene terephthalate ? an industrial-strength polyester fibre. It can only be used in a population that has a well vascularised ACL stump, ideally in acute settings. The theory is that the LARS pulls the two ends of the ACL together and allow for fibroblastic ingrowth.  Check out the video below for a sweet animation of the surgery ? drilling tunnels, fixation etc.” exerpt from “http://www.thesportsphysiotherapist.com”

exerpt from “http://www.thesportsphysiotherapist.com”

I’ve said it before, but whoever designed our bodies wasn’t keeping in mind all the dope shit we wanted to do with them! Heres to a rad Winter, i’m gonna miss ya’ll again. Best of luck to everybody at X-Games and throughout the rest of the season. See you in the spring time for the slushy landings!

Best,

TJ SCHILLER