September 17, 2007

Parks Bonifay Injured Again

One of the most important wakeboarders in the history of the sport recently suffered a knee injury after a long setback from an injury - on his other knee. There are various versions of the story floating around on the internet and perhaps much of it is being blown out of proportion, but we do know a few details.

What we know
On September 15, Parks was sessioning a pool-rail-gap-rail-lake concoction that connects to the lake next to OWC in Florida. Coming out of the raised pool is a short rail followed by a gap, immediately followed by a second rail extending down the to lake itself. Due in no small part to the angles involved and by proxy - the low pull point from the rope being affixed to a PWC rather than a tower-equipped boat, Parks' rope became caught under the first rail almost immediately upon its acceleration. The rope remained under the last rail in this structure as the PWC accelerated, and Parks was pulled downward and to one side of the rail, thus causing him to miss the gap and partially fall into the second rail. Finishing this incident, he then fell to the ground and twisted his knee in an unnatural direction.

The Good News
He injured the knee that was not involved in the infection that kept him out for almost 18 months. This should speed his recovery time greatly.

The Good News Part 2
My guess is that Parks will be back on the water and riding at a high level within a year. Counting him out for good, which has been some armchair quarterbacks' take on the issue is just foolish.

The Bad News
His Ronix pro model was recently released and it is unlikely that he'll have much opportunity to use it in the next few months while he recovers. It really marked his return to the sport in earnest, and this is a setback for not only him but for the Ronix team as a whole.

We wish Parks Bonifay the best. His ability to heal is almost as impressive as his abilities on a wakeboard. Parks, like other riders that perform at his level are no strangers to injury - particularly knee injuries. But we're particularly disappointed to hear that he has suffered another setback after working so hard to put Ronix on the map and anecdotally we knew that he was truly getting back to his old form.

Please get well Parks. We at The Wakeboard Report are pulling for you and as we've said before in our feature The Top 10 Things that Surprised Us This Year, the sport needs you.

Posted by erik at 02:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Parks Bonifay Injured Again

One of the most important wakeboarders in the history of the sport recently suffered a knee injury after a long setback from an injury - on his other knee. There are various versions of the story floating around on the internet and perhaps much of it is being blown out of proportion, but we do know a few details.

What we know
On September 15, Parks was sessioning a pool-rail-gap-rail-lake concoction that connects to the lake next to OWC in Florida. Coming out of the raised pool is a short rail followed by a gap, immediately followed by a second rail extending down the to lake itself. Due in no small part to the angles involved and by proxy - the low pull point from the rope being affixed to a PWC rather than a tower-equipped boat, Parks' rope became caught under the first rail almost immediately upon its acceleration. The rope remained under the last rail in this structure as the PWC accelerated, and Parks was pulled downward and to one side of the rail, thus causing him to miss the gap and partially fall into the second rail. Finishing this incident, he then fell to the ground and twisted his knee in an unnatural direction.

The Good News
He injured the knee that was not involved in the infection that kept him out for almost 18 months. This should speed his recovery time greatly.

The Good News Part 2
My guess is that Parks will be back on the water and riding at a high level within a year. Counting him out for good, which has been some armchair quarterbacks' take on the issue is just foolish.

The Bad News
His Ronix pro model was recently released and it is unlikely that he'll have much opportunity to use it in the next few months while he recovers. It really marked his return to the sport in earnest, and this is a setback for not only him but for the Ronix team as a whole.

We wish Parks Bonifay the best. His ability to heal is almost as impressive as his abilities on a wakeboard. Parks, like other riders that perform at his level are no strangers to injury - particularly knee injuries. But we're particularly disappointed to hear that he has suffered another setback after working so hard to put Ronix on the map and anecdotally we knew that he was truly getting back to his old form.

Please get well Parks. We at The Wakeboard Report are pulling for you and as we've said before in our feature The Top 10 Things that Surprised Us This Year, the sport needs you.

Posted by erik at 02:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack