Roughly two-and-a-half years ago, 6-foot-4-inch CI team rider Andrew Jacobson suffered one of the most brutal surfing-induced knee injuries you could have happen at Cloudbreak. It’s been a long road to recovery for mid-20s surfer based in Los Angeles, California, and now he’s back and better than ever in this edit with good friend and filmer Hunter Martinez.

Below is a repost of his recent interview he did with Stab going over all of this as well as what he’s been riding:

Stab: So it’s been two and a half years since your injury, I know you tore pretty much everything in your knee but remind me, what was the exact diagnosis?

Andrew: Yep. I pretty much became one with the lip on the wipeout. The force of the wave dislocated my knee and pushed my foot backwards. The officially diagnosis was a torn MCL, torn PCL, fractured kneecap and strained ACL and LCL. They stitched together my PCL, but had to use a cadaver to piece together my MCL. Hopefully the person whose knee I received was a beast!

And how long was it before you were cleared to surf?

It was 7 months before I could start getting back into it, but that really mellow surfing. It took over a year to feel comfortable surfing swells in California, and then it was 17 months when I was back in Hawaii which you see in the video.

I see you’re rocking a knee brace at the beginning of the clip, was there any trepidation in that first session back in solid waves?

Yes, Silverbacks is one of the heaviest and trickiest waves I’ve ever surfed, especially backside. I was really worried about tweaking my knee again, but it was too good not to give it a go.

I wanted to ask about that Silverbacks session actually. Tell me about that opening wave where you get clamped, that one had to hurt.

(Laughs) Yeah it did. My impact vest (which was tied to my trunks) got ripped over my face, so it made it hard to swim up. My knee brace got entirely ripped off as well, which was probably the worst part of the moment. I was tripping that I didn’t have it for the rest of my trip, but I guess it was meant to be. That actually gave me the opportunity to start surfing without it and not having to rely on it, although in those first few sessions I felt naked.

So you’re 6’4. I see you’re on a Weirdo Ripper as well as some standard CI’s. For the bigger guys out there, what’s your standard shortboard size as well as your standard groveler?

I was on the Rocket Wide, Flyer and Fever in pretty much the whole edit. My dims for each are:

Rocket Wide: 5’10 x 19 3/4 x 2 9/16

Flyer: 6’0 x 19 1/2 x 2 9/16

Fever: 6’2 x 2 1/2 x 19 5/16 Fever

I’ve found any bigger shortboard in waves head high and under gets a little sticky. It’s hard to fit it where you want for the big guys.

You have some east coast clips in this edit. In terms of waves, if you had to pick between So-Cal or the Northeast, which would you choose and why?

I would have to say So-cal just because it’s more consistent all year round. I do love surfing over on the East Coast and hanging with my friends from back there when it’s on. When it gets good over there it’s real hard to beat.

Any plans on heading back to Fiji?

Definitely, I want to get that monkey off my back. I was going to go this summer but then the world shut down. Whenever I can get back over there, I’m going to go.