Craig,

I understand what you are saying completely. I injured myself snowboarding 1.5 years ago. I too am an avid hockey player. I have not yet fully recovered from my concussion. I am a passionate hockey player and haven't played for the past year and a half. I won't play at all this winter again. I have decided I won't play again until 100% fully healed and maybe even then I won't.

I'm not as young as you (39) but love hockey. Read this carefully "you should not play again until you are 100% better". Have you noticed what's going on in the NHL right now - go look at the injury list of different teams - PCS is dominating. You are nuts to go and play contact hockey let alone non-contact until you are 100% recovered.

I am also a surfer and snowboarder. I have snowboarded a little but just with my kids at relatively slow speeds. I've surfed a bit in conditions where I'm in complete control. I don't want to be a hypocrite as there is some risk with those things but I feel it is not high - unlike hockey.

You must make that decision re: hockey. It is not worth it. When you do recover you need to play non-contact only.

Try to find other things - I work out at the gym, weights, run and am pretty fit. It sucks compared to hockey but it's something. For the first year I was nauseated every single day all day so I understand. As I write this I'm having a bad day and am light headed and nauseated. I am keeping hope one day it will go away - it's not as bad as it was and you need to look at things on a longer horizon - easy to say but hard to do.

I'm not recovered yet and just deal with feeling like crap often during workouts. You have to maintain your self-esteem.

If you want to chat more send me a private message. I completely understand how you feel.