There are some serious hidden dangers in the sport of surfing. Imagine this -- you go surfing and have back pain and several hours later, you can't walk. You're paralyzed from the waist down. It's something that happened to a former Broken Arrow high school football player, who went surfing in Hawaii last year.

Nineteen-year-old Peter Jessee says his back hurt after surfing. At first, he thought it was a sprain. But, it was much more than that. Today, he can't walk.

"It was a really sharp pain," he says. "I never felt it before. It just kept throbbing and throbbing."

Today, Peter spends several hours a day in therapy trying to recover from his spinal injury, which left him with no feeling from the waist down.

It's an injury called surfer's myelopathy.

"They think it's just the way you lay on the surfboard and arch your back. And, standing on the surfboard. It cuts off the blood flow."

The family estimates it has happened to ten surfers in the past several years. Another surfer who was also injured last May is now walking again.

"Every doctor we talk to tells us they don't know what the prognosis will be," says Peter's dad, Bud Jessee. "Every case is different. Every spinal cord injury is different, so it's in God's hands."

Peter is back in the water now with a different purpose -- trying to regain the use of his legs and walk again. It is hoped the motion will help with the recovery.

"We're working on his gait in the water because he's more buoyant," says Physical Therapist Janet Day.

While Peter tries to walk again, his parents are warning others about the dangers of surfing.

"If your back is bothering you, you need to quit. In addition to that, if you've ever had back problems, you need not even bother about doing surfing."

Local churches and teammates have rallied to help the Jessee family, who says they will keep working hardon recovery, believing Peter will walk again. It's happened to other surfer's myelopathy victims and they believe it can happen here.

At the high school stadium, the Broken Arrow football team will collect donations for the family at their Friday night scrimmage. In addition, a trust fund has been established at the Arvest Bank to help the family. If you want to help, make checks payable to the Peter Jessee Trust, Arvest Bank, 6550 East 71st Street, Tulsa, OK, 74133.

On The Net:
Wikipedia: Surfer's Myelopathy
SpineJournal.com: Surfer's Myelopathy
ABC News: First Time Surfers Cautioned About Rare Spinal Injury