The defining injury of my career wasn’t even wakeboard related and a lot of people don’t even know about it…
It all started when Ryan and I were out at Area47 where we’d been flown out for a GoPro event at the park. We were set to ride an hour long demo on the Saturday. Whilst we were there, the Red Bull high divers were also there - yes, those crazy people that do the most insane flips from the 27 meter diving board.
We watched them training and couldn’t believe how high the board was and how skilful they were. Ryan had spoken to me before about having it on his bucket list to jump off the 27m board at Area47. If there’s one thing you should know about Ryan and I, it’s that we can be competitive, it’s what got us this far in wakeboarding.
So we’re standing at the bottom in the midst of a diving practice session talking to the Red Bull high divers and they ask us what board we want to jump off. Ryan looks at them and says, “well the 27m of course!” They all laughed and asked us what we seriously wanted to jump off. Ryan insisted he wanted to do the 27m board.
I can’t use words to describe how high this board is. You’ve got to see it with your own eyes. It’s the same height as a 9 story building.
Ryan looks at me and asks what board I’m jumping. I remember this thought ran through my head, “am I really going to sit at a bar in 15 years time and listen to him say he jumped off a diving board higher than me?! Hell no!” So I looked at him and said, “well the 27m of course!” Truth be told, I was shitting it, big time.
So with that we’re told to jump off the 21m board first to prove that we are confident and capable in the air. Ryan does a gainer (a backflip facing forward) and I do a front flip half twist into a backflip (a double flip that I feel most confident in the air with). It’s easier to flip off a board that high because you can control your rotation rather than trying to stay balanced on a straight jump the whole way down and likely getting wrecked.
So we ticked that board off and the divers are happy. The main diver Catalin Preda (a legend in the sport) takes us up to the top board. He briefs us on the way up and unlocks the gate to the top 27m board. Usually normal people aren’t allowed to jump this but they let us do it under the circumstances. He locks the gate behind us and says something along the lines of “right boys, when I lock this gate there’s no going back”. My god did that strike the fear in me. 
But these truly are the moments growing up that shaped Ryan and I. Doing things with my older brother that scared the hell out of us and pushing through that fear for the elation on the other side.
We’re standing up there and I can hear Ryan staring at the ground, manually breathing. I’m stood in absolute silence, gripping onto the railing and contemplating my life choices. We decide Ryan will jump first as it was his idea and he wanted to do it.
It did cross my mind in that moment that if Ryan jumped and fucked himself, would I walk down or still jump... We peered over the edge and the only thing higher than us was the mountains surrounding Area47. It was disgracefully high. Even stood there with Ryan, I have truly never felt so alone. I can only describe it as similar to when we had previously bungee jumped, however this time there was no simply hoping that the bungee held us. This time we had to focus, harder than ever before, in the midst of total mental fear override, to execute a perfect flip or else frankly, you are leaving there in an ambulance.
We hugged and wished each other luck. This was the genuinely the most fear either of us had ever felt. Ryan stepped forward to the board, took a breath and leant forward and jumped. He executed a perfect gainer. Entering the water as he should and coming up to cheers from everyone. I was happy to see him succeed and terrified that it was now my turn.
I stepped forward to the edge of the board, legs shaking, heart racing, thinking what the fuck have I done. I looked out, glanced down and could see everyone below looking as small as ants. There was no way out of this one. I said a quick prayer and then can remember as clear as day the moment I pushed off that board. I leant forward, initiated the first front flip half twist and watch as I flew down past the 21m board, that we had previously jumped off. I remembering thinking, fuck me, I’m still 21m high! I tucked in for the backflip and just prayed I landed on my feet. I squeezed tight and landed perfectly.
However… my right leg must have been ever so slightly apart from my left. You hit the water at 53mph with a force of up to 10g’s. I squeezed every muscle tight as possible on impact but the force of the water ripped my right leg up as far it could possibly go, then my lower leg went even further. I was sure my knee had folded in half and exploded in that moment. I remember thinking in that split second, “okay, I’ve got about a second until this is going to be the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt”.
Watch the jump here:
I gave my leg a wobble under the water and it was still attached but I knew something wasn’t right. I came up, smiling through the pain and cheered with everyone. As I swam in I thought, my leg is fucked but I’ve got to put a brave face on because I’m the idiot that just threw himself off that board. I hobbled out, trying my best to look normal and go grab my wakeboard stuff.
I go on to do a wakeboard demo on the cable for a full hour for GoPro, sending tantrum transfers, air tricks and anything my leg could bare. Each time I’d take my foot out my binding I could feel my lower leg separating from my upper leg in excruciating pain.
Long story short I get home and get an MRI and it turns out I had a full thickness tear of my PCL and a grade 2 tear on my MCL… A small price to pay to say I jumped as high as my brother right! No, all joking aside this was a career ending injury for some people. I was gutted. I still hadn’t achieved my life long dream of becoming world champion and if I couldn’t do it with two healthy legs, how the fuck am I going to do it with one normal one and one messed up one.
Looking back there’s something I’ve noticed about all the injuries in my life. I’ve always downplayed them in my head. Whether it was breaking my back, breaking my fibula or doing this to my knee, the only goal was always getting back as soon as possible and as strong as possible. It would always light a fire in my belly to get to work and see how quickly I could come back healthy.
I met with my physio Neil Minter (a real legend of the practice) and he told me it could usually take around 9-12 months for an injury like this to heal and that doesn’t included getting back to world class level wakeboarding. Neil knows me well and I looked at him and said “The world championships is 10 months away, I’ll do whatever it takes to be back for that and I want to win it!” We devised a plan to check in weekly and lock into the gym. I went the non surgery route, focusing on strengthening my quads to stabilise the muscles around the knee. I got to work on daily gym sessions, avoiding alcohol and doing anything I could to speed up my recovery.
I disappeared into the shadows whilst still posting old videos online, so no one knew I was on the side lines. I remember seeing these quotes on the walls of Neil’s physio room saying things like “life is 10% of what happens and 90% how you react to it”. Every time after the sessions they stuck with me.
In April, 7 months later I came back to riding with a knee brace. The brace gave me confidence but I hated the feeling of it. I spoke to Timo Kapl, a good friend of mine who had recently destroyed his knee and he told me you could get back to riding without the brace if you worked hard in the gym. I remember my knee feeling naked and unstable without the brace but it was about learning to trust it again.
By the end of April I was riding without a brace and by May I was cautiously pushing my riding back to where I had been before. By June I was back to a solid level and then on the 17th July 2022 just under 10 months since this all happened, I rode in 2 of the world championships finals at my home park.
Coming back hungrier than ever for the sport I loved, I rode the best I could. The level in finals was unbelievable. I got to the last trick of my run and as I cut into the kicker I thought, “here we go, this is the moment I go down and it’s all ripped away from me once again..” (I know, not very positive from myself, but that was the thought in my head). I popped from the kicker and landed a huge backside 1080 as clean as I could. I couldn’t believe I had done it. I remember looking up to the sky and feeling like I was dreaming.
I came off the water and the results were called. Liam Peacock is 2 x World Champion. What the fuck… I couldn’t believe it. How can I have done this all in under a year of the biggest injury of my life. I remember the feeling of emotion. Flashbacks to all the setbacks along the way, all the loses, everything was leading me to this very moment. I hugged my parents, all of us in tears of joy. Just 10 months separated me from the lowest low to the highest high.
You can watch one of my worlds runs here:
That lesson really taught me one thing… Don’t let your ego take you to the highest diving board, but if it does, you best be sure to get ready to fight your way back to where you want to be.
