MIA: HUNTER HEWITT
Author: Kaelyn Sheedy	Features | Tuesday, 14 July 2009 12:18

Photography: Chris Schoumbacher/Simon Cudby/Brent Stallo

Rookie seasons are supposed to be tough, but Hunter Hewitt’s experience has been more than just tough, it’s been almost unbearable. He has experienced the most difficult rookie season of any of his graduating class by far, but is keeping the faith and has turned a negative situation into what he believes will be a great comeback story. If this were football he’d be red shirted and allowed to gain another year of eligibility. After a solid start to the East Coast Lites Supercross season Hunter was looking forward to making his name known in Atlanta. You know the story from that point on. A broken femur while training kept the young Canidae Motosport rider on the sidelines for the remainder of the season. What you don’t know is that due to a botched first surgery, Hunter will not be returning to the outdoor arena as well. We caught up with Hewitt earlier this week to get the entire scoop on his second surgery and his plans for making a comeback.

So Hunter, you’ve been out for the entire ‘09 MX season thus far, we thought by now we would have seen you back. You’re in an unfortunate situation where you’re first surgery was done wrong and you’re now recovering from a second corrective surgery on your femur. Fill us in on what has been going on?

Everyone knows I broke my femur while testing for Atlanta, which was back in February. The story was that I ended up going to this hospital close to the track that everything happened at and I had my surgery done there. It wasn’t the greatest place but the surgeon put me back together and I thought everything was healing well. I had been recovering for 16 weeks, you know, I expected everything to be good.

Right, four months, that’s usually a good time frame to heal up in but as we know that’s not the case. How are you doing after this second surgery?

Yeah exactly, I came back to California to get ready for Colorado and I was testing my bike and that’s when things were starting to bother me. My leg was still hurting but I thought it could just be the muscle building back up and that maybe it was normal to have pain still. I never thought it was still broken or anything. I felt like I had really good speed coming back at that point because my speed was right there with Cunningham. On the bike I felt good overall. Well, that same day I got done testing with the team and was talking with Bill Keefe, our team manager, and he said that I needed to go get checked up for my 16^th week. This time I went to my Chiropractor Steve Nivaro and he took x-rays and I found out my bone was not even close to being healed.

That must have a huge surprise, you had been "healing up" for four months and you had made no progress. That had to have hit you a little hard mentally and emotionally?

Yeah, I should have been 100% at 16 weeks and finding out that my leg was still broken was such a huge disappointment. It’s my rookie season and more than anything I want to be out there racing. I want to prove to everyone that I can run the top 10 speed. I want to work to become a stronger and smarter rider too. After I found out my leg was broken I flew up to San Jose to see Dr. Ting and he said the first doctor put too small of a rod in my leg and that’s what caused it not to heal. The crazy thing is, when I was getting my first surgery done the Dr. made me wait because he said he had to order a special rod which was a size 11. Come to find out it was way to small because the new one that Ting put in my femur was a size 14. Bottom line, it was a huge difference and went to that show the first doctor had no idea what he was doing.

There was some doubt all along from the beginning of the first surgery that there was potential for error, at least that’s how it kind of sounds?

Yes, but we thought he would have had it right. Regardless of what happened, I’m glad Ting was able to redo my whole leg and now I know that I’m going to be healing up the right way. I actually go back tomorrow to get a three week check up on my leg and it already feels ten times better then what it ever felt before. And get this, when I went to see Ting he said my leg was only 30% healed after those full 16 weeks.

With the correct rod in now do you expect to heal faster or is it going to take more time to correct what has already healed improperly?

Well, I would say it’d be faster just because my body has already gone through this whole process…It already knows what to expect and how to recover. Plus I went to a specialist. Ting and the crew, they know how to make things right and they’ve seen so many athletes and they know motocross especially. It’s a really crappy deal how things went for me this year, but looking at the bright side my leg is going to be 100%. I have four months to get ready for Supercross as opposed to where I was…I would have been coming into Outdoors with only a couple weeks of seat time. I’m trying to stay positive and I’m working my butt off, it’s going to be a comeback story.

You haven’t been able to do anything as of right now, no training, nothing yet, correct?

Right. The femur was completely re-done. I had to go through everything again a second time and, you know, Ting said stay off of it for 4 weeks and they gave me a bone stimulator and pretty much I’ve been a lazy bum the past couple weeks. Not going to lie it’s kind of depressing. All I’ve been dealing with this whole season is my leg and it just sucks, I want to be out there with all the guys. It’s so frustrating because this sport is what I love.

Another change for you is that you are back working with Seiji. You were working with Randy Lawerence. Why the change?

Everything with Randy was completely cool. The thing with Seiji is he has known me longer and I feel a little more comfortable working with him. He knows more about physical therapy than Randy, but don’t get me wrong, Randy is a really great trainer too, he’s one of the best. I just felt Seiji has been through an injury with me already and he worked with me through my amateur career. Working with him is going good, I just got an apartment down in Austin, TX and I’ve practically been living with him and training for some time now. It’s definitely helping me a ton and knowing that my leg was only 30% during all the time I was training; it kind of shows me where I could potentially be with my leg at 100%.

Once you’re healed up and you’re back on the bike and things start looking good for you, what’s the plan then? Back to California to train with the team? Is your spot on Canidae still there for you? You know you haven’t even had a full season with the team to begin with so is that still an open door for you?

I mean I hope it is. I feel like I deserve another chance. I was working so hard but that’s all up to Bill and Kawisaki and hopefully they’ll give me another chance. If they don’t I’m still going to go into the 2010 season. If I am on the team I’ll probably be out in California testing and riding with all the guys. I’ve ridden Supercross and what experience I had had with Supercross training makes me feel so much more prepared. I know what to expect and how things work. I’m not too sure as to where I’ll be staying but I know for a fact I’ll start things off in Texas and get some time under my belt before I take things to the next level. I’ll know a lot more tomorrow after I get my check up and after that hopefully I'll start riding. Like I said, just get comfortable with everything and hopefully head out to California and get on some SX tracks and start training for Anaheim 1 or whenever the first East Coast round is.

Ting and his crew do great work and there has to be so many people supporting you and helping you out through both of these two surgeries. Who would you like to thank for sticking by you?

I would definitely like to thank my team manager Bill Keefe, he’s been right there for both of these surgeries and he always keeps me positive and he’s a real positive guy who always has good advice. My whole family and Makenna for sticking by me and helping me through everything. All the sponsors on the team, Ting and the doctors who fixed me up in San Jose and my trainer Seiji for helping me recover. I’m looking forward to coming back and working with him again.