How Flip solved Michaela’s snowboard insurance

Michaela Davis-Meehan is a professional snowboarder, Freeride World Tour athlete and Flip ambassador. When she’s not in the snow, she’s in the surf, paragliding or making films. With her active lifestyle, she knows injuries are just a matter of time.

Michaela learned the hard way that getting insurance to cover her when she's snowboarding is a good idea, in case things go wrong. She buys it for peace of mind, so she doesn’t have to worry about how she’ll pay for stuff if she gets hurt doing what she loves. 

Private health insurance, life insurance and snowboarding travel insurance didn’t really suit her, so she went without insurance altogether. When she tore her ACL snowboarding, she was on her own.

Now she has Flip. It took her a while to find insurance that fits her lifestyle like an insulated, waterproof glove, but she’s so grateful she did. This is her story.    

Traditional insurance didn't fit Michaela's needs

I travel a lot. I’m usually away for three months at a time, and I always get travel insurance. There’s no way I’d travel without protection. At home, I used to have private health cover, but I paused it when I went away and forgot to renew it when I got back. It just slips your mind.

My adventure style is very spontaneous. A friend and I decided last-minute to go snowboarding in the backcountry past Thredbo. I tried to switch my private health cover back on, but it had lapsed or something and there was a waiting period. Annoying! So, I just went without. We weren’t planning anything crazy, just a fun day out. It’d be fine.

The reality of injury sinks in

I wasn’t doing anything cool, and it wasn’t even a good crash. It always seems to be the way with big injuries. We were just having fun filming each other, and I landed weirdly, back-legged, and heard the pop. I remembered I hadn’t sorted anything out insurance-wise. Such a sinking feeling. I felt super worried about what this fun day out would end up costing me.

I hiked out and then rode back to the car. It was sore, but hopefully just inflamed. I could still walk. So, I conveniently erased that popping sound from my memory. But after a phone consult with Dr. Mum, I was straight off to the doctor. Full ACL tear. Crap.

The long road back

I did three months of pre-surgery rehab to straighten my leg, which made for a much better recovery. Then I had the surgery, then more rehab. I ended up taking a full year off snowboarding to get myself right. I’ve heard of so many people who go back after six months and tear it again. I couldn’t face that. I put in the hard yards, and now it’s as strong as ever.

Finding Flip

After that incident, I decided I’d never go without insurance again. Here’s why Flip works so well for me:

• I have a lot of hobbies, and some are on the extreme side. Flip covers me when I’m snowboarding out backcountry.
• It’s hard to find insurance that covers you when you’re competing. Enter Flip. I love that they welcome and celebrate pro athletes, as well as weekend warriors!
• Last-minute adventures are the best, so anything with a waiting period doesn’t work for me. You can turn Flip on literally at the top of the mountain if you need to.
• I’m away for months at a time, and I hate paying for cover that I’m not using. Flip’s on-demand cover was a huge attraction for me because I could turn my cover on and off whenever I wanted.

With Flip, I can snowboard, surf, paraglide, hike and try new things with one less thing to worry about, which makes me want to go on even more adventures and give it my all.