David Buick won the New Zealand Shears Open final in Te Kuiti on Saturday. Photo / SSNZ
As far as career highlights go, few will compare to David Buick’s latest triumph.
On Saturday, the 45-year-old claimed the New Zealand Shears Open shearing final in Te Kuiti with a winning margin of just 0.504 points.
It wasn’t just simply the result that gave Buick a reason to celebrate.
In October 2021, Buick was crushed in a collapsing ditch during drainage excavation on his farm near Pongaroa in the lower North Island leaving him buried up to his chin in sodden dirt with serious injuries.
Suffering complex pelvic fractures among other injuries, he was flown in a critical condition to Palmerston North by rescue helicopter. Buick spent months recuperating in hospital and in a retirement home in Dannevirke to be closer to his wife Rebecca, and children Michael and Gemma.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Buick reflected on his road to recovery.
“I could hardly walk 12 months [on] from the accident. Probably about eight months [after it] I started getting back up. I had to train my body to get vertical again when I’d been lying dead flat for that long. It was definitely a long process,” he said.
“This time a year ago there was a whanau event in Te Kuiti so I thought that was a good challenge. I said to Michael, my son that it would be something to aim at.
“I thought if I could shear three, that was something to aim for. This time last year we entered the father and son at Te Kuiti and made the final, but I completely took for granted, it was almost harder to get up the steep stairs onto the stage than it was to shear the sheep. "
Buick had emerged as one of the country’s top professional shearers in 2021. He took out the North Island Shearer of the Year final in Te Kuiti in April that year for his 11th win in 2020-2021 which saw him ranked as the No 1-ranked Open shearer for the season.
He said he was impressed by how quickly the muscle memory came back to him as he began to get back into it ahead of that 2023 event.
“I remember at one stage, my brain thought I was as good as I was, but my body, I couldn’t get anything to work. That was when I started getting a bit better, but even now, I couldn’t believe how that muscle memory clicked back in fairly quickly.”
During his recovery, Buick said because he couldn’t shear, he would teach young people the ins and outs of it, which forced him to break down and analyse his method.
He said that ultimately helped him improve his technique and he now believes he could be shearing at his best.
As for Saturday’s triumph, Buick said it was a position he never expected to be in again, and was simply grateful for everything that came his way now.
“I’ve had a few people come up to me saying they’ve been in a dark place and they thought if David Buick can get through then they can get through. Even if you help one person,” Buick said.
“A lot of it’s mental and I suppose my mental health all the way through was so good because I know seconds earlier when I fell down I was bent over. Luckily, I stood up and in it came. If I was still bent over when it came in I’d have been squished. It was only my pelvis and hips and things that were damaged, not some of those pretty important organs.
“So, all the way through, whatever I got to was a bonus. I’m still alive, I’m still here with the kids and the family to be around and annoy everyone. Even in my physical body, whatever I got to was a bonus.”
Buick said he celebrated the win accordingly.
“I thought to myself it’s Daylight Saving so that’s awesome, we can drink and get another hours’ sleep. But no, that just turned into another hour’s drinking, so it’s been a pretty rough ride home.”