Ski buddy I had a complete tear of the achilles after regionals in 08. Back foot. Had surgery the whole 9 yards. I was out of my cast and putting weight on it in 5 weeks. The doctor said he never saw anything like it before. I was skiing the following spring (April). I skied all year at a level 8, nothing super aggressive, just alot of consistant 28 and 32 passes. 34 mph skier My theropy was as follows. I started walking with the best possible stride I could. Heal, toe, heal, toe. Concentrated on equal stride leingth. I rode my road bike 50 miles a week. I didn't go to the gym because with the walking, biking, skiing I didn't want to over do it. This fall I started working out in the gym. It has been amazing. I am now 18 months post surgery and feeling stronger than ever. My calf muscle is starting to show some deffinition and greatly improved streingth. I also used a Wei patch. It is some herbal patch. I think it worked. I had a removable cast so after the surger I applied the patch. Used it for 10 days. I highly recoment it... Here is the link if you are interested. http://www.weilab.com/ Good luck