10 March 2009

Crashing and Burning

Well, I figure I’ll start out this blog by talking about what has been taking up the most of my time right now…Boarding!

Boarding season is upon us and I have been up ALMOST every weekend since we got snow on Mt. Hood. First trip of the season was on December 13th. Then we missed one weekend because Highway 26 was shut down due to mud slides, and then drove up in vain once because the power was out when we got there. LAME. We drove up and then right back down.

About a month ago I had a BAD crash. The short version is I caught my back edge on some ice and slammed to the ground on my tail bone. The events of the crash are actually fairly fuzzy for me because I was knocked out for a minute. Here is what happened based on what my friends told me:

Creeper, Roommate, The Princess and Kamikaze are behind me and I’m taking video over my right shoulder of them riding behind me. (I have a short 3 second video of the crash, but the camera cuts out when I hit the ground) I caught my back edge (heel side) which basically just kicked my feet out from under me and I kind of folded into a sitting position, and SLAMMED into the ground on my tail bone. According to them, I then hit my head and slid about 100 yards down the mountain on my back. When I came to, Kamikaze was trying to take my camera out of my hand, and I didn't even recognize him at first, I was all disoriented. I was facing the total opposite direction that I was heading. I had to lay there for quite some time before I could even talk. Then I was finally able to flip over and try and get up. All in all, it probably took me almost 20 to 30 minutes to be able to get up and board back down the mountain to head home.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention, {and was KINDLY reminded in the comments by The Princess herself :)} that when I was laying there on the ground and couldn't move The Princess offered to give me mouth to mouth resuscitation if I needed it...but I am pleased to announce, that I didn't. The funniest part of all of this is that The Princesses Husband, Kamikaze inadvertently took some video footage of me trying to get up and you can hear hear ask me if I need mouth to mouth. LOL. I LOVE YOU PRINCESS!!!

I was in SO.MUCH.PAIN. Walking back to the truck was the hardest part; I was in tears the whole way. That night was HELL. The whole way back in the truck, I was nauseous from the pain; I almost had to have Roommate pull over so I could puke. Then when we got home, he had to take my snow clothes off for me and I laid on the couch trying not to cry and pass out from the pain. I almost had him take me to the emergency room. But, then I napped and when I woke up it felt better so...I limped around for a few days while it was still sore.

So, that is my account from my crash. I went back up to the mountain the following weekend, (boarding is like riding quads or horses…if you crash or fall off you hafta get right back on!) and certain things were really painful and/or hard. The act of boarding in and of itself is really the easiest part because I’m not really moving my legs since they’re strapped to my board. Every time I tried to get my left foot in my binding or stop and land on my butt my tail bone SCREAMED at me to stop, so I took it easy for a few weeks.

Tail bone injuries SUCK. They are like a broken rib, there isn’t much you can do for them except take it easy and coddle them until its better. Speaking of broken ribs…that’s the 2nd part of my story.

So, come to find out that when I fell and hurt myself I fractured my rib, but not all of the way. It popped out 2 weeks after my tail bone injury and the pressure from it sitting where it shouldn’t have, broke it all the way. So, my tail bone healed and then I had a broken rib to deal with. My rib is MUCH better now, but for the first 2 weeks I was in MASSIVE pain. Now it only hurts when I sneeze or move in a weird way. It’s still tender to the touch, but I don’t really notice it anymore.

So…after I heal from the two things above, we get a MASSIVE storm in w/ TONS of new pow and I decide it’s about time I start jumping. So, I start hitting little kickers and crash landing into the pow. I’m not good at timing or landing yet, but at least I’m trying. So, I do that for most of the day and finally start landing some. Well, I’m starting to feel cocky so I follow Creeper over a kicker in the middle of the run, catch my front edge on the landing and basically chest/face flop onto the hard pack. I totally had the wind knocked out of me. Creeper was saying “Talk to me.” But I couldn’t talk, let alone breathe so I just held up a finger so he knew I was OK, but I couldn’t get it out. So, I sit there for a few and catch my breath and then I’m ready to go again! We get down to the bottom of Jeff Flood and the snow has melted off my goggles. It looks like there’s a hair stuck to the front of my goggles so I ask Roommate to pull it off. His answer was “Uh, that’s not a hair. You cracked your goggles!” A ha ha, SO FUCKING AWESOME! I face planted and cracked my goggles. I went and got a new pair, but I LOVE that story!

Boarding tonight w/ Creeper & Pinki if all still goes according to plan. Then, again Friday night w/ my work crew and again on Saturday w/ the usual suspects. I’m trying to get as much boarding in as I possibly can while we actually have good snow to ride. Woo hoo!

Ugh, Tuesday.

Smooches,
Shotgun

1 comment:

  1. Wicked tutorial! Felt like I was there.. Wait a minute.. I WAS. You left out the part of me asking if you wanted mouth to mouth.. LOVES!

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