Game boy!
By TMX Archives on 15th Sep 03
WITH THE X-Games less than a week away I was hoping to find myself more prepared than ever before. Instead, I'm once again fighting through injury. After a perfect foam pit landing off the 25ft ramp, my knee blew out. WITH THE X-Games less than a week away I was hoping to find myself more prepared than ever before. Instead, I'm once again fighting through injury. After a perfect foam pit landing off the 25ft ramp, my knee blew out. I looked up at my dad and said, "I just blew out my knee." The landing seemed so spot-on that It took a while for anyone to believe me. The ACL and LCL were torn completely and my heart sank for what seemed like the thousandth time in the past two years.With rain drenching the track virtually every day for the past two weeks, I was happy with the rate at which my body was healing - after all, taking some time to heal was the plan. Building a foam pit was the solution that would enable me to stay competitive without taking chances. Until now it seemed that an actual effort would have to be made for anyone to sustain injury from the pit. Somehow I always seem to find a way.As you read this you probably already know what happened in the X-Games and, with hindsight - depending on the results, have either come to the conclusion that it was stupid for me to attempt competing with a blown-out knee or that I was tough for sticking it out and making something of my summer. My dilemma is this, I've been doing the coolest trick that anyone has ever done intentionally into the foam pit for the past two weeks. I land it perfectly about four out of five attempts into the foam and if I brace my knee, don't panic and land this trick (a flat-spin, inverted 360) I can win the X Games without needing to perform many of the basics.If I go and chicken out of the flat-spin 360 I don't have enough motion in my knee to put together a winning run unless I experiment with other difficult tricks like a one-handed flat-spin back-flip. Heck, I still have trouble with a heel-clicker flip sometimes. It's not that any trick added to a flip is that difficult in itself but the slightest change in rotation on an inverted trick is catastrophic. Freestyle has elevated to the next level and quite frankly it's getting a bit scary if you want to stay competitive.Of course, the other option is to stay home, get my third ACL reconstruction and my 11th knee surgery while missing the next five months for rehabilitation. Probably the most intelligent decision, yet the one I am least likely to take. I understand fully how bad my knees are at the moment but missing another competition to fix something that can't get much worse isn't a reasonable option. The people from EVS have worked with me on getting a brace that feels both comfortable and stable. Bottom line is that it's not going to make any difference if I get surgery now, next week or even next month - so if I feel comfortable with the flat-spin 360 I'll be at X.My foam pit has become a neighbourhood favourite, as everyone from what seems like a 100-mile radius has been in the pit every day this summer. Most kids in my neighbourhood have back-flipped everything from motorcycles to shopping carts and a lawn mower (with a shifter cart engine) is next on the list. The greatest part about the foam pit is that everyone feels like Superman. My cousin Greg has nearly perfected a Superman seat-grab Indian-air barrel roll off a superkicker ramp where he flies his BMX bike 60 feet in length and about 35 feet off the ground. Greg also has a trick where he back-flips off the bike and catches the rear fender in a double grab, then pulls himself back on the bike. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, the laws of physics and gravity - which apparently don't apply for Greg - always seem to impair our progress.Well, I'm off to the X-Games. The opening ceremonies are being held at the Playboy Mansion and the best bands in the world will play live music all day, every day. The Games are a place where the athletes' lounge comes equipped with a team of massage therapists pre-paid by ESPN. Video games that won't be out for another year are randomly hooked up to big screens in front of La-Z-Boys and when you face off against someone on the many air hockey or footie tables while indulging in the gourmet food and all the SOBE you can handle, the odds are in your favour that you'll be playing against X-Games medallists like Tony Hawk, Dave Mirra or Ryan Nyquist. I love my life...