Pain in the Head

Most of you know that about a week and a half ago I took a very short tutorial on flying. It wasn't nearly as graceful as say superman did it, it was more like dropping a water balloon off a second floor balcony and watching it bust. It hurt, a lot.

We were decending Fire Hill and at the very bottom as you take that last right hand turn a fellow riders front tire blew out. That rider then accidentally hit the rear wheel of the rider in front of him. Due to gravity, those two riders fell to the ground and began sliding across the road. I was right behind the guy whose tire blew out and other cyclist were passing me on the right. So, going to the right wasn't an option. I didn't want to go straight into the "sliding" cyclist because I didn't want to hurt our bikes or run over anyone and getting bikes tangled up is never good. So, I decided to go to the left, to the left was a curb. The curb wasn't straight up and was more like at a 45 degree angle. For a split second I actually thought I would just hop this little curb and come to a stop. That didn't happen. At approximately 25 miles an hour that short little 45 degree curb launched me into the air. I remember seeing the sky and how blue it was and then I remember seeing the ground.

I hit, forehead first. I don't really remember flipping or rolling or bouncing or whatever else I did. I do know that from my first impact to where I got up was about 20 feet and from my first impact to the curb is a good 5 feet or so. So in all I traveled about 25 feet from the curb. Like I said, I'm not sure exactly how I got there. When I opened my eyes, at first all I saw was big black spots and flashes of lights. As I lie there motionless on the ground all I can think of is something is definately going to be wrong. Something has to be broken. I slowly started moving my fingers, then my toes, then my arms, my legs, then my head. Everything was moving. I felt around my collar bone to see if that felt intact. I had a pounding headache but the thought that I just smashed my head against the ground didn't really occur to me. I was more concerned with the blood running down my leg and arm. After cleaning those places up it turns out they were just small scrapes and should of been the least of my worries.

To be honest I was more concerned with just getting back on my back and hoping that my Carbon 50mm front wheel wasn't shattered to pieces. I picked up my helmet, it had flew off at some point in the wreck, and tried to put it back on. I wouldn't fit. I didn't really look it over I just loosened it up and strapped it back on. Just as I started to get back on my bike, it was pointed out to me that I had some sort of head injury and I should get it checked out. I checked it out in the trucks side mirror and sure enough, I had some some cuts and scrapes on my head. I gave my helmet a quick glance and noticed that it was a little jacked up but I really didn't give it a thorough inspection. The next morning I looked it over and realized how lucky I was. Here's a few pics of what it looks like now.

Everywhere you see a red arrow, helmet is busted, cracked or missing a piece.

Just a closer shot of the front left side. Totally busted out. It's like that on both sides.

Another shot of front. I hit forehead first.

A friend of mine, Tyler Black, he works at Bicycle Alley and is a great guy. Was the first one to the crash scene and was the first to check on me. I never got the opportunity to thank him for helping me out, so Tyler, "Thank you very much."