“How are your balls?” said my friend with a straight face. I hadn’t seen him in a year.
I was confused. This was a friend I liked a lot but we’d never really covered this subject matter. Or, maybe this was some new greeting I hadn’t yet heard?
My bewilderment must have been obvious because he went on, “You know, from your crash on the vert ramp?”
I didn't know what he was talking about. Being a BMX pro for many years means you tend to forget things.
People love to ask what my worst injury was. These days I always say concussions. The echoes of those seem to be the only injuries that still have an impact on my life. For a CTE research study that I’m part of I worked out near 30 out-cold knock outs (and who knows how many head bonks that I just kept riding through). It isn’t good, I know, but back in the old days of BMX contests it was like being a gladiator… you rode until either your bike was broken or you were.
In my opinion one of the coolest feelings in the bike world is a nice smooth landing on a vert ramp. The way you come in front-wheel-first and pointed straight-down is like nothing else. A big air can have such a gentle landing you hardly know you’re back on the ramp. Or at least, that’s how it is supposed to work. I lacked the graceful finesse of the real vert ramp masters. All too often I’d hang up on the coping and get pitched forward, bouncing my head off the bottom of the ramp.
One of those knock-outs was what my friend was asking about. It was at a vert event in England, but I don’t remember which one. My memory restarts in the back of ambulance wondering where I was.
My friend explained that I was coming in from an air a bit out of shape. I was tucked behind the seat trying to cheat my way back into the ramp. I hung up back wheel, sat on the tire and got bucked head first into the flat bottom. During the hang up my
dangly bits got sucked in between the tire and the seat stay. When folks ran out on to the ramp to try and help they found me knocked incoherent and “connected” to my bike. They tried to pull the bike away but it wouldn’t budge. At one point someone was trying to flip the bike upside down so they could remove the back wheel with a socket wrench... twisting up the parts of me pinched between the tire and frame.
My friend (or perhaps my hero) said, “I was the one who thought to let the air out of your tire so we could free you.”
Take it from me, concussions are bad for you. Wear your helmet and do your best to not crash on your head. However, if you were going to suffer some minor amnesia, the memory of having your balls crushed in your back wheel is a good one to lose.
MENTIONS: @Tajlucas
Im sure I'm not the only one who’d like to hear the results of the study, hopefully we can get it tacked onto pinkbike...
And hopefully your brain is good!!
My father was a great ski racer, and had fun in his mid 40s in masters races (2nd overall in the Italian championship). During a course check at the finish line. One of his skis got stuck, he fell and hit his head.
After little time he was flown with the helicopter to the hospital. Luckily he had just a bad concussion and amnesia, but the scare was real, especially for me being 11 years old back then!
Oh, and he had a POC helmet. The safest of them all
yeah -- I have 17 triplet boys.... one of them has had 2 concussions -- one baseball related, one goofing around with friends (they literally dropped him on his head). My boys girlfriend plays tennis for her highschool, she's got clobbered with a racket, playing doubles and she's got a mild concussion from that. She was all woozy for have a day.
I see youtube's all the time with people riding stuff on pavement all the time, doing some crazy stunts, lots of crashes -- I would never do that stuff without a helmet. that's just asking for trouble
I've had a good few concussions though only one of them was from a bicycle crash (and I was wearing a helmet). The other ones: getting hit by a car when crossing the street as a kid, jumping too high from a flight of stairs and hitting my head against the wall above it (just running). Worst of all, when I've been laughing for too long I also have not been breathing for that long so at some point I faint and go down. I once hit my head against a heavy flowerpot on the way down. That was a bad one and got me out of the running for a good couple of weeks. I've learned to sit or lie down when I'm laughing for too long though, just to be sure. But yeah, you can get concussions pretty much everywhere and not necessarily in places where you're supposed to wear a helmet. You can't live in a cocoon all your life.
My last concussion (I recall) was the one against the flowerpot, 2011 or so. Strange enough even then you weren't really given the necessary information. It was, yeah you have a concussion, have someone wake you up every two hours, take it easy a few days and then see how it goes. It really took me a couple of articles on Pinkbike and Kali to really understand the severity of it all and mostly, that I as a patient am not in the position to decide whether I'm good or not. That's a big one. Especially for us outdoor sports enthusiasts. When the sun is out, the trails are calling, we do feel good. We'd only feel more miserable if we can't go. So apparently we do need an expert to do that for us. Strange enough no doctor ever did that. Not sure if they even do it now.
But yeah to pick up competitive boxing. To develop a strong body, great reflexes, endurance, to then take a beating until just can't control all that. It doesn't really make sense and I doubt many will do it if they realized this up front. My girlfriend used to be into karate though I don't think the ever went even close to knock-outs, just for style and points. She's been into running and yoga for the past few years but now she's bored and wants to get into mountainbiking. Yay!
My helmet has saved me so many times, and always in ways I didn't expect. Things like a ski that prereleased coming and hitting the back of my head, or (most memorably) being knocked unconscious by ice falling from the chairlift.
Any time I can wear a helmet, I do
Taj had the best one footed cans ever to grace the glossy pages of a magazine.
BMX Pride Of Michigan!
images.app.goo.gl/7KLSVnLSRcGVKFoF8
Any bike manufacturer reading this? No more carbon balls chop offs as damper fenders, please. Use some medium elastic plastic or something.
I didn't see but apparently they look like Li Chi friuts......
I have had multiple concussions via skateboarding and BMX/cycling crashes....all wearing helmets. I have been awakened on the flat of a vert ramp or bottom of a pool many times. Sometimes actually snoring. I actually got my naughty bits in the same area of my frame by snapping a crank arm off. Kinda wish I wasn't awake for that one! I pissed blood for a couple of weeks. Still wearing a helmet at all times. If you get KO'd with a helmet on, imagine what would happen without it!
Glad you’re still good though.
What's with the rabbit people?
Taj: airing out is scary as hell. Vast mjority of MTBers won’t even drop into the halfpipe.
Glad I had it. Still rocked me for a couple weeks.
Absolutely, 100% spot on. Add another 6ft to your ramp suggestion, and protection factor drops.
Riding vert is amazing tho.
Who would ever think that "technology" is awash in marketing lies and garbage. Not in cycling...