Crashing into the Quarterpipe
March 23, 2007
The pressure was building and everyone was waiting for me to drop. The wind was blowing just slightly uphill and my friends had left the crowd of over 100 anxious snowboard hounds to deliver me a helmet. Thanks for that. The pressure built more and more as I contemplated dropping in or not. I was about 4 foot 11 and borrowed a 156 Burton Snowboard with baseless bindings because “I could go bigger” on it. I strapped the helmet, strapped in, looked down at the crowd and dropped in.
The day began as an abnormal contest trip up to Peak n Peek for a halfpipe/ big air jam. The nerves were already pumping because competing in Western New York doesn’t happen to often. We were ready for anything, or so we thought we were. I was fifteen years old and a little less than a fearless shred monster. When we arrived at the resort we quickly shredded our way to the contest location. Their was a pristine halfpipe, a 15-20 foot quarterpipe at the bottom of the halfpipe and a big air jump to the left of the halfpipe. My friend and I were hittin the big air jump and overshot the landing. We landed toward the beginning of the quarterpipe which was about 40-50 feet from the takeoff.
Someone presented the idea that we should try and JUMP OVER THE QUARTERPIPE. They reassured us that we were both clearing it in length and offered a free snowboard as the prize for an attempt. Man, at fifteen a free snowboard was a dream come true so I decided that I would step to the gap. I hiked up to the top of the hill and with each step evaluated my decision to commit to this jump. I was scared shitless to be honest. As I reached the top the pressure had peaked and everyone was waiting for me to drop. The wind was blowing just slightly uphill and my friends had left the crowd of over 100 anxious snowboard hounds to deliver me a helmet. Thanks for that. I was about 4 foot 11 and borrowed a 156 Burton Snowboard with baseless bindings because “I could go bigger” on it. I strapped the helmet, strapped in, looked down at the crowd and dropped in.
As I bombed my way down the hill, the speed, the crowd and the gap all flashed repeatedly through my head. I couldn’t commit, not in my head or on my board, yet I was still bombing toward this gap. As I neared the takeoff, one thing ran through my head, STOP. All that came out of that response was a slight speed check that drained a majority of my speed. Take off, I flew into the air and it didn’t take long for me to realize that I hadn’t had enough speed to launch over the ice-caked quarterpipe wall. Everything went silent, and SLAM!!
I crashed into the quarterpipe wall with a 30 mile per hour force and shattered my calcaneus (heel bone) like a piece of heated glass. I felt nothing on impact. I remember rushing to gain the wind that had been ripped from my shock ridden body. As soon as I could breathe I asked my friends to unstrap me and help me up. I was OK. Thats what I thought. I felt no pain, and took my first step to my next reality. With my first step took my first collapse from pain. I fell hard to the snow and knew that it wasn’t looking good for the rest of my season.
I posted up at the bottom untill ski patrol came and my escort to the 45 minute hospital came. I arrived at the hospital to a crying mother, and worried dad. They didn’t want to see anything happen to me, and boy I didn’t either. The hospital trip was a nightmare, I remember the nurses trying to give me a shot in my ass cheek and I fought them nearly to the death on that. I did not want that shot, and it took like 6 nurses to flip me enough to jab me.
The end result, 1 week in the hospital. 4 pins and 40 staples in my ankle, a compressed l4 disc in my spine and some serious morphine. If I could go back to that day, I would definitely rethink committing to that jump and tried to keep my body in one piece. I do still snowboard and do still love it, despite my failed attempt. That damn quarterpipe.
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