“Think I can ride down that hill?” “I dunno, you think?” “Let’s see.”
Posted by G-rant - 28/07/10 at 04:07:33 pmThat was the short conversation I had with a good friend of mine early Sunday morning, before my metamorphosis from pretty boy to Frankenboy. I’ll give you a run down of the events.
On Saturday afternoon my old friend from PEI, Doug, came up to visit me with his girlfriend. They are working near Mt. Tremblant for the summer and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to catch up on lost time. The night rolls around and a 26er of Grant’s is half drunk and half packed into flasks for the ride downtown. We hit the usual spots: The Brig, The Dom and finally try to wrap it all up with a some wild dance floor action at Zaphods. By this time, the scotch was long gone, as were numerous pitchers of whoknowswhat. Unfortunately Zaphods was a no go, as Dougie was apparently on the drunk radar from the bouncers – so we headed home.
There, we made a huge meal of spaghetti: excessively spicy, yet the perfect end-of-the-night solution, fulfilling our desires for quantity of food and intensity of flavour, with the added bonus of veggies for nutritional value. After having our fill, it became apparent that the sun would be rising within the hour and that we should find a suitable place from which to view it. I naturally suggested Carlington hill which offers a wonderful, unobstructed view at a relatively short distance: economical! So we pedal over there, I on my BMX, they on some hybrids from around my place. And the sun rise was beautiful! I woke them up just in time, as both Doug and his lady fell asleep once we laid on the grass waiting for the moment. And after appreciating the eternally beautiful spectacle – which, for city-dwellers like myself, is a rare experience – we decided it was time for some sleep.
I’m not sure how drunk I was at this point. I certainly didn’t feel very drunk, and did not so much as close my eyes while lying on the grass. In any case, it came up that we’d have to descend the short, but super steep, rocky and skinny hill-path that had led us up to the plateau. I looked down it, and thought: “hmm… that’s pretty steep, and rocky, and skinny. plus it turns at the bottom. buuuut on the other hand, I think I can do it.” So I roll in.
The rest was recounted to me by Doug. I picked up speed extremely fast and at the very bottom i hit a soft patch of dirt and perhaps a rock at the point where I began to take the corner. my bike flew forwards, and I was whipped face first into the dirt – no hands and hardly a shoulder to pad my fall. I laid there motionless on my face, until Doug ran down the hill to roll over and wake me up. I was out for about 10 seconds and when I came too, I couldn’t remember what happened. Somehow I was able to ride my broken ass back home on my BMX and thinking it wasn’t too bad, I hopped in the shower to wash up before bed. When I came out, my mom was already up and ready to take me to the hospital.
The outcome: 7 fractures in my face – around my sinuses, my eye socket and cheekbone; the inevitable facial lacerations on one side of my face; and a broken ego. Yesterday I went to a specialist for facial reconstruction and I was told that I had no bone displacement, which means no surgery – so I’d consider myself very lucky and will certainly learn from the experience.
I’m not going to get all moral on you readers of capitalbmx, so take what you will out of this story. But just don’t be an idiot. The truth is that this kind of thing – or much, much worse – can happen to anyone and when you’re least expecting it. I’m reasonably certain that if I had not been drinking earlier in the night, that I wouldn’t have rolled in on that hill: drinking does impair judgment and can give you undue confidence. So please everyone, just be safe and stay within your limits: whether that means wearing your helmet, not drinking and riding or just taking calculated risks. Keep it real and don’t kill yourself out there guys!
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Ummm….fuck!
Comment by rolandlite — July 28, 2010 #
Tia brings back terrible memories. Seeing as you pretty much did the same thing I did minus a couple things. Same side of the face too! Heal up. Don’t drink and drive.
Comment by ChrisBryan — July 28, 2010 #
oh WOW! well i wear my helmet all the time, but i dont think it would have helped in this situation. get well soon Andrew
Comment by colin — July 28, 2010 #
get well soon.
i had a flashback for sure.
Comment by Rich Red — July 28, 2010 #
Yikes!
the girls in London are going to love you
and I was going to message you and see if you wanted to go ride soon….probably not gonna happen
Comment by Prashant — July 29, 2010 #
Pussy. Ginger did it better
Comment by Landozine — July 31, 2010 #
…I leave the county for 1 week …and THIS is what happens!???
Take care!
Janet
Comment by Janet — August 2, 2010 #
get better soon!
Comment by Tommy — August 2, 2010 #
shit man heal up
something similar happened to simon this year, ripped half his head off riding down a hill and hit a rock in a ditch
riding while intoxicated gets us all at one point or another
Comment by Liam@UAB — August 7, 2010 #
That sucks bud, Hope its all healing up well for you!
Comment by simonjmead — August 9, 2010 #