Battle Wounds - 'ROUND THE CORNER

I competed in the Catskill USASA Series last season for boardercross. I raced my first boardercross race at Windham while still recovering from pneumonia. I made it into the finals and was pretty stoked. I had the whole shot goin’ into the 180 berms with nothin’ but open space in front of me when everything went chaotic.

I saw that the kid in second had his nose next to my tail, so I decided to give him the inside lane (even though he should have backed off). He was so worried about trying to race me into the second turn that he went wide on his line and hooked my legs with his board as he slid into the turn. The race took place a day after we were blessed with over a foot of fresh powder, which hurt and helped the situation. As I went down, the powder went up and created a blinding cloud. When I figured out which way I had to go, the kid in fourth place slammed into my back with his board and sent me flyin’ off the end of the peak of the berm. I ended up flipping backward in the air and tucking my head just in the nick of time as I realized I was about to impact. When the snow cleared, I was about 20 feet off course. I dug my way out and finished the race, but then the pain settled in. I ended up with broken ribs, a displaced hip, my four lower vertebrae screwed into a bulge and a perfect board mark across my back.

I unfortunately didn’t get pictures because I refused to look at the injury after it happened. I was pretty pissed. Everyone said it looked pretty ugly the following weekend at Hunter when I raced anyway. I taped my back up from my hips to my chest with medical tape before my first heat. And I qualified for nationals. Anyway, I’m stoked for this season and will be competing at Loon this year. Peace.