Battle Wounds - QUITTING RIDING OR BACKING OFF ARE OUT OF THE QUESTION

I was feeling pretty indestructible after four years of riding with no serious injuries other than a sprained ankle and a broken thumb. Then my luck changed. January 24, 2004, I was riding at Hyland Hills in Minnesota and I decided to hit their 60-foot “superkicker” without hitting any other jumps first. I went backseat in the air and landed on my ass on the knuckle of the jump with my arm under me. At first I thought I had just bruised my arm, so I went home and my dad looked at it and we decided we would get it X-rayed in the morning. After a night of no sleep, we went to the hospital and had my wrist looked at. It turned out it was much worse than a bruise; I had crushed my wrist despite my wrist guards and needed emergency surgery. I was told no snowboarding for three months, and my family had a trip to Whistler, BC planned in three weeks.

I wasn't going to have a cast on my arm, just a splint and the hardware inside my wrist, but the doctor gave me a cast and I managed to make it through a week of mellow riding at Whistler, three weeks post-surgery without getting hurt, but after I got back the cast came off and I was out for almost two more months.

The end of March I got to go riding for one weekend before the season ended, so I was going to make the most of it. The last day I tried a backside 540 on a 20-foot table, but I carried way too much speed into the jump. At 450 degrees I suddenly pitched back in the air, cleared the landing, and dropped 10 feet onto my back. From this I got a mild concussion and bit partway through my tongue and bled everywhere.

So that's the end of my 2003-2004 season. Skip forward to opening day, November 13, 2004 at Killington Mountain (I've moved out to NY for college now): On the third run of the day I tried a tailslide 270 out on the funbox. Again, I had too much speed and when I jumped at the end to spin, my board slid out and I did a corked 270 off. After clearing the landing I dropped about six feet and landed on my face, directly on a chunk of ice. I thought something felt weird in my mouth, so I stuck my tongue forward and felt my tooth hanging there. It took me a second to realize it, but my next thought was, “If my tooth just got knocked out, I'm probably bleeding.” I looked down and there was blood everywhere; it was dripping off my face in a steady stream. I had a bloody nose, split lip, and loose tooth, about the three bloodiest injuries possible, all at the same time. It looked like somebody had been killed in the park. I grabbed a handful of snow, held it to my face, and went to get my friends. We rode down the mountain to ski patrol, stopping every 30 seconds to get fresh snow to put on my face and spit out all the blood in my mouth, then went to the hospital. They put three stitches in my lip and told me to find a dentist as soon as possible to fix my tooth. The dentist pushed my tooth back in and splinted it there as a temporary fix, with more work to be done in the future. Luckily, I didn't break my nose and I was wearing a helmet, so I didn't get a concussion, and somehow I managed to keep all the blood off my clothes. I guess a helmet, wrist guards, and padded shorts still aren't enough protective gear; maybe I need a mouth guard, too, because quitting riding or backing off are out of the question.