so me and some of the death run riders crew: chris, eric, brent, alex, and cristin, we all head up to stratton for a nite of, i forget, and a day of heavy shreddin :)
so we're takin it off this sweet jump at the bottom. creek has nice jumps but these are slightly bigger, maybe a couple feet longer, more pitch. so we're workin on the bottom one for a while, it's sweet.
brent says "lets take it to the top jumps" so he eyes up this one, points at it and takes off...nice nice air, makes it to the other side no problem.
chris steps up to the plate, gets up there nicely just makes it, sketchy landing but pulled out of it.
JUST making it is kind of ideal, you're just getting over the knuckle and hitting the slope, but not getting so much air that it looks or feels scary. though clearing the knuckle by like a board length is nice too, sometimes feels better.
regardless, i figured i need a tad more speed then them so i amp it up a little smidge and i get up to speed. i've been doing this silly little thing where i'll stick my arms out and let the wind hit me to gage my speed just to see how things feel, i felt like i was going too slow so i tuck down as i'm heading up the ramp....ramp is much steeper than i thought and the jump looks much larger than it looked from the start, i still feel slow, wait now i feel too fast....
so i'm in the air....the takeoff felt right but for some reason i'm tilted. i hear people sayin stuff like "oh..." or "oh shi*t". i let out one myself "OH shi*t!!". my arms are rollin down the windows, my butt is dropping and my board is going up, about to the level of my head almost and i'm still getting more air! 'dont panic' i tell myself, 'you've been here before, this time you're just alot more f*cked than usual'. i start coming down, the image of the sled, then the stretcher, then the ambulance, what am i gonna break? am i gonna land on my back and get knocked out and poop my pants? that would be embarassing, and most likely awfully painful, either way my day is over, dont panic there's still time, here comes the ground, yer f*cked but visualize a stomped landing anyway, how would i be positioned if i were gonna stomp this? think it, feel it, do it!
next thing i know i do something with my front(left) arm and shoulder....my body turns a little and the board comes down, down, down. nice at least the board will hit first and absorb the blow a little...BOOM...ouch my knees, ouch my back, my neck, my head, my shoulders, my arms....ugh.....wait i'm still up, i'm still up? what? i rode away from that? that shi*t hurt,
i somehow got the board down but landed a little stiff, the shock went thru my entire spine and up to my head, but i rode it out like 20ft then fell over. apparently i landed near the bottom of the lander ramp too.
scary stuff. as a joke i have named this maneuver the frontside Whip, like they do with dirtbikes getting all sideways, or a corked straight air haha.
picture yourself doing a frontside pipe air, but off a straight jump.
anyway, honestly i hope i never do that again, someone had my back that day and let me walk away, i'm fortunate:).
other than that, the day was amazing. amazing conditions, good friends, good attitude, one of the best days this season:).
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