Injury Report

Since injuring my knee a couple of weeks ago, I have been the victum of at least 20 evaluations by family, friends and aquaintances. I have heard torn ACL, MCL, LCL, meniscus, knee cartilage, ect. You name it, someone has diagnosed me with it. Turns out most all of them were right. The MRI confirmed a torn ACL, MCL, LCL and meniscus. On the bright side, I guess I spared the PCL.

Crashology

I believe most crashes can be grouped into three types.

Type I (Cosmetic Crashes): These wrecks are usually caused by a lack of skill or confidence. As a result they are usually lacking in speed and intensity. Without those two elements there is usually ample time to prepare for impact, thus the only injuries are usually to your pride. You gain no respect from your peers for these cosmetic crashes. To witnesses you simply appear inept.

These are wrecks of mine and Rocky's. They are both probably Type I wrecks but the fact that concrete has absolutely no give, up's these to somewhere between Type I and Type II.

Type II (Mojo Killers): This is where they start to get fun. In a good 'mojo killer' the recipient has at least a decent level of skill (enough to be dangerous). To witnesses he appears a victim of circumstance. These wrecks are almost always at high speed and never foreseen by the rider. For this reason they are rarely caught on camera. Here are a couple of examples.

Snowboarding Example: You're pretending to be in the Super G, on a steep freshly groomed run, whey you catch your back edge and before you can so much as blink, your head hits the snow at 40 MPH.

Mountain biking Example: With a smooth fast single track in front of you, your greed for speed urges you to make one more pedal than was prudent. That pedal catches on an unseen tree root. This pulls the bike ever so slightly from it's previous direction and when the tires grab the ground again the result is you flying through the air with nothing to protect you but a layer of spandex.

A good "mojo killer" leaves you in-tack physically, but mentally you are like a heavyweight boxer who has been knocked out for the first time. Sure after shaking the cobwebs out and re-gathering yourself you're ready to fight again, but the killer instinct that fueled you has been replaced with the fear of a knockout-punch. Your riding style has instantly grown 30 years more conservative. You're no longer able to cut loose and really enjoy the activity at hand. In a nutshell you have lost your "mojo" and only time will tell when it will return.

Below Rig and I discuss a Soft Type II crash I had a few weeks ago.

Type III (Hope you have health insurance): The third type are the ones that leave you not only mentally shaken but force you to completely admit defeat by rendering you physically unable to finish what you started. From my experience these wrecks are usually the product of riding beyond your abilities, poor judgement and almost always some good old fashioned hot-dogging. Type III wrecks are the only ones I really can afford to keep track of as the others are too numerous. Going into last weekend I had only suffered 3 type III wrecks. Yeap, you guessed it, I scored number 4 on Saturday. It happened where two of my previous three did, in a snowboard park. I just can't resist those big gnarley looking jumps. That story will have to wait for my next post. It is past my bed time.