Another status report - 1 week in

It's Sunday, a week after I broke my right collarbone and fractured my left wrist. I feel 100 times better than I did last week. But I'm having a hard time sleeping (I sleep in fits and starts, on my side, on the couch)

I despise the figure 8 brace. It's very uncomfortable, cuts into my sides  and falls off at night. I'm starting to take it off often. As far as the sling goes, it cuts into my neck and doesn't support my arm.

My right shoulder and chest are yellow, with funny bruises.

Status Report

Now it's Friday, five days after I broke my shoulder. I have a lot less pain and I'm a lot more capable than I was earlier in the week. But I just looked in the mirror and my right shoulder looks a lot shorter than my left shoulder.

Also, I'm struggling with the shoulder brace. It falls off a lot when I'm sleeping. And there's no way for me to put it by myself.

My right knee is also very very sore. It doesn't look bad except for the road rash but it feels like a bad bruise.

Jim Falls

Sunday in I rode with CNYDirt. I think it was the first Dirt ride of the year.

This year I planned to ride once per month with dirt. When I ride with the SRC guys we go slowly, and I'm not getting better. The CNYDirt rides are typically very fast and I'll get a lot better riding with them. The problem with riding with them is that they ride long on Sunday. I just don't have that much time. So once a month is a good compromise.

There were about nine guys on Sunday's ride. The ride leader was Frizz, there was a tall guy named Jeff, and a guy with a funny accent named Brian. We rode from Corcoran high school on the trails that Deb and I used to ride when we lived near there.

We took a long food break at OCC, and then rode down through the woods at breakneck speed. It was very fun to just race through the woods as fast as possible. We came into clearing, and I was the fourth bike. We went up and over of huge mound of dirt, I noticed the first two guys got a lot of air when they went over the lip. The guy in front of me slowed way down when he got to it, so I did too. But I was still going too fast (obvious in retrospect). I flipped over the downside, landing on my shoulder in a pile driver position.

I knew right away that my shoulder was hurt pretty badly. We were close to the road, and I had help getting my bike helmet and Camelback out to the road. Eric was at our house for a play date so Deb couldn't come get me. Jeff lived close to their so everyone else took off for the rest of the ride, he went and got his truck and drove me back to Corcoran high school. I had Big Blue, so I could drive home since it has automatic transmission. It was a slow and very painful ride.

By the time I got home to get rid of Eric and was ready to take me and the kids to urgent care in Fayetteville. I fell about 130 and we got to urgent care at about 230. I went into the exam room at 330 and got a pill at 430. The x-rays showed I had a broken collarbone. The two pieces are far apart with very ragged ends, and several large bone shards and between them.

On Monday and I went to see the orthopedic doctor with Debra. He says the collarbone will heal on its own, that there is very little he can do to help it heal. He also said that one of the bones in my left wrist is fractured. He gave me a splint for my wrist and a figure 8 brace for my shoulder. I go back in a week to see how I'm healing.

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I've been struggling to figure out how I should've written the jump differently. One thing I learned at the Shaums camp was to scout jumps before you go off them. I didn't do that in this case. But I didn't think it was a jump. And riding with CNYDirt there will be lots of times where I don't know the trails and have to rely on the people in front of me. I just haven't been able to picture how I should've written a differently, since it was so steep and so high.

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Tonight to Deb and the kids and I went to look at the jump and it's not high or steep. It's not very impressive at all. I could easily rollover that thing all day long. I think I just hit it too fast and somehow got thrown over the handlebars. I think there are two things to work on after this: first, basic bike position to keep my balance. And second being comfortable in the air.

Movie Review - The Collective

The best mountain biking movie ever. It has great riding, great shots, great stories and great music. I've watched this 100 times. I might just put it on right now.

Movie Review - New World Disorder

This was an ok movie. There were a few highlights:

The guy jumping off the roof of his house. They show this a couple of times
at maybe two different places in the movie and sometimes he makes it and
sometimes he doesn't.

All the crashes at the end. They remind you that it's not easy. Often these
movies just show the time they aced it and you forget that the really good
riders crash a lot. Maybe that's why they're wearing body armor.

There's some technical riding on the North Shore that's great. But it's not
very long.

Movie Review - Drift A New Race - 2005

I watched this in December, 2006

This is a bunch of Australian downhill action. I went through it pretty quickly. I think it was OK but not special.

Movie Review - Synopsis

I watched this in January 2007.


This is a movie about downhillers. It shows a lot of downhill racing,
4-cross racing and the same people dirt jumping. It's pretty fun and I
watched it twice.

But it doesn't have any free riding. No North Shore. No trials style riding.

Movie Review - Ride BMX Momentum

I watched this movie in Feb 2007.


This wasn't very interesting. There are only few tricks and the are
repeated over and over. It's also pretty short.

Movie Review NSX VIII Cease and Desist

I watched this movie in March 2007. Here's what I wrote then:

I like this movie, it's a lot of north shore riding and enough crashes to make it believable. I'd buy it.

Movie Review - Diggin it

I watched this movie in the Spring of 2007. Here's what I wrote then:

I really liked this movie. It was mostly north-shore type riding. A little trials activity and a some crazy stunt bridges. Lots of crashes.

Movie Review Disorder II: Fat Tire Fury: White Knuckle Extreme, 2001

I watched this movie in October 2007. Here's what I wrote:

This wasn't very good. It was hard to hold my interest, the one thing it did have was a scene where I guy rides his unicycle on the railing of a bridge. I've seen that before and it's amazing.

Movie Review: Chain Reaction 5: Worldwide, 2004

I watched this movie in October 2007. Here's what I thought:

I like this movie, there was quite a bit of urban trick riding and lots of falls. Not great, but enjoyable. It has some where it looks like the guy is going to ride down the stairs but he bunny hops the railing. And lots of tricks where he jumps up on a wall and hops back down. For quite a few, they show the out-takes.