A year ago today my pursuit of my passion could have taken my life or left me significantly disabled. I thank God that I came away unscathed (well with no lasting injuries anyway) and a year later I’m on a different path but still looking forward to the day I can get back on a ramp
My mom called me this morning with kind of a somber tone in her voice. She asked me how I’m doing with everything and if today was hard or something to that affect. Not quite sure what she was getting at I said, “no I’m just fine why?”
I had forgotten that it was a year ago today that I was in an ATV accident that could have easily left me paralyzed or even worse. I chuckled and said “Thanks mom, but no I’m fine.” It seems to come as a surprise to my mom and others but the accident doesn’t phase me a bit. In fact, if I wasn’t 3,000 miles across the country from my quad and my ramp, I would have probably celebrated the day by hauling my ramp out somewhere and setting it up just for spite.
The thought of riding again doesn’t scare me in the least. In fact a week after I got out of the hospital I was at Glen Helen Raceway for a press intro. While my arm was in a sling, I had figured out that if I could place my injured arm on the handlebars with my good arm, I could work the clutch and probably take a spin or two around the track. I opted not to considering I still had a hole in the back of my head, not that the event promoter would have let me anyway, but I was happy that I wasn’t nervous.
While it’s now a year later and I still haven’t been off a ramp, it hasn’t been for lack of effort. While I did take a few months off after my accident to heal, the biggest reason I’ve not gotten back to riding is because I was out of a job. It’s taken a while to land on my feet, pay off medical bill collectors and get “life” back in order. Could I have found somewhere to take my ramp out and hit it? Sure. And if I had misjudged something and ended up getting hurt, even a minor injury, I would have been in worse shape than I was coming out of a ten day stay in ICU.
So I’ve been waiting. Thankfully I landed an incredible job a few months ago which has afforded me the ability to get life on track, but time has become an issue. In the last five months I seem to have been everywhere in the country but home. I’ve talked to a few people about finding a spot to set up and ride my ramp but in the short breaks between trips on the road I haven’t been able to find a spot.
I’m continuing to pray about it and if God chooses to close the door on my ramp riding days, then I can’t complain. I spent a year of my life chasing a dream, riding with some of the best quad freestyle riders in the world and guys I’ve looked up to for as long as I can remember. I’ve got a stack (all be it a small one) of memorabilia, newspaper pictures and magazines from one of the most amazing years of my life.
If those days are behind me then I can handle it, it’s gotta come to an end sometime. However, I don’t think that time has come yet. Riding under the lights a few weeks ago at a motocross track relit a fire in me. Dirt jumps are different than ramps but in my opinion it’s a lot easier to do tricks off of a ramp than a dirt double, especially when there are racers behind you. I can’t begin to describe how alive I felt after hitting a few jumps and feeling comfortable enough to try and throw a few tricks. Like they say, “It’s just like riding a bike.”
So with that, I’ve got 5 weeks left until my crazy work schedule with the AMA nationals is over and I’ll be back in California pretty much full time. I’m hoping I’ll be able to find a spot to get my ramp set up and go out for a day and work the kinks out. I have no plans of doing shows or trying to make a living at FMX anymore. I want to get back to riding ramps for the reason I started; because I enjoyed it. Because I could go out and ride in that circle for two hours at a time without ever stopping or taking a break simply because I enjoyed it whether there was someone watching or not. That feeling is what I miss the most and what I’m looking forward to. Riding under the lights a few weeks ago was just a taste and I can’t wait for more!
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