My oldest daughter is seven. Zoe loves to ride her bike, and hasn’t used training wheels since she was 3 or 4.
“Daddy, look!!!” as she whizzes past standing on her seat and top tube.
Our town has a skate park – Ramps, half and quarter pipes, jumps – it’s used equally by BMX bikes and skateboards with a smattering of scooters and roller blades. Zoe wanted to take her bike there. She did, I supervised (yes, helmet), and she did amazingly well - yielding right of way, getting up after she falls, and stopping only when out of the flow. We’ve been there a dozen times. All of the users have been polite, ages 7-25 and usually there is some parental presence. Because of her age, and the stereotype of skate punk behavior, I’m always there supervising.
I’m not about to leave Zoe there alone, so I stand on the grass and watch…
WELL, that got old quick.
I went on craigslist and bought my very own BMX bike with 20” street tires, 21” cromo frame, gyro, 3 piece cromo cranks and park gearing from a 17 year old kid about 15 miles away. All in the name of physical fitness and father daughter bonding.
I rode to work last week, and my coworkers just laughed. “Nice bike. The kid did you stole it from had to work all summer” and “You paid for that?”
Did I mention I’m 43 years old?
No?
That’s because I seem to have forgotten.
Saturday evening at the park, after about an hour of gifted riding (mine) I looped out while manualing down a ramp, landed in the splits, and ended up with a Sunday morning trip to the emergency room. (yes, helmet). No impact injuries or lacerations, I must have landed on my feet.
Kinetic energy=mass x velocity squared (heavy on the mass) pushed my legs down and out.
Left leg- badly sprained ankle (I’ve broken bones before and thought this was a break);
Left knee – pulled tendons on the interior side;
Right knee – Ligaments may be torn, the ER doc said it’ll take an ultrasound or a ‘scope to figger it out.
I’m on crutches, have an immobilizer on the right leg, and need help putting my pants on. The referral to the orthopedic doc came through this morning. After reviewing the xrays, they don’t want to see me until Thursday.
I’m so freaking happy.
I did this doing something fun and pushing my limits. It beats the heck out of a fall on the ice, trip down the stairs, a car accident or a self-inflicted gunshot.
I plan on a complete recovery and (
edit to add rolleyes smiley)
quarter pipe 180’s before the snow flies.