Flaunt It Fail.

Friday, March 30th: Billabong Flaunt It Finals practice day at Sierra at Tahoe. Conditions- Really really sticky. The speed from the first jump to the second is tuck and point. I barely land on the knuckle every time. They inform us that they're going to cut a couple feet off the jump for the contest so it's easier to clear. Rail set up is awesome though. Stoked for that more than slope.

Saturday, March 31th: Showed up at Sierra, only to find that the whole mountain was on wind-hold. There were talks of catting the competitors over to the course, but eventually the decision to postpone the contest was made. I ended up going to Reno with the Mattingley's for lunch, and then getting stuck in a snowstorm on the way back to South Lake. It dumped 18" overnight.

Sunday, April 1st: Dreamed about my runs all night. Felt so good on the way to Sierra. First run during practice, I slipped the first jump and then rode by the side of the second jump to look at it. Get back up for my second run and here's where my over-confidence comes in to fuck me up. I watch a couple people hit the second jump from the start of the course and it looked like they went deep. I don't ask anybody who's hit them about the speeds, and just decide to send it. I barely knuckle the first jump and the I cruise into the second, make two pretty big carves. Apparently the speed was still "point it". In the air I knew I wasn't even coming close to the knuckle. I completely cased, probably a whole board length short of the knuckle. And my front knee just crunched. So I'm laying in the landing screaming bloody murder, someone comes and unstraps me, and ski patrol is called. I try to move out of the landing but can't even stand. I spend the rest of the day in first aid, getting xrays, freaking out, etc. I was mostly just bummed about not being able to ride, even though I was int he worst pain I ever felt in my life. I knew my season was over and that was the worst thing in the world.

Next 7 days: Spent the next week on a straight oxycodone binge. Lost touch with reality because if I didn't take them I was in too much pain to function, but being high for a week straight made me think my knee was ok. Still couldn't walk though... Also got really bad nightmares (I think this is from the pain killers?)

And then the next two weeks were a blur of me trying to figure out insurance information so I could figure out whats going on with me knee. I've been to the Kaiser in Sacramento, physical therapy in Roseville, and physical therapy in Incline. No one tells me the same thing. All the clinic at Sierra told me was that I didn't have a bone problem that showed up on the xrays. Kaiser/PT told me that I bruised my knee really badly and it could be 6 weeks- 6 months for it to heal, and that if it still hurt in 5 weeks it might be a torn meniscus. Then PT in Incline told me I could have a fracture that didn't show up in the first xrays. So now I'm back to knowing absolutely nothing. I finally got an MRI set up for Thursday, so I'll be doing the 2 hour drive to Roseville again, and then hopefully I'll know what's wrong.

UGH. Injuries suck so much. Missing the last two weeks of the season sucked so much. Everything sucks. Fuck knees. I hope I can ride in the summer. Here's some pictures from my Flaunt It experience.