Ouch.

I forgot to mention something with all of my high and mighty "self-preservation is the death of snowboarding" talk - if you throw self preservation out the window, you tend to not preserve yourself very long. I was motivated by a number of things (my friend Eric stomped a back barrel roll, my friend Jamie stomping a rodeo on the Showtime jump and a front flip off of a ridiculous cliff, my health insurance agent calling me to congratulate me on being approved, etc.) to give an underflip a genuine attempt yesterday. I don't now what the "real" snowboard world calls it, but since everyone has a different name for every trick anyway, that's what I'm calling it. It was supposed to be a sort of personalized Misty Flip, but it's pretty irrelevant now that I landed on my face. Thank you, Bern helmets. I wrote them a letter about it. I'm pretty sure that lawndarting 30+ feet off of a jump onto my head would've been less pleasant had I not been wearing my helmet.

Funny side note to that point: When I stopped into the clinic today for X-rays, my patrol supervisor was the one to respond to my walk in. Hilarious. When we got the part of the form about helmets, he checked "No", and I said, "I was wearing a helmet, Marko. I always wear a helmet. Except for when I'm working on safety patrol." He found the irony about one- fifth as funny as I do.

Back on track - it's pretty weird that I would hurt my lower back after landing on my head, but the snow gods have a sense of humor about them. Fortunately, my hours and hours of core training every week paid off, and my back muscles saved my spine (except for the possible hairline fracture - I'll post the X-Ray when I can). My doctor actually told me that my core strength may have prevented a serious spinal injury. I take two things from this: perhaps I should reevaluate my approach to inverted aerial maneuvers, and I should get a signed note stating this from my doctor and use it to convince my core/flex students they should pay me more money.

So I'm down and out for a few days, which is cool with me since it's the holiday weekend and I really don't want to go out Griswald-dodging all weekend. I'll take the next few days to get some work done, sit in a hot tub, get a few massages (girls, there is a signup sheet on my condo front door - shifts are going fast but we can probably work something out if you act fast), and hopefully heal up.

Lesson learned: Always have somebody filming your park runs.

Currently listening to: Red Garland - My Romance

Currently reading: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein