For those of you who are attention span challenged; read the bold parts.
I need some advice from you all.
Three of my last four bad crashes have resulted in serious abdominal trauma (busted up internal organs). Twice I have managed to severely lacerate my liver and most recently I managed to lacerate and bruise my right kidney. The liver shots weren’t too bad, but the kidney damage was terrifying. I was peeing pure blood and blood clots by the quart. Not a little pink in my pee, I am talking about loads and loads of stinging, thick, chunky blood shooting out of my dick.
Today I am slowly on the road to recovery and already planning my return to digging and jumping, but I need some help. There are two points on which I would like you all on chime in on.
Point one – I have noticed that some people develop a “typical crash” over time. I have one buddy who freezes like a statue and then collapses like a pile of straw. Another buddy tends to perform the long drawn out slow motion train wreck type of crash. I have my own type of crash as well. Although it doesn’t occur that often, when it does I am in the hurt locker for a long time: I elbow or punch myself in the gut. Yup, that’s right. Worse than a glass stomach.
When I bail, I wrap my arms tightly around my body as I am going down to avoid flailing, bashing, wrenching or breaking them during the crash. If I smoothly tuck and roll, all is good. If I land hard without rolling, I wind up driving my elbows and fists into my gut. The end result is me in the hospital with an IV tube in my arm.
Am I crashing “wrong”? How should I crash?
Point two – In terms of protection I only wear gloves and a helmet when jumping. The idea here being that if I padded up every place that I could possibly injure I’d look like a cross between a pro football player and the Michelin man.
Having had three days in the hospital with an IV in my arm and a tube in my dick to think about my crashing habits, I decided that some gut protection was in order. I figured anything that would disperse the impact over a wider area of my belly would do the trick. A little intarweb research showed that most protection manufacturers (bike & MX) don’t make anything that covers the lower stomach area. Kidney belts cover the lower back & chest protectors cover –duh- the chest.
The only thing I did find was boxing / martial arts type belly protectors. Anyone have any comments on these or other protectors?
A couple of further comments –
I am not the youngest anymore, but also a long way from being the oldest DJ-er on the block. I will be 36 in May. A lot of folks offer the well intentioned, but offensive advice, “don’t you think you should hang up the bike? You are getting a little old for this.” Fuck that!
Some other folks may advise building up core strength. What in particular? I do my crunches everyday and hit the dumbbells three times a week. I may be a little thick around the middle, but I am pretty solid. Any suggestions?
I need some advice from you all.
Three of my last four bad crashes have resulted in serious abdominal trauma (busted up internal organs). Twice I have managed to severely lacerate my liver and most recently I managed to lacerate and bruise my right kidney. The liver shots weren’t too bad, but the kidney damage was terrifying. I was peeing pure blood and blood clots by the quart. Not a little pink in my pee, I am talking about loads and loads of stinging, thick, chunky blood shooting out of my dick.
Today I am slowly on the road to recovery and already planning my return to digging and jumping, but I need some help. There are two points on which I would like you all on chime in on.
Point one – I have noticed that some people develop a “typical crash” over time. I have one buddy who freezes like a statue and then collapses like a pile of straw. Another buddy tends to perform the long drawn out slow motion train wreck type of crash. I have my own type of crash as well. Although it doesn’t occur that often, when it does I am in the hurt locker for a long time: I elbow or punch myself in the gut. Yup, that’s right. Worse than a glass stomach.
When I bail, I wrap my arms tightly around my body as I am going down to avoid flailing, bashing, wrenching or breaking them during the crash. If I smoothly tuck and roll, all is good. If I land hard without rolling, I wind up driving my elbows and fists into my gut. The end result is me in the hospital with an IV tube in my arm.
Am I crashing “wrong”? How should I crash?
Point two – In terms of protection I only wear gloves and a helmet when jumping. The idea here being that if I padded up every place that I could possibly injure I’d look like a cross between a pro football player and the Michelin man.
Having had three days in the hospital with an IV in my arm and a tube in my dick to think about my crashing habits, I decided that some gut protection was in order. I figured anything that would disperse the impact over a wider area of my belly would do the trick. A little intarweb research showed that most protection manufacturers (bike & MX) don’t make anything that covers the lower stomach area. Kidney belts cover the lower back & chest protectors cover –duh- the chest.
The only thing I did find was boxing / martial arts type belly protectors. Anyone have any comments on these or other protectors?
A couple of further comments –
I am not the youngest anymore, but also a long way from being the oldest DJ-er on the block. I will be 36 in May. A lot of folks offer the well intentioned, but offensive advice, “don’t you think you should hang up the bike? You are getting a little old for this.” Fuck that!
Some other folks may advise building up core strength. What in particular? I do my crunches everyday and hit the dumbbells three times a week. I may be a little thick around the middle, but I am pretty solid. Any suggestions?
Haven't had one put in awake yet... knock on wood. 
). Trick jumps or jumps with soft landings are a good place to learn how to bail.