The Reason

On Wednesday night I was riding with Christine, her on the One Wheel and me on one of my EUC’s. She has gotten very good, very quickly. She has been gaining confidence.

We were on our way back from the Greenway. She was carving back and forth and having a great time. Then it happened. In the matter of a split second the board cut out and she hit the roadway, hard. I immediately jumped off my wheel to run back to her. She was dazed and could not respond to me. A woman on a bike immediately stopped who said she was a EMT. She recommended I call 911, which I did.

A quick look at the helmet showed the result of the impact, the helmet was busted with deep scratches. This was bad. In addition to the head her right shoulder took a big impact and she had road rash on various parts of her body. The ambulance came and evaluated her. They recommended she go to the hospital but Christine signed a waiver, thinking she would be ok.

The Cliff Notes version is she wasn’t. She was in severe pain and had dizziness/nausea throughout the night. I convinced her to go to the ER with me yesterday morning. She had a CT and X-rays done. The good news is there was nothing broken and no sort of brain bleed going on. However she clearly has a concussion which is serious. Symptoms from it can linger for weeks.

A post crash analysis pointed to one of two possible reasons. I found a big metal U-clamp in the middle of the road around where she went down. She could have hit that which would have caused the fall. The other possibility is she was just going too fast and the One Wheel cut out. Regardless I felt partially responsible, I should have been paying closer attention to her speed.

She will heal up but I have no doubt any future riding will include additional gear. It was a scary reminder of just how quickly and unexpectedly things can go bad.