Tore up.

[caption id=“attachment_3147” align=“aligncenter” width=“450” caption=“bonk!”]

The other weekend, my pool pals Sam Haines & Scott Ward, drove with me over to Lance Mountains pool for a session with Lance, Ray Zimmerman, Jeff Grosso, Big Jer & others. It was a fine, sunny Sunday morning. We got up, stretched by the empty beauty of ‘Ridiculous’, drank coffee & prepared. At 11am, we were enroute. I kept up a running dialogue of the pools finer qualities & what was to be expected.

We arrived, chatted with Lance & swept out the pool. We were the first to arrive & skate. Scott, Sam & I warmed up a bit & Ray Zimmerman of Concrete Disciples arrived. He was going to ride with us & told me that he wanted to shoot my BS air over Lances side stairs that day. GULP! I had only done it once & only after 50 tries. It was a mind-bender for me! I pushed on the gas pedal & started hucking myself out of the pool. Bail. Bail. Bail. ad nauseum. Big Jer, Liz, Grosso & others arrived & the yard filled up with skaters.

My pal Sam was starting to really work the pool & came ‘undone’, going into the shallow end. I don’t think anyone ever told Sam, that he had to keep both feet on the board when coming down on a hip transfer.  He came out of the deep, his back foot came off & he came out of the session. MCL strain to his knee. Prognosis= off work /one week. Oops! Get better bro. A friend of Jeff Grosso, dropped in  & hit the waterfall. The waterfall hit back & he came out of the session as well. Palm bruise. Ouch! Meanwhile, I continued to waste Rays JPEGS & everyones time, by  bailing the side stairs over & over.

Scott Ward wasn’t feeling it that day. He had received the ‘backyard beatdown’ all weekend & his confidence was low. The day before,  we had completed a pretty arduous kidney pool tour. We rode 4 kidney pools & Scott took the brunt of the punishment. At Lances, he was cruising fast & stylish-as usual- but wasn’t where he- normally -should’ve been. The best I can recall, he went FS over the light, slid out & his arm went up over his head. He dislocated his arm at the shoulder. Blam! He called out-rather calmly- “Dude. My shoulder is out.”

I was quickly in the pool & noticed he was absolutely correct. The bone was bulging out lower than his shoulder & the muscles around it  were tight & twitching. He was in obvious pain. I knew that he had popped his other shoulder out in the past- snowboarding. Fairly nonchalantly, Scott looked at me and simply told me, “I’m not going to the E.R. Put it in.” I tried to hold his shoulder still & pull down on his upper arm, to rotate & replace it in the socket, but it wouldn’t work. Scott gritted his teeth & said, “I know what to do. I need to get out of the pool.” We got him out of the pool & up on the shallow end deck. Scott lay flat on his stomach, with his shoulder even with coping, arm dangling limply into the pool.

At this point, everyone was looking on in ‘Shock & Awe’. With a snarl on his face- like Clint Eastwood- Scott hissed, “Go!” With a steady pull on his arm & a slight rotation…‘Clunk.’ Fini. Scott stood, gave a huge sigh of relief, actually ‘high-fived’ me with his other arm, and apologized to Lance for getting hurt at his pool. Lance looked at him incredulously & laughed out loud. Grosso looked on. wreathed in cigarette smoke…“You guys are punk.” was the only thing he said.

We took our battered & mangled crew, and walked to the car. I gave Scott, Motrin & a drink of water, then we went to 7-11 to buy ice for both Sam & Scott. In the end, Scott took a beating, ‘man-style’, Sam took a concrete smack down &…I took a ride over the ladder at Lances. After seeing my bros take the beat down, I threw one over the stairs & made it, bonking my wheels on the railing (Gulp!) for good measure. Yikes! Sometimes, its not about what YOU know…its about what your friends know. Like, how to put a shoulder back into its proper anatomical position….Skate & take care of your friends. Thanks to MRZ, Lance &……adequate medical training. -Ozzie