Coming out of the Sun Peaks Freeride Camp this summer I was reminded of the reality that you just cannot rush coming back from injury. The day previous to the camp I had a hard fall and injured my hands, among other things, straining tendons in my wrist and fingers. The first day of the camp I was unsure if I would be able to hold on to the bars but through pain killers, medical tape and ignorance I made it happen as I really wanted to coach. Over the five days of the camp, through adjusting my hand position on the bars in order to guard the injured fingers, I brought back some old tendonitis and irritated a bunch of nerves in my wrists. After the camp I was unable to grip my bars so I was forced to take some time off the bike and work with my physio to try to regain my ability to ride. For the two weeks preceding Nationals I saw my physio 5 times a week to advance the healing process, employing the ultrasound machine, alternating hot and ice baths and stretching. Two days before Nationals Kevin taped up my wrists to mid-forearm and I went for a light ride to test out the progress. I was pleased with the results, other than the excruciating tape removal, so I shaved my wrists and decided that I would try to compete that weekend in Panorama. I packed up my van and after work, powered mainly by hopes and dreams, made the trek to the Kootenay Valley. I slept in my van and in the morning awoke with a strange stiffness in my wrists. After a good breakfast, warm-up and stretch and receiving my registration package I geared up under sunny skies and headed up the hill. When I dropped in to my first run I found that I had very limited grip strength, although I hadn’t taped my wrists, so I took it fairly easy while getting reacquainted to a course I had raced a good few times before. When I got to the bottom I taped my wrists up tight and headed back up for a second run. Upon dropping into the second run the support helped me feel noticeably better so I started to open it up a bit and play on the track, although I was far from 100%. The Panorama course combines high speed with flow, gnar and tech. I felt comfortable on the flowing sections but had trouble gaining confidence enough to truly let it go through the burly sections. About half-way down the trail I stopped to look at tech transfer through the rocky creek-bed section. I was stretching my forearms while scoping the entrance and I felt a zinging pop in my wrist. My immediate concern turned into legitimate worry once I tried to grab onto the bar as I couldn’t close my ring or pinky finger onto the grip with any strength. The rest of the run I basically had to hold on with my middle and pointer fingers of my left hand to make my way down, downgrading my grip to one finger when I needed the front brake. It was really frustrating because the rest of my body felt great except for the one stupid limitation. When I got to the bottom I phoned my physio for advice and ended up looking up a physiotherapist at the hill. A few hours later I was again in the hands of a specialist trying to find a solution to enable me to ride. Try as we might what my wrists needed was time, so I was forced to call the race and drive home empty handed – definitely not what I was hoping for when I had made the trip in the opposite direction. When I got home we concluded that I had some temporary nerve damage along with advancing tendonitis that would most likely take 6 weeks to heal. As I only had just over a month left in Canada before I departed for Europe I decided to call my race season to an end and focus on other things. Over the next couple weeks I was contacted through a friend by the Simpcw First Nations to do a beginner camp for a bunch of their kids involved in their youth leadership program. I was a little tentative as to if my hands would be good to go, but testing them out while commuting lent me enough confidence to agree to the camp. Two days before the camp I went for a light ride and they felt good enough to coach beginners so I was happy. Three weeks after Nationals I was back on my bike and loving it. The group was awesome, filled with keen kids who learned quickly and were a ton of fun. They had never been downhilling before but after three days of coaching were confidently riding all the blue trails on the hill and were confidently challenging technical lines and easier parts of black trails. Aside from the riding, I was also really impressed with the kid’s attitudes and how the Simpcw First Nations are engaging their kids to stay active, learn constantly, get in touch with their heritage and stay out of trouble. I see many economically more advantaged kids who are sorely missing the foundation skills these kids are receiving through their community, so hopefully the future continues to shine brightly for them.
