A few photos from Ride BMX mag the way they maybe should have been.

Since Harry Main is from England I figure he’s used to dealing with dragons and stuff, but it doesn’t look like he expected to find this one jumping out of a suburban house. This is how he broke his leg in case you were wondering. (Mirra Co ad, Ride #157)

In his interview Kurtis Elwell talks about how its tough to make a living from BMX. Above is the solution! (Zielinski cover photo, Ride #159)

For some reason they totally left out anything about Kurtis’ kung-fu demos. (Zielinski photo, Ride #159)

Forget about blowing out his tire, here Garrett Byrnes blows out a nice veggie powered crop duster on this wall. (Mulligan photo, Ride #157)

Max Gaertig has to know that it would have been way cooler if he had done this 180 whip over the guardrail barefoot and barhopped. (Zielinkski photo, Ride #157)

Based on his Ball Park Frank ad/ interview I guess Ryan Sher really likes wieners. I bet he would like riding one around town too! (Ball Park ad, Ride #159)

Aaron Ross learns the hard way that its not a good idea to try and catch the cannonball shot out of Odyssey’s new giant neon brake lever cannon. (Odyssey Ad, Ride #159)

Make your own… all you need is a Ride mag and eraser…. unless you’re one of those people saving them so you can sell them on ebay 20 years from now.

Erase away some of the photo, then fill in the blanks.

Ever wonder how a fusion surgery is performed? This should explain….

BIO and Bike Check: Up and coming star, Olympia Nelson.

Austin has always been a hot spot for BMX. Since the 80’s it has been producing riders that have changed the face of BMX and I’ve had the privilege of riding with a lot of them. I remember riding with one home grown local before anyone had ever heard of him. Chase Hawk and I rode together at 9th Street when he was 5 years old. I knew instantly he was going to make it big. I’ve always kicked myself for not interviewing him back then… it would be cool to brag that I discovered him and be able to look back and see what he thought his future might hold. With Olympia Nelson I have a chance to make up for that missed opportunity.

Olympia has only been on the Austin scene for about two weeks but already she’s got people talking. I knew the second that I saw her that she was going to be the next big thing. When I heard that she has arrived to town without a bike I immediately set to work custom building her one to her exact specs. Now that she’s all geared up I talked Ride into letting me do an interview and a bike check with what is sure to be one of BMX’s great talents.

Name and Hometown: Olympia Nelson. Austin, Texas.

So this is a pretty unique bike, can you explain what’s going on here?
Well, I really wanted to bridge the gap between skateboarding and BMX. I achieved this by building the bike out of the same materials as a skateboard. Plywood frame and solid urethane wheels. Blending the two genres gives me a head start on the future. Plus, lets seem them throw me out of a public skatepark now!

Why did you chose to have the bike built without pedals or a drive train?
There’s a few other people experimenting with that kind of thing now so I can’t really take credit it for it. I think that if you really know how to ride then you just don’t need those things. I wanted create the absolute lightest bike that I could and pedals, chain, sprockets all just seemed like unneeded weight. When I ride vert and skateparks I don’t ever pedal anyway, thats just bad style… Its all in the pump!

Speaking of weight, at only 5 pounds  and 1 ounce this is the lightest bike I’ve ever heard of. Don’t you think the light bike thing has gone a little too far?
Well, you have to remember that I only weigh like 10 pounds. Its easier to go higher if you don’t have to move as much mass.  I’m just taking advantage of available technologies to make riding more fun for me.

What else is special on the bike?
Its all pretty stock really… I guess I have a little phobia about breaking front axles so even though I was trying hard to save weight on the bike I decided to go with a bigger 1/2″ axle instead of those sketchy 3/8″ ones that everyone else uses.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think that sometimes people don’t take bikes with smaller wheels seriously. I mean, I’ve seen little kids doing back flips on 16″ bikes and I just kind of think it looks silly. I have a hard time comparing what they’re doing to what pros are doing on normal 20″ wheel BMX bikes. How do you deal with that potential bias in our sport?
The fact that you feel that way shows how outdated and out of touch you are. In 2008  85% of all BMX bikes were sold to so called “little kids” under the age of 12. BMX’s are “little kid’s” bike by definition and they include bikes with 8″,  12″, 16″ , 20″ and even 24″ wheels. Nothing bigger then 24″ though, that’s the line. For some reason anything bigger then 24″ is decidedly not BMX. To be honest I don’t think it should matter what size wheels your bike has. You know? If I do a 15 foot air on a vert ramp its a 15 foot frickin’ air! Doesn’t matter what you’re on… 15 feet would be impressive on a damned Segway! Personally I think the little bike gives me a bit of an advantage. Like when you see me jump the Mega-ramp it looks like I’m going sooo huge just because I’m on a smaller bike then everyone else. Its kind of like an optical illusion kind of thing. Another bonus is that because its smaller I can whip it around easier then a big bike. I could probably do a front flip bunny hop on this thing… its amazing!

K-Rob’s going to have his work cut out for him in 2010. Rumors of quintuple front flip no-footed can can one-handers are already buzzing.

So what does the future hold in store for you?
Well, I’m trying to keep an open mind about the future. I’m only 2 weeks old so I really still have a lot of options left. First thing I have to do is just work on my motor skills. I’m still having some trouble getting my arms and hands to do what I want them to do, also, I can’t quite figure out what I’m seeing a lot of the times. Its just like coming back from a big injury you know… it just takes some time and some work, but I’ll get there.

Once I’m up on my feet I guess I’ll probably head out to Woodward for some foam pit training. Of course I have tailwhips mastered but it will be good to work out some of the contest bangers like triple flips and 1080 whips and my secret show stopper called the Wallet Stuffer. After that, I don’t know… I guess the usual Dew Tour stops, X-Games and maybe some commercial stunt work too. To be honest, a lot of its up to my agent and who pays the best.

Olympia Nelson Bike Check.

Frame: Custom built 9″ frame. Constructed entirely out of 3/4″ oak plywood. It has a good stiff feel, but is still very light.

Fork: I don’t want to say we ripped off Odyssey’s Director fork design, but lets just say I’m glad they helped me out with components and that they are on my side.

Headset: Two 1/4″ galvanized fender washers.

Stem: Four bolt gooseneck/ titanium drywall screw system.

Seat: Odyssey T-shirt wrapped around an old knee pad and super glued to the frame. I think BMX is all about not having a seat post… c’mon, this is a trick bike, we’re not riding the Tour De France here. Lower the flag pole grandpa, you lost the war!

Grips: None. We were really trying to save weight with this bike so we skipped the grips. They’re really kind of unnecessary to tell you the truth.

Wheels: 6 inch by 1.5 inch wheels from a lawn mower. They are really fast and light. 1/2″ through axles front and rear; Its not worth skimping on safety.

Brakes: No way!! So 1990! Its all full speed ahead at all times.

Gyro: Yeah right. I like my bike to look smooth, not like a spaghetti factory exploded out of my head tube.

Pegs: None: I like to push myself to think out of the ordinary. Having no pegs makes me have to think of new and different ways to grind. Its really a good exercise in creativity.

Any last words?
Thanks a lot for the interview and look forward to seeing you all out shredding. You probably won’t see me ’cause I like to keep my stuff fresh and under wraps until the big comps, but I will see you!

Good luck with this one.

Today is one month after surgery. My life currently is: Medical Bills, pain pills, acoustic bass guitar, rabbit ears, internet, two bored dogs, half read books, beach cruiser (about the same as a stationary bike) and Lazy Boy chair. Not pictured: Elastic waist band pants for the incision in my belly.

Thankfully the Athlete Recovery Fund set me up with their agent Amanda who has managed to reduce my $40,000 plus bill to somewhere around $6500 just by dealing with my doctors and insurance company for me! So amazing. Funny how I was stressing about the number plate I did to help raise money for that Charity. Now I know which charity is going to get some of my lotto winnings (once I win). Thanks so much ARF!

Well I have to admit I find it a little bit hard to come up with new content when I’ve spent the last few weeks doing nothing but laying down watching TV. So unless you wanted to hear my opinions on network TV shows or how shitty it is to pay medical bills all I can come up with is this: an iPhoto clean-out post. I’m pretty sure I’ve posted most of these photos at one point or another over at T-1, but as a lot of them are years and years old and I can’t actually remember. I took a scroll from top to bottom through my iPhoto library and pulled out ones that caught my eye for one reason or another…. here you go….

This is one of Kimler’s babies. The pacifier is so disturbing to me and it makes me giggle uncomfortably. The shirt reads, “Hung Like a 5 year old”.

This is me and the ring bearer at my friend Bryan’s wedding. He made us matching embroidered goat shirts too.

You have to love Povah… he’s always down for a laugh.

Texting and driving is dangerous, but what about focusing and shooting photos? I don’t think there’s any laws yet anyway.

This was my trip to Berlin. Tiny little slice in my shin that would not stop bleeding. Had to get it burned closed.

German Chinese food is sketchy.

Shovel art at trails on Vancouver Island.

Sandy and I humiliating ourselves.

This was a show in England where Black Sabbath played to like 150,000 people! I got knocked the hell out on the ramp and lost some memory.

Mutiny sent this for a birthday card a few years ago. Check me out fufanuing that tower!

Dave Fiemuth at the center of everyone’s attention at one of the Backyard Jams.

Sergio’s manualing in the background, but this little kid is slidding down a cement quarter on his stomach. He must be made out of nails ’cause that cememnt was rough.

Roscoe looks understandably mortified because I had just hacked the head off a stuffed dog about his size. Used it for the head on my halloween Roscoe bike.

Gary Young getting tweaked during our X-games ramp warehouse photo shoot.

Parrick at Empire discovering he has the power of the palm.

This is pretty much hands down the best bruise I’ve ever seen!

I built these curved floor risers in my little condo and I thought they looked cool.

I was really bummed to miss out on the annual trip over to Cologne for the worlds this year.

Eduardo is in the top 3 for toughest guy on a bike.

While in Cologne I managed to catch this strange event; naked girl writhing around on top of a box jump while skateboarders and BMXers jumped through her legs on normal TV.

Garrett Byrnes…

And Garrett Byrnes bike box…(remember how the old T-1 Garrett frames had the welded on seat?).

A good moment behind T-1. Lucero on the ramp for the 2nd or 3rd time. Always a good way to bring the Austin family together for a night.Bass player is up chilling on the deck on the left side of the photo.

Sandy and me as little rodent kids.

Jamie McParland rocks some freestyle segwaying.

The mini in Van’s garage was so absurd. Jason Enns and John Heaton try to figure it out.

The big wheels we had at T-1 were so fun! Kort and Sheps putting them through their paces.

Neil and Roscoe enjoyig the ride.

The orginal incarnation of the T-1 ramp was so simple.

Thanks to Ryan Corrigan and Paul Buchanan the first big change materialized.

Man, that fresh Hemp-Lite Skatelite on the back section used to look so clean! Over the years its weathered and looks the same as the normal stuff.

Ron Kimler looking pretty 70’s with the hair-do.

Sophie was a cat who lived at the office and hated Roscoe.

I was staying out at Woodward West all alone one off season when there was a knock at my door late at night. When I opened the door this guy was there.

This is one of my favorite Roscoe photos… he’s the blur on the right in the middle of a half flip frisbee catch.

I miss having a film camera for moments like this. There’s something about film that digital just doesn’t capture huh?

What looks like a blurry mess is actually the brightest northern lights display I’ve ever seen. Somewhere in Wisconsin.

Roscoe wallride at height.

So this is what they are going to stick into my back. As far as I can tell its a piece of PVC pipe with a big gnarly stainless screw in it. There will actually be 2 more screws too. One going up and two going down. Just like toe-nailing a rib on a ramp or something. This little do-hickey will take the place of the disc they are taking out and lock the to adjacent vertabrae in place. 6 more days till surgery day so not much going on with me. Finally got the mountain bike that Giant sent me rolling so I can ride that for a bit since its nice and squishy with full suspension. However, after surgery the docs tell me I’m not supposed to lift anything over 10 pounds for three whole months!!! I’m sure there is a great joke here I’m missing. I was thinking, maybe if I use all the lightest parts with lots of holes drilled in them I could maybe get a bike together that is light enough for me to ride without breaking doctors orders??

I guess in whatever is going with Ride’s blog reformating I lost a few of the most recent posts, so here they are again. I’m so sick of writing about this fusion surgery stuff, but I figure maybe someone somewhere will go through the same thing someday and perhaps find some of this a helpful reference.

From June 18 2009

Jamie Bestwick was kind enough to set me up to talk to his doctor about spine surgeries. Dr Gregory Bailey did the fusion surgery that Jamie had done a little while ago and had him riding again in 5 weeks. Dr Bailey confirmed that based on my symptoms and MRI surgery did seem to be the right path. He also made me feel pretty confident about my surgeons. Definitely nice to get a good second opinion. He also restated that a six month recovery time is to be expected with the type of surgery I’ll get. Dr Bailey is cool, if you need back help in PA I would highly recommend going to see him.

I’m sick of talking about backs and ready to get this done. And sick of being a zombie on pain meds.

From June 15 2009

Not really too much to report about the back right now except that I met with the Cardio-Vascular surgeon and got a date for surgery. July 9th they slice me up. He described in detail how they will make an incision from my belly button straight down about 4 inches. Then he pushes all the intestines and stuff out of the way making a hole visible all the way to my spine. The really dangerous part is that he then must move my aorta blood vessel out of the way by gently flexing it to one side. While he was telling me it really started to make me a little bit queazy. Usually that stuff doesn’t bother me, but for some reason it felt like I could feel what he was doing inside of me. It reminded me of the time I was telling my friend Jared the details of my splenectomy. I was explaining how they chop you open and then empty all of your intestines out of your body into a bowl so they can wash the blood off them and stop the bleeding of the exploded spleen. He suddenly went green and puked! It was only later that he told me it was because everything was especially realistic to him since he had been drinking magic mushroom beer.

I’m running out of dogs for the back related post thumbnails. Here’s Digger and Bobby from Ray’s.
Just back from the doctors and just went over my MRI results. Heavy news for me. Looks like we are going to do the fusion surgery of L5-S1. Surgery won’t take place for almost a month, but when it does Its only like a 2 day stay in the hospital, but it means that after surgery no activity for 3 months and no riding for real for 6 months! Yikes. I didn’t really expect it to take that long to heal.

That disc is not supposed to be doing that. It should be like the ones above and staying flush with the spine.
I have a pretty substantial rupture in my the disc between L5-S1. The treatments range for this kind of thing, but after a good talk my doctor and I have settled on the fusion surgery. The options though are as follows:

-Cortizone epidural shots like Tom Stober had to bring down the swelling but not actually fixing the disc. This can make you feel better because it relieves pressure, but it can last as little as a few days, or in some cases less serious then mine it can relieve the entire problem.

-There’s also a procedure to clip the part of the disc that is distended. Sounds like this is what Ben Ward was saying that Rich Hirsch had. My doctor said that usually when the disc between L5-S1 is herniated and putting pressure on the nerves it causes leg pain and shooting feelings radiating downwards. If that is the case then clipping the protuding disc usually solves the problem. I don’t have that at all, I only have pain in my lower back. My legs feel a bit week, but mainly its my back muscles that are unable to function. Doc says that clipping the disc very possibly may not relieve this problem since it may have more to do with the joints pressure on the nerves. Its interesting to see what functions of the body are “typically” impacted by disc damage at different levels. Each level has its own characteristics.

-We could possible do an artificial disc replacement. Unfortunately, this extremely expensive procedure is considered “experimental” by my insurance company and so I’m not covered for it. The up side is that at this level in the spine there’s not really that much movement, or at least, higher up would be much more crucial. A fusion at this level should not really be too much of an issue for flexibility for me. However, if in 6 months from now you see me just starting to ride again and I’m all stiff we can just blame that.

-So, we settled on the fusion surgery. Its what Ruben was describing last post. The crazy part is they go in through the front of your abdomen to do the surgery. Its a relatively small incision, but two surgeons are present. One to do the actual screw and plate and bone graft surgery, and one to monitor and control the extremely vital arteries that run right in front of the spine. Basically they screw and plate the vertebrae together so they can’t move, and then fill the area where the disc used to be with bone grafts that will fill it in so the damaged disc can no longer put pressure on the spine. I think…. I’ll get more and more precise with exactly what is going on as I learn more.

To be honest I was so rocked by the idea that I wouldn’t be able to ride for 6 MONTHS that I kind of stopped being able to think straight. Heavy news for me today.

Next step is to meet with the Vascular Surgeon to go over his procedures in the surgery and check to see if my splenectomy scars are going to be an issue for this surgery. After meeting with him I’ll be able to schedule a surgery date. The earliest possible time being between 3 and 4 weeks from now.

I’m pretty freaked out by all this, and dreading being laid up for so long, but at the same time I’m really itching to get this taken care of. Guess I’m staying in Austin for a while to deal with all of this.

So today I finally got my MRI scan. Had to wait a few extra days for my insurance company to authorize the procedure and it still cost me $600. Every time I get an MRI I’m convinced a Vulcan must have designed the machine. What a completely inhumane and uncomfortable experience. If you’ve ever had one done in an old-school closed machine you know what I mean. You have to lay perfectly still for 25 minutes in something that feels like a coffin buried underground. I’m not very claustrophobic, but with my arms pinned down by the narrow girth of the machine and my face 3 inches from the top of the tube I found it very difficult to breath. And, the noises! Holy cow, only some logic-first brained engineer could make a machine that sounds like that. So loud and so crazy, popping and ratcheting and whining and humming. And no rhythm. I think that’s the future, an MRI machine with rhythm would be so much easier to take. Just keep a beat and we’d all be able to relax so much more. After every MRI I always feel like my skin is burning, but the techs just laugh at me and tell me its all in my head ’cause you can’t feel the magnet going through you. Bollocks I say to you, bastard Vulcans!

Might not be green blooded, but he sure ain’t human. Ruben Alcantara is one of my heros.

Speaking of Vulcans, since I’ve been down and chilling I’ve been watching lots of movies. Saw the new Terminator movie which really confused me as it seemed to have no story of any kind, went and saw Up in 3D which was super fun and amazing. (Do you know that’s what I wanted to go to school to learn to do? However, back in ‘91 when I was in college there wasn’t even one computer in the entire art program at the University I went to and art professors were still saying that anything made on a computer could not be considered art, I dropped out to ride anyway.) I watched the new Star Trek movie too and had a great time. Lately I’ve been watching all the old ‘Trek movies over again and they seem so much better after having seen the new one. I think they did a really good job of keeping the spirit and story line of the old ones going… good fun when you’re spending most of your days laying down.

Another hero, James Sheperd. SPRFLS posted a rad Sheep Bites article he wrote a long time ago. I miss you writing Sheps! Check it —->here.

Anyway, back to backs. Ruben Alcantara wrote me and I think I am inspiring him to deal with his ongoing back issues. He said he went and saw a really good doctor in  Spain who is going to help him. His back problem is the L5 to S1 disc which is more or less what my problem is too (although I also have a damaged disc between L4-L5 too). The L5 is your lowest Lumbar vertebrae and the S1 is kind of like inside your pelvis. I’m sure thats not the right way to put it, but dam it Jim, I’m not a doctor! Sorry… too much Star Trek. And, hell, I just spent a while searching for a good picture, but they all seem pretty copyrighted. Just do a search for spinal regions if you care.

Ruben is going to try a drug cocktail for a couple weeks that Google can’t seem to translate for me. Lyrica, Dacortin, Artrinovo, and Omeprazol is what he’s going to be on, swallowing or injected with… I don’t know which. I assume that is some sweet new medicine that we don’t use in the US because that’s the way it usually goes, but if anyone can translate that into English I’d be interested. Its probably roughly translated into: Coffee, Chilling at the beach, Eating good food and a Glass of Wine. He says there is a chance that the medicine can help relieve the nerve trauma and he might not need surgery. If not that he says ‘then surgery fuising that disc with screws, plates and full up with pieces of your bones.’

Ruben, you can not have my bones just yet.

Crossing my fingers my MRI results are in tomorrow so I can get them analyzed by my doctor, if not, he’s taking a 2 week vacation the next day.

Ok, on to Star Trek 4 for me….

Saw this happen a few weeks ago while I was still in Cleveland. Am I still moving there? I don’t know anything right now… all up in the air till I deal with my back.

I don’t have any good drawings or photos to go with this post, so how about a true story from yesterday typed out in green italics…

Had a nice relaxing memorial weekend and hope all you did too, or at least I hope you rode bikes a bunch and it was awesome. I watched a lot of TV and drank beer. Not sure if this is an appropriate back therapy, but it was peaceful enough.

We were on the edge of the woods and Roscoe and Monty were chilling. As usual Monty was sniffing around to see what he could find…

I’ve been getting lots of letters with ideas for my back so thats been good. Tom Stober wrote me back and it sounds like he is in a similar situation to me. On going issues with his back and contemplating getting the fusion surgery. Basically they “fuse” a couple of your vertebrae together to resolve the issue of the crushed disc in between them. The disc is what flexs around and allows your back to bend. On the x-rays it looks just like the little donut part in a skateboard truck and honestly kind of works the same way. However, when you explode it they don’t really heal on their own, and put pressure on your spinal cord. Or, like in my case, allow your vertebrae to touch each other. That pressure can cause incredible pain or make a leg or part of your body not work right. In my case the pain is not super intense (though it sucks) but I loose all the strength in my lower back. Tom’s had a number of epidural shots to help ease the pain and help speed up the healing of the inflammation. This is usually done with cortizone/ corticosteriod shots. These aren’t the kind of steroids that make you big and strong (Tom just works out a lot), but they can help in healing and reducing inflammation (i’ve had it in pills a few times during my annual poison ivy allergic reaction). They always make me really grumpy and stressed. There’s some serious consideration for long term side affects as well, so you don’t want to go this route too many times. And jeeze, needles in the spine sounds gnarly!

Suddenly from the edge of the trees a tiny little baby deer sprinted out and with knobby knees and all leapt right over little Monty.

Ben Ward from Odyssey gave me a call to let me know that Rich Hirsch actually didn’t have the fusion surgery (as I reported last post) but had a different thing. Ben thought it was something where they removed a part of the disc that was pressing the spinal cord. I imagine that means they removed the little blown out part that would be creating pressure? I don’t know. Also got a number of doctor recommendations from different people for all over North America, so thanks everyone for the help!

All this happened unbeknownst to Roscoe who had his own business to attend to. The baby deer saw his opportunity and aimed his attack.

I figure when it comes to wisdom in BMX there’s few who could offer better advice then Brian Foster so I’ll include his text to me in full. He wrote: “I say all bodily pain can be cured by stretching your hamstrings. Figured the opinion of one more “specialist” couldn’t hurt. Good luck.” I agree that is good advice for all BMXers and we should all take it to heart. Because we are always pushing down with our legs our quads tend to get overly strong, but the opposing muscle doesn’t get anywhere near as developed. The result can be a tendency for your lower back to arch a little bit more than its supposed to and pelvis to tilt down. That’s true in my case and doing situps and stretching hamstrings is the best way I can come up with to relieve the stress on my spine (and relieve some of the pressure by better aligning my spine).

Blammm! The baby deer charged with all his speed and might right into the side of poor old Roscoe’s head.

I have an appointment with a back specialist/ orthopedic spinal surgeon on friday. Going to go over all my mri’s and x-rays to figure out what he thinks we can do. I hope he seems cool and can convince me he knows what’s best to do. Thanks again everyone for all the help.

Poor Roscoe was left dazed and confused (but unhurt since the deer was hardly the size of a cat). As he watched his attacker skamper off into the woods he wondered why baby deers were such little bastards.