DSMskateboarding: Why you haven't seen me around for the past couple weeks or so....

I'm pretty sure it happened while in New York, (Brooklyn to be specific) a little over a month ago.

Here's the low-down: Andrew Pratt and I were skating the KCDC mini-ramp. Because it's extremely difficult for me to turn down a skate session...I had to borrow Andrew's board, which turned out to be a bad idea. He was riding an 8in wide deck, (I've been riding a 7.78 since like 1997), tight trucks & like 58mm wheels. To me...this setup was a bit difficult to manipulate...but I was able to man-handle the beastly board around to an extent that supplied me with some pleasurable skateboarding time. We skated a good forty five minutes to an hour before I took a tumble from the coping to the flat bottom. It's funny how sometimes the simplest of tricks can really turn on you. If any of you have skated a mini with me...you can probably call me out on the first trick I do to start out a run, (backside 5-0/salad/pivot thingy). Well...that trick on an unfamiliar wooden stick with wheels turned on me like your lovable pet dog Scrappy McTurdzy with rabies this day, (well...not that bad)...but you get the idea. Exiting the grinder rail skid my front foot rolled off the front of the board and I plummeted to the flat bottom. Judging by Andrew's reaction...I must have slammed pretty hard but it ain't no thang I thought. I hopped back up on the deck and gracefully handed him his board back for his turn, (yeah...we probably looked pretty gay sharing a board in a Brooklyn skate shop, but that's beside the point). We continued to skate the ramp for maybe another twenty minutes or so then toured the shop and chatted it up with the fellas workin' the shop, (READ MY LAST BLOG SLACKERS!)

Flash forward to later that night. Diana and I went walking around the NYC with one of her blogger friends and it wasn't until I first sat down at this fancy little Tapas bar/restaurant that I felt the squeeze on my knee/hamstring/leg. At first I shrugged it off thinking oh...it's just inflamed from all the walking I've been doing the past couple days so I thought nothing of it. We ended up walking around quite a bit more that night and even caught a glimpse of some local NYC skaters shreddin' it up at Washington Square Park.

Washington Square Park

The next morning I woke-up with a giant swollen knee...but strangely enough...felt no pain. The swelling was enough that I couldn't squat down to the ground like if you are to poop in a hole in the woods that you dug with a collapsible shovel. However...this being Diana and I's main vacation/tourist day together...I didn't feel the need to rest my leg and continued on about the day. I managed to trudge through the NYC streets with only mild discomfort, (did I mention this was the day of the NYC blizzard?)....yeah...I didn't believe the news reporters until we were actually out and about that day...walking about 40-60 blocks with tons of snow raining down. It was crazy.

The start of our day.

Time Square was about 20 blocks from our hotel.

See...I told you...BLIZZARD in NYC.

So anyways...back to the reason I haven't been at the rink the past couple weeks. The past few weeks or so I've had some discomfort in my upper leg/hamstring area. I first noticed when I returned home and went to the rink, (Skate South...for my global followers) that my knee and leg didn't feel as strong as it was suppose to. Another thing was when I'd be coming up to the flat bar or box...there would be a tightening or sharp pain in the tendons behind my knee, (Carl witnessed this first hand one night) as it appeared my knee just gave out on me while approaching the box in a crouched/pre-launch position. There is also a discomfort that bothers me while sitting down like at my office desk chair or in the car. As much as I didn't want to...I visited the doctor a week later, (last Tuesday, March 9th). He really couldn't diagnose me too completely without having an MRI done on my knee/leg so at this point he has me just doing some simple leg excersizes for the next two - three weeks to try and get the strength back in my right leg. He also recommended, (I saw it coming) to take it easy on the skateboarding for a while if I want it to heal properly. Being that nice weather is near...and how much I like to be active in the Spring/Summer season...I figured I'd take his advice. Come to think of it...I've never really had an injury keeping me off my board in the fourteen years I've been skateboarding.

If you're not familiar...here are some sample pix of the ham string muscles and tendons.