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I'll kick it off by telling my story Cam...

It was the spring of 1988, I was 17 years old. My buddy David and I were riding across town to see another friend of ours. This was the first ride of the year for both of us and I had just taken my ten speed down (it hung upside down from hooks in the garage) and in my haste to get going, disreguarded my fathers timely advice to tighten down the wing nuts on the wheels... BIG MISTAKE!!!

So we're heading across town riding down this hill when we start to come up on a curb. For reasons that are still unknown to me David suddenly slowed way down and let me pass him. This was pure luck as if not for this simple manuver, I would to this day not have any clue as to what happened next. Ok so I pass him up and start to plan my next move. I remember thinking I was going too fast to bunny hop off of the side walk onto the pavement, and then bunny hop back up onto the sidewalk again and continue on. So I was planning on hopping down, turning into the parking lot while slowing down, making a big loop around and hopping back up onto the next sidewalk. My memory of the incident ends about 50 feet from the curb, the rest is David's recollection of the incident.

So after passing David I continued down the sidewalk and made the bunny hop as I had planned... while in the air my front wheel came straight off of my bike. Upon landing on my front forks I was catapulted into the air where I did a complete forward 360 degree loop and then performed one of the most brutal face-plants ever witnessed right into the asphalt. The interesting part is that according to David, I never let go of the handle bars or ditched the bike what-so-ever. He said it was like I was glued to the bike, like we were all one piece. Anyhow when I landed on my face he said my head and neck made a 90 degree angle and he heard a spine chilling popping noise. At that point he said the rest of my body and my bike fell lifelessly to the ground as I laid there motionless. He said without a doubt he was 100% sure I'd snapped my neck and was dead at that point. He stopped his bike, and ran over to me yelling my name. When he got to me he said I looked up at him, untangled myself from my bike as I stood up, walked over to the curb and sat down all without saying a word or making a sound.

Ok so from 50 feet away from the curb I went blank until I suddenly opened my eyes and looked up at a blood-red sky. At that point I remember seeing David come into the picture like he was moving in slow motion... only I couldn't hear him, or anything else for that matter. The next thing I remember was sitting on the curb and seeing a woman pull up in a car looking at me in horror. I don't remember her saying anything, I just remember climbing into her car. At that point I looked down at my shirt, I was wearing my favorite 'Ocean Pacific' tee-shirt, and as I looked down at it I noticed a shocking amount of blood pouring down from my face onto it. For a split second I remember being alarmed that my favorite shirt was getting ruined. But a split second after that I specifically remember thinking, "fuck it, it's just a damn shirt"... which in itself was strange because I was always VERY particular about my clothes. At that point I looked out the window I was sitting next to and saw David standing there with his arm extended out towards me, holding my tooth in his hand. As I took my tooth out of his hand it suddenly occured to me that something bad must have just happened. Only I was under the assumption that I must have been in a car wreck!

The woman then turned around and drove me to the emergency room (this all happened in the back entrance to the hopital... ironic eh?), where they would spend the next 45 minutes wiring my tooth back into my mouth. The fact that the only injury I sustained was a knocked out tooth is to David a 'miracle'!!! According to him the violent and wickedly fast nature that the entire weight of my body and bicycle slamming my head into the asphalt the way it did should have resulted in catastrophic injuries. He was so sure I was dead when he saw me hit the ground that when he saw my eyes moving around he thought it was my nerves causing a reflex... like a chicken running around after his head's been cut off. Ha, that must have been freaky!!! Lol...

I guess it's a good thing my tooth took the brunt of the impact. I have strong teeth, the collision knocked my whole tooth right out root and all. It wasn't chipped or split or broken in any way. So it seems I'm lucky to be walking around according to David. Too bad my body's ability to fight off cancer isn't as strong as my teeth eh?