Sometimes You Just Know Something Bad Is Going To Happen
Easter Weekend at Ocotillo Wells, we had some people camp near us. They were in their twenties. 3 guys and 2 gals. I was sitting in camp with the cousins watching people ride when we saw 2 of our "neighbors" ride by without helmets on. They were riding pretty hard too.
As I sat in my chair, I saw the pair of riders go zooming by our camp and heading across the wash. I thought to myself, "this guy is gonna crash without a helmet on". I debated jumping up and grabbing the video camera because I thought I would capture it. I decided against it and sat there as they rode out of my sight.
They were still in Brando's sight when it happened. He came over the ridge and crashed right on his head. I could have had the whole thing on tape, too!
He wasn't seriously hurt, but enough that he laid there for a few minutes before getting up, then sat on his bike for about 10 minutes before riding back towards camp. Only he didn't go back to camp, he went across the other ridge and continued jumping. His girlfriend was jumping without a helmet too. (See PICT).
It simply amazes me to watch people do this. Especially people that are supposedly adults. Riding without helmets is against the law in this state, not to mention that the brainiac had just crashed on his head a few minutes before, but somehow felt he was good enough to still not need a helmet.
9 de April, 2007 at 9:00 pm
hello my name is justin and i am one of the kids that you were filming jumping over the ridge by your campsite. i was riding the green kawasaki. i wanted to say that this is a great site that you have going and ive been checkin it out. those people that you mentioned that were riding without the helmets are just plain stupid. my friend on the yellow suzuki broke his ankle in the miidle of your filming and he just landed wrong. but the person that fell without the helmet could have been seriously injured or died and i just wanted to point that out. you have a great site goin and keep it up, im looking forward to the video. Bye
10 de April, 2007 at 6:14 am
Hey Justin, thanks for stopping by. I haven’t processed the videos yet but will some time this week and get them uploaded. I will make sure you get full, un-edited copies of the videos I shot of you.
I’m sorry about your friend. I hope he heals soon and gets back on his bike.
You absolutely never know when something is going to go wrong, and it’s not always your fault.
Thanks to you and your friends for being a good example for my kids. We did talk afterwards about both groups, and how idiotic it was for those others to be doing that kind of riding without helmets.
10 de April, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Matt,
I am the dad of one of justin’s friends, ( Nick, he was on the CRF 250) that you were filming. Do you have any stills of his jump? He was hurt later that day when a polaris ranger tipped on him (he wasn’t driving) and broke his tibula in two places.
10 de April, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Hi Jon,
I don’t have any stills. My brother in law was there as well and may have gotten some stills, I’ll have him look for some of Nick. If all else fails, I can make some stills from the video, but the quality may not be of print quality. I’ll try exporting a super hi res version of part of the video and see if it provides better quality stills.
I hope Nick gets better soon!
2 de May, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Matt,
any idea when the video of Justin, Nick and Andrew jumping will be posted? Thanks, Jon
2 de May, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Jon, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that what little bit of video made it out alive will be posted this week.
The bad news is that it’s only the earlier footage that made it out alive. Sorry.
Matt