Wipe Out
December 03, 2003

I always thought my first (and maybe my last!) biking accident in Rio would be caused by the distraction of a beautiful girl walking down the street as I weave through traffic. But it just wasn't to be.

Today I truly busted my ass riding home from swimming on my way to teach a lesson. There was construction on the bike/pedestrian path along the Lagoa (big lagoon), so I took to the street. I had enough room and was riding with the flow of traffic without a problem.

I notice a guy riding towards me, but on the sidewalk. He was really on the edge, because of the plastic fencing keeping people off of the pavement. All of a sudden, without any warning, this asshole goes flying off his bike and his bike comes flying at me. The damn bike crashes right into me and I go twisting right over the handlebars... fuck me! I broke my fall with my hands to protect my face. My bike got twisted up a bit (and that asshole cost me my water bottle holder!). But miraculously, I got out of there with only some minor cuts and scratches ...almost nothing. I got up with my neck a bit funny and thought, great, time for that herniated disc operation finally .... with a demo recording for this weekend and an important show with my friend Ze Paulo next week. But my hands feel ok, and I think I'm cool.

I immediately started barking at this guy, calling him an idiot. But he came over to see if I was ok and explain that his peddle got caught in the plastic fencing. I cooled down and told him it was cool. I don't know if all of those years of BMX bike riding paid off, or if I just got lucky ... but if I had fallen to the left I would have gone right into traffic ... and I'd probably be in the hospital right now instead of writing this.

Oh yeah, for those concerned, my cell phone and iPod made it home just fine ;-)

Posted by Scott at 03:45 PM