I always tell myself...

everything happens for a reason. So when I get hurt and have to miss an important competition for the second time in a row, it all happened for some reason- maybe I would have hurt myself more there, or maybe I will never know the reason...but I will only gain experience and knowledge and hopefully it won't ever happen again. Graham Banks looked at it as paying your dues, so they don't keep filling up the balloon which will eventually pop. I thought that was a funny way of looking at it. Rob Macfarlane looked at it as the better you get the harder you're going to fall. I totally agree. There's tons of risk at the pro level of competition, and that's why they get compensated so much. I must say I was pretty intimidated by this down rail with a "donkey dick" (2 ft flat) in the middle of a 18 set of stairs. This was the first year for me at the Ride Shakedown, which was held in the U.S. for the first time, in Snoqualmie, WA. I got to hit the spool bonk once and the down rail once before I wrecked myself and dislocated my elbow. I was devastated and knew exactly what happened and that I had to go to the hospital to get it popped back into place. I've witnessed a few being popped back in, and I was not looking forward to it. I knew it wasn't the worse thing that could've happened, but I was so sad because I had a pretty good chance at winning. Hana Beaman took 2nd and Megan Ginter took 1st with backside 360's. I knew I could've thrown a cab 540, and I wanted to try my backside 720. Who knows why I was meant to be standing and watching rather than throwing down some tricks, but I hope it was a good reason. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.