… “sprain.”
Now that you know the ending, let’s fill in the back story before we proceed with the story of how it happened. As family members and long-time readers know (heh, as if those are different groups of people ;-), I’ve been heeling. Heeling is the word used to describe the activity of rolling on Heelys, the shoe with the removable wheel in the heel. No, I didn’t sprain my ankle rolling around on them. I’m good at that, and am a very safe heeler. There’s another side of heeling, though. An “extreme” side, just like there’s an extreme side to skateboarding, biking, rollerblading, and other wheeled sports. I’m sure this is hard for some people to believe, since most of the time most people see heelers is when they see some little kid zipping around at the local grocery or department store.
How does one perform anything “extreme” on Heelys? Well, there are models of Heelys that have larger, wider wheels that enable easier heeling on vert ramps, and some with plastic plates on the arch of the sole to allow grinding on rails and copings. A special few models come with both of these important features, and so are often referred to as “pro” models. This is the type of model I found for Nikolas at a discount recently, which he received for his birthday. I also made him a practice grind rail, which is essentially a PVC pipe on a 2×4 that sits on the ground
Unfortunately, what I feared would happen, did happen, and that is that while Nikolas was enthusiastic about grinding the rail, he was apprehensive about actually doing it. I tried to help him as much as I could, but he decided that since it’s not easy, it’s much too hard, and that since I can’t do it, I can’t possibly teach him how, either, never mind how many videos I’ve watched, or tips I’ve received from pro-level heelers. The only way I would be able to get him to really try it on his own was to get some of those Heelys myself, and do it myself.
It wasn’t long before a friend on HeelyChat found an auction on eBay for a pair of Torch, the pro-style Heelys with large (Mega) wheels and grind plates in a size that would fit me (sz12). They’re a little big on me, but tighten up just fine. The bidding wasn’t too fierce, but I was up against someone else who wanted them. Large size pro-style Heelys are highly desirable, and very rare. It’s not uncommon for their prices to be quite high. In this case, I lucked out, and paid less than original retail, including the shipping. I won the auction on a Friday morning, and they arrived by USPS Priority mail on the following Tuesday, even after Memorial Day. 🙂
It wasn’t until Thursday that I decided to try them out on the grind rail. I had heeled in them a little bit, but hadn’t done anything on the rail. Knowing that the rail is really slippery, I took it slow and careful. First, I stopped onto it repeatedly, just to make sure I could step onto it and land on the grind plates. Then I hopped onto it and off of it, still ensuring that I landed on the plates. I do this because attempting to grind but landing on the sole of the shoe rather than the plate is the fastest way to ensure that you fall. After successfully landing on the plates with no sideways motion, I began to work myself up to moving sideways while jumping onto the rail. Always keeping my feet shoulder width apart, I gradually increased my speed until I was able to grind the entire ten foot rail without falling off.
I was, of course, very excited by this. I had recorded myself practicing on video, and immediately told my friends on HeelyChat about my success. I was congratulated for my success, and I started the process of processing and uploading the video I had just recorded. I was so excited, that I went back outside to practice some more. This time, I didn’t take my camera, I just went out to have more fun.
Up until that point, I had only been practicing grinding with my right foot first. In the video (below) I did put my left foot up first once, but decided that it was too awkward still. That was early on, though. Alas, my previous success had affected my judgment. I decided to try grinding with my left foot first again, but I didn’t work myself up to it with the stepping and hopping and additional preparations that I did the first time. No, I thought to myself, “I can do this. It’s not that hard.” and so I just hopped right on with my left foot first. My right foot was apparently not ready for this action, though, as when I brought it up to the rail, it somehow missed the rail, or my leg wasn’t ready for it to be in that position, or a combination of both of those things. In any case, my right foot crumpled under my massive weight, and I fell straight down on it, folding my foot out much more than it should ever be turned and bent. As I heard two or through loud “pop” noises, extreme pain shot through me, causing me to roll on my side, cursing myself and the world. As I looked at my foot, I saw that it was pointing the wrong way, and not responding to my muscle commands. My immediate thought was that I had just broken my ankle.
After I made it through the initial pain, and nausea, I managed to take of the shoe on that foot to examine the injury. Fortunately, there were no lacerations or protruding bones. It might still be broken, or fractured, but at least I wasn’t going to be losing buckets of blood while dragging my limp leg back inside the house. Lengthening story shortened, I made it inside, put some ice on it, decided that it was too bad to not go to a doctor, called Ingrid to come home and take me to a doctor with an on-site X-ray machine, got it looked at, turned out to be a bad sprain but no breaks or fractures, got some prescriptions, and have been sitting on the couch all day since then, doing my best to let it heal.
Anyway, the most annoying thing is that I did this AFTER I had already been grinding a fair bit and getting good at the basic frontside grind. Will I learn from this? Of course! Next time, I’ll stop being so cocky and treat EVERY variation as an entirely new trick to work up to. I’d kick myself, but my foot hurts too much. 🙂 For reading this stupid post, you get an equally stupid video of me practicing grinding. Have fun!