Lubbock Radio Personality Survives Terrible Longboarding Accident

Some people are accident-prone and used to bandages, stitches and trips to the hospital. I'm not one of those people. So when I ended up in the emergency room last Friday with a bad concussion and in need of stitches, it was a very new experience.

Friday, April 8th started out as a normal day for me. After going to work at 102.5 Kiss FM as I usually do, my partner and I went over to my parents' house to have dinner with them like we do every Friday. Since the weather was nice, we decided to take our longboards with us so we could longboard around the neighborhood before dinner. All was well until we decided to board on a street we hadn't been to before.

This new street looked really nice; it had recently been paved and there were no houses being built on it yet. We figured it would be a good spot where we can cruise without getting in anyone's way. We were correct in assuming there wouldn’t be any other people around on the road, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t any surprises waiting for us.

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My partner made his way down the road ahead of me, but by the time we realized that the road got pretty steep towards the end we were already moving fairly fast. Both of us have been longboarding for a while now, but we are by no means experts. As this was our first ride of the season, we were also pretty rusty. As we moved downhill and picked up speed, we realized our mistake of not walking the road first to check it out before hopping on our boards.

My partner, who was several yards ahead of me, approached a point where he had to make a decision. He could 1) try to turn as hard as he could into gravel that was scattered along the end of the road, 2) crash into the curb and go flying into the dirt, or 3) run off the board to stop his forward momentum and prevent a crash. He decided that his best bet was to bail and run off the board, which he successfully managed, avoiding both the curb and the gravel that put him at risk.

Then, it was my turn to make a decision.

I had the same three options as him and I also decided to run off the board in an attempt to avoid some other type of accident. However, I did not successfully run off my board. In fact, all I remember is making the decision to bail and then waking up covered in my own blood and surrounded by my family and firefighters, as seen in the photo above.

Apparently, my momentum got the best of me and sent me head-first into the street. This left me with a bit of a head wound and a really bad concussion, so we went to the emergency room after the firefighters bandaged me up and said I was good to go. At the hospital, they did a series of tests, including a CT scan and some X-rays. After seven hours in the ER, they determined that all I needed was five stitches and to be sent home with a guide on how to rest and let my brain heal from the concussion.

Thankfully, after several days of extreme dizziness, lots of sleep and the care of my lovely parents who let me stay with them while I healed, I can say that I'm back to about 95 percent capacity. I still have the occasional dizzy spell if I sit up too fast, but compared to this time last week when I could hardly do anything other than sleep and occasionally get up for meals, I'm doing much better.

So if you were missing my voice on 102.5 Kiss FM airwaves or you just came here for a good story, that's how I ended up in one of the worst accidents I've ever been in. If you get anything from this story, let it be the fact that you should always wear a helmet. I know I'll be wearing one from now on and I will definitely use my head scar as a scare tactic to get my future kids to wear their helmets.