The McLaughlin Mansion: 2008

Have you ever gone snowboarding the day after a big storm? When there is so much snow on the trees you think the branches are going to break and there is powder up to your knees and as you fly down the mountain the only thing you hear is your board gliding over the fresh unpacked snow. Snowboarding in powder on a sunny day is by far the best feeling in the whole world!!! and I don't care what you married people say :) If you haven't tried it then you are seriously missing out!

Keystone, CO

Anyway I love snowboarding and I go all the time or at least as much as I can. I moved to Colorado last year where there is some of the best snow this continent has to offer. And last winter I got to test it out, I went almost every weekend and snowboarded my heart out. I got lots of pictures and snowboarded in real Colorado powder for the first time, it was amazing. The last time I went snowboarding to this day was March 15th. It was a Saturday, sunny and warm outside with just enough powder to still be very enjoyable. I was with a group of friends and we were all pushing each other to do crazy and stupid things. My friends decided to take me to the snowboarding park and it was my first time and oh my gosh ... doth mine eyes deceive me ... I witness standing before me in all its glory the biggest snowboarding jumps ever, huge Olympic sized professional man made jumps. I was as happy as a pig in a mud puddle.

So I sat on my butt on the cold snow looking down at the jumps, the jumps that would forever haunt me ... 3 in a row one after another, each one a little bigger accounting for the speed increase after each successful land. I went for it and launched off the first jump perfectly and landed straight keeping my speed but just before the 2nd jump I slowed down fearing I was going too fast and since this was my first time going off these jumps I didn't want to kill myself and as I launched off the 2nd jump I found myself moving very slowly and not having near enough speed to clear the jump so I came down on both feet landing completely flat on top of the jump ... I didn't fall but my feet were on fire, stinging from the sharp impact. I raised my hand in celebration, my friends cheered for me. I decided to go at it again determined to conquer all 3 jumps. This time I wasn't going to slow down, this time I wasn't going to fear at all. So after landing the first jump perfectly I kept straight gaining speed for the 2nd jump and when I hit that jump I flew!!! I launched so far I almost overshot the landing completely. And it would have been all good but I was leaning too far back when I took off so my board shot out in front of me and I was flying through the air like I was being pulled by my board and I landed straight on my lower back and totally knocked the wind out of me.

Now I've had the wind knocked out of me before but never like this. I couldn't talk, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't stand up straight and everything hurt like crazy. I had to take the sled down the mountain (which I hated and wanted to board down on my own) and they took me to the resort medical center and put me on a table and wanted to do a scan of my back to see if I broke anything or had some internal damage. I signed the denial form cause I worked at Envision Radiology and could get a scan for free but since it was Saturday we were not open so I had to wait till Monday. My Dad and brother Eric both said that I needed to go to the emergency room immediately because there could be something seriously wrong with me and I could be dead on Monday. By this time I was already home (2 hour drive home from the resort) and in my bed and I had called my boss and his brother to come over to give me a blessing. My sister Marcy was on her way over too. I received my blessing and then Darren's brother changed me cause I couldn't move and I was still in my snowboarding clothes. He told me it was no big deal and he had 3 kids and did this all the time :)

So to make a long story short I went to the emergency room and they treated me as a high trauma patient and had me on a bed and with 6 nurses working on me in under 5 minutes. The Dr. came in and asked me questions and said based on the distance I traveled in the air (about 40 feet) and how fast I was going that the impact was equivalent to me jumping off a 4 story building and landing on my back. They gave me a CT chest/abdomen/pelvis scan and found nothing wrong with me. They sent me home with vicodin and valium to help me with pain and muscle relaxation but in my opinion they did nothing for me. Since I couldn't get out of my bed by myself lots of people came over to help me. Julina came over and cleaned my apartment made me breakfast for lunch and even gave me a sponge bath ... haha j/k.

It's a miracle that I walked away with nothing more than a sore back and some bruised ribs.

Here's the video!!!