First off, thanks for all the support and best wishes here about my recovery. I definately wasnt expecting to receive so much concern. Just another great example of the parkour community and the comradery we share.
I've had a bunch of people asking me what happened so here it is...
I was doing this kong over the walkway and into the raised garden area (9 ft. gap and 8 ft. drop):
I have long been wanting to do this and I finally got psyched up to try it for the first time. I nailed it, near perfectly, but I thought I could do it better so I went back to try again. The second try I clipped my feet and woke up on the concrete ground. I don't remember the fall or what happened, but I do remember an extraordinary impact/explosion in my head followed by a white flash. It was like I fell in a dream and woke up and it was actually real. I basically did a half flip and landed on my head/shoulder on the concrete walkway and proceeded to continue my flip on impact and crashed my legs into the raised garden wall.
The aftermath: I was briefly knocked out on impact. I have a seperated left shoulder, left wrist sprain, and mild concussion. I also have cuts, bruises, and aches on my head and all down my left side.
And to add insult to injury, my successful attempt, the bail, and the last half of the footage I was shooting were eaten by the camera.
This is just another reminder to always be 100% focused all the time on what you do. Even a vault you've done 1000 times can be messed up under certain circumstances. I think I was too caught up in the height and distance I had to clear that I forgot to do a clean vault. This is an extremely important lesson to remember for every movement with several "parts" to it such as vaults to cats and vaults to precisions. If you get one step ahead of yourself, you will mess up, potentially with big consequences. Always remember to focus on all parts of something. Never get caught up in the second half of something because you will screw up the first half. If you find yourself at an obstacle, questioning your abilities for the second half, but confident in the first, take this advice. Leave it for another day, its not going anywhere. Go train on something else over and over until your skill is greater and you are more confident in your abilities. In the long run, its worth the extra wait.
I was lucky, had my shoulder not taken half the impact, I could've died or something with 8 feet of falling impact to my head on concrete. Always focus guys, never let yourself get to comfortable, you always need to be completely aware of everything on everything you do. This is achieved through tons of practice and repetition on obstacles at a low scale. Parkour is a SLOW progression and it must be treated that way. Always build up the scale of things slowly and only when you are confident in upping the difficulty. Even if you are confident, take that extra time to drill it into your head and muscle memory. There is no need to rush things in parkour that compromise your safety. Even when you can do it 1000/1000 times perfect at ground level, continue to practice those basics because freak accidents can occur. We must train hard and be ready for anything. Get in great shape too guys, I am convinced that had I not been in good shape, the magnitude of my consequences would have been far greater.
But again, parkour is a progression and its about being better than you were the day before. I will be back, stronger and better prepared. I've had a temporary setback but I will overcome it just like another obstacle or challenge. As Bruce Lee said, "A man must constantly exceed his level."
