I was still positive about getting back on my bike and spent my recovery time watching YouTube clips and reading bike articles, but the shoulder did not heal, it was out of place and would require surgery. There go’s my back on the bike for the summer plan ☹️ The bike was to go ! I sold the kona, the bike that gave me so much joy but also so much pain. But i was not giving up on mountain biking, my plan was to build a better bike while i recovered.
So it was lots of forest walks for me and Luca for a few months while i waited for an operation date, operation was in the summer and it gave me so much more movement back, i still cant to this day put my right arm above shoulder height but this was a massive improvment on the little movement i had. Surgery was fine and i was even back at work the same afternoon, the joys of being self employed ! Ha. Also a bonus being type 1 diabetic i was 1st in for surgery. I was using my right arm within a couple of days for daily tasks and after a couple of weeks i started on the bike build, i had bought a trek remedy and stripped her totally down and got her painted ready for a new build. This gave me some focus while i was recovering and it wasnt long before she was ready and i managed to get a few rides on her out the front down the street.
This was the year me and Luca actually got our first holiday where daddy was not working down in Cornwall and we had great weather so spent most days on the beach, things were also going great with Luca. He was growing up so fast and becoming a proper little cheeky boy. It ment we got on much better as well, not as many tantrums and i would say it was this year that he started to become my best friend. i was really enjoying being a dad.
Later in this year i started to get out on the bike again, the shoulder was aching a lot but the recovery was all about movement. When they say to keep it moving and do the exercises take it from me, do the exercises ! I wish i did them more often even as often as hourly as it all makes a big difference to your recovery. To this day i can not throw a ball over arm anymore, maybe if i did my exercises more often i would of got 90% back instead of the 80% I have to live with now. Anyway onto bikes ...... i was back ! Finding new trails, had new riding friends who went all these crazy places every Sunday, bike parks, natural rides, trail centres, a whole world of mountain biking was opening up to me again.
But ..... i was not really happy with the bike, something didnt connect with me and i still had a few offs luckily not as big as my shoulder breaker and at the end of this year i would be the ripe ol age of 40. I couldnt afford a Porsche for a mid life crisis so i got this instead ....
Yes this was my mid life crisis, and many people i know thought i was crazy to be 40 and getting into this scene when it had caused so much pain already. My thought was 40 was the absolulty correct time to start something new, after all im half way through my life why not start to enjoy it.
I got this bike from one planet at Degla, where it all started for me and the closest trail centre to where we live. They were fantastic and the demo i rode just felt right, my friend David said to me “i have never seen you hit this trail so hard before, you must feel good on that bike” i loved it, it just felt right. And after a chat with the guy in the shop i got some brucy bonus upgrades for free. Boss Deville forks as they were on the demo bike and i loved them, sram guide brakes and they swapped the dropper to a reverb for me.
This was the moment the obsession really started, i was truly a proper mountain biker now. Not purely because of the silly expensive carbon bike but the obbsession with the whole scene started for me. We started to watch the UCI downhill, i learned about the pro riders and about bike set ups and riding positions. My riding started to get better but i was still sacred of big jumps, rock gardens and steep technical stuff.
1st trip to Fort Bill
It was time for my first trip to bike park wales !
What a place ! Mountain biking was well and truly imbedded in my soul, even if my riding looks poor ha. But i was learning, getting better, braver and maybe even on this new bike i would attempt to hit the dreaded shoulder jump again ?
Yes i did, i faced my fears and went to that local track with the big table top every week for a mid week night session. I hit the jump again and again and found some form, i must say fasting your fears and nailing this jump after the pain it put me through was one of the best feelings ever 🙌
And that is how you end a year that started shit but turned out to be great 👍
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