From February 17...17 days after

I wrote this 17 days after my crash which happened on January 31, 2013...

    It was our first flight of the day on the Big Sur coast with my buddy Sean Dobbins. Its a beautiful 1 hour hike to the launch point. We decided to launch a two way, Sean going off the mountain first and me following shortly behind. just after launch @1650' I decided to make a fateful 270° turn back into the mountain to start my proximity run down, which Sean had pulled off seconds prior, I misjudged by about 5-10'. I completed the turn but there wasn't enough altitude to let my canopy completely recover and go into its full glide, I impacted going about 40-50mph, I hit once and bounced back up into my wing and landed approx 30' away from the initial hit, my body stopped its forward motion and came to rest, I now lay about 1500' vertically up the mountain. 

    Instantly the pain started in, I yelled "help" 4or5 times before my breath started to go and being out in the middle of nowhere i realized the calls for help were futile no one would hear me.
As I layed there dazed, but coherent and alert enough to know that shit just got real, i began assesing the damages, my right leg naturally rested bent at the knee and was completely numb, there was no way i could move it, my lower back had a dull pain, I knew it was broken so I wiggled my toes to insure if I had been paralyzed or not...left toes wiggle check, right toes had no feeling and the leg itself was not responding to any of the commands I was giving it, broken bad I thought, my next brief thought was "helicopter". All of this was taking place as i was gasping to catch my breath that had just been knocked out of me. My breath started coming back, slow and controlled; inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale; now my air back I took a deep breath to calm myself only to feel my chest pop and crack, i had broken ribs as well. This was not good.

    About 10mins passed as I heard Sean making his way up to me, he yelled "are you OK?", my response was "no, it's bad, I need a helicopter". Making his way through the dense coastal brush he finally arrived at ground zero.

    "I can't move brooo, I need a helicopter, I can't move my leg"

    At that moment, as I recall, he assessed the damages following my right leg from the hip to the foot, but his words were very discouraging "I don't see your foot...what do I do???"
"Relaunch, get help..."

    I wiggled out of my harness to get to the car keys, Sean removed his belt and helped tie it around my leg and use it as tourniquet, around this moment in time I took a long look at my mangled leg, a compound fracture, the leg broken 2inches above the ankle, my tib exposed looking like a Halloween prop and I could now see my foot, folded under my leg and buried deep in the brush.
Tourniquet in place, Sean used my canopy to cover the injured leg, then he hauled ass back to the top of the mountain to relaunch. I layed on my right side, back to the ocean, head pointed downhill, I looked up and I saw Sean fly directly over me as he made his way for help.
Now the mental, for the most part I remained quite calm to my surprise. Yes, my leg hurt but not as bad as I would have thought, a compound fracture and what looked like a nearly amputated foot, I would have expected more.

    "Be calm" I kept telling myself, "be calm...."

    As time passed I became a bit more tired and dehydrated, I could tell my grip was loosening on the belt around my leg.

    I recall two moments of brief panic before telling myself I had to "fucking relax", yelling and expelling energy would do nothing for me.

    I must've been laying there for about 2hours, my eyes closed, when I finally heard the first sounds of a helicopter, it lasted for maybe 5min then it stopped, I started to think I was hallucinating the sounds of rescue.

    Things started becoming tingly, my breath was becoming even more relaxed, and a whitish fuzz started to make its way into my vision, along with those shooting star things you see when stare at a clear blue sky long enough, i started to believe this was the beginning of the end, and that I had no idea how much longer I was going to be able hold on. I thought to myself, well this isn't the worst place to "go in", but my back was to the ocean, I attempted to roll over to get a view of the Big Sur coast, but that wasn't an option, there was no way with the condition of my leg, back and chest that I would be able to position myself for a view of the ocean. "This sucks, I'm gonna die with my face buried into the mountain side"

    Maybe 20min had passed since I heard the first sounds of a helicopter, in the distance I could hear it again, this time it kept getting closer and closer, within minutes a CHP helicopter was hovering directly above me, I raised my left hand in the air and waved a weak hello, I could tell this was purely recon when they turned to the south and flew away.

    I'd say 15 more minutes passed when I heard someone calling for me 30ft up the mountain "Hey bud! Can you hear me", all I could muster was a soft "YES", at that time I took my helmet and threw it into the air thinking he'd see it and have a better idea of where I layed.

    "Hold on, I coming..."he said again, this time I could tell he was within 10ft of me. 

    "You're gonna be alright, I'm here now" the man said as he made his way to me. 

    He asked me the typical questions, who are you? How old are you? What happened? Do you know where you are?

    He then quickly got on his radio and called in the situation "37yr old male, right foot amputated, we're gonna...." That's when the surreal became real when I heard "amputated", I asked him to be truthful when asked "my foot is gone" , he replied "No man, don't worry, we'll get you fixed up"
Two other fellows were right behind him with all the necessary tools to get me out.

    At this point in time all I wanted was water, and they denied my request as they cut my leg and foot free from the brush. They put a neck brace on before they rolled me to one side so they could put me on a board. Strapping me pretty tightly to the board they made sure I was secure, these guys were doing a fantastic job at saving my ass off the side of this mountain. 

    Now that I have been secured to the board, they then lifted me into a giant duffle bag that cinched around my body. Still keep in mind that I haven't been administered any pain meds or fluids for my dehydration.

   The CHP helicopter returned and began lowering a hoist, one of the guys on ground crew latched the bag to the cable, gave a thumbs up and next thing I realized I was being lifted into the air. I wasn't perfectly balanced, in fact I was leaning pretty hard to my right, it felt as if I was going fall out of this thing but I didn't seem to care. Pulling me up as I approached the skids of the helicopter the wind wash off the prop began spinning me, luckily the guy working the hoist had experienced this before and was able to keep me from spinning out of control, finally secured to the helicopter they flew me down to the life flight helicopter that was waiting for me to airlift me to Stanford Hospital.

The injuries I suffered were as follows:
Tib/Fib compound fracture on my right leg, also completely obliterating my tendons, cartilage,  and the deltoid ligament in that foot.
Tib/heel fractures in my left leg
L2,3,4,5 compression fractured
Numerous broken ribs.

    I'm pretty lucky to have only sustained the injuries I did, things could have been much worse. And a word to all the groundlaunchers, speedfliers, and people who just enjoy the foot launch no matter what wing you choose, ALWAYS fly with a friend, if I had been alone out there, there is a very good chance I would have died, I have to thank Sean for making the initial moves on getting to the necessary folks for help, and if could remember them by name there are big thanks to the 3 guys who climbed down and got me off the mountain safely. Dr. Bishop for putting my bones back together and I can only hope that he will be doing the follow up surgery for reconstructing my tendons in the right foot.

    Okay, so there it is, the incident that has put me in the position I am now. Today is June 9, 2013, 129 days later and I still have my foot and I'm still waiting for the reconstructive surgery of my deltoid ligament.

Earth Hurts...