The last real, real scare I had
came about 4 years ago at a skate park.

I was riding the miniramp, which at its highest point was seven feet tall. The back of the ramp faced onto the street course, which was about perhaps 8 feet down, possibly a little more. Between the top of the ramp and this 8 foot drop to solid concrete was a waist high wooden rail.

I'm skating this ramp and practising my front side axle stalls, which is a trick in which I ride to the coping of the ramp (the metal bar that runs the length of the top of the ramp) and stop with your axles sat perpendicular on the bar (like a 50-50 grind, but not moving).

Unfortunately I was going too fast, and I had to step backwards off my board.

But I was still going too fast, and my body weight carried me another step backwards.

And my arse met with the railing.

And I was still going fast.

In one quick see-saw motion I was over the railing, upside down, falling head first towards a solid concrete floor occupied by many street-style skaters riding way faster than any human being has business riding. Suddenly my perception of time skews and everything goes into a blurry slow-mo.

I feel my arms grasping for something with which I might take purchase, but nothing but the unforgiving flat panel face of the miniramps back is found. In my haze of adrenaline and cold sweat, I resign myself to a head on impact with the cold concrete.

Thud! My head hits something, but it's not concrete. It felt more like a ply of thin wood. My eyes are closed, but I can tell I'm still upside down. There's a constricting tightness around my belly. I open my eyes and try to figure out where I am. I'm hanging upside down by the waistband of my trousers, which had caught on a vertical beam of wood that run the height of the ramp. I manage to reach up and grab the edge of the miniramp, then flip my legs backwards and do a kind of mini somersault, landing shakily on my feet, and eventually stumbling onto my arse. But I'm pretty much unhurt. There's a scrape on my back, another on my elbow, and my guts hurt a bit, but all that is infinitely preferably to an 8 foot head on impact with a solid floor.

I was always a little more conservative with my speed when doing axle stalls after that.
( MarkyH feels like the H in Bob Hoskins' name, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 2:57, Reply)