Big Jim with his Rig - FOUND!!
Jim and I spent most of the day, taking his sail in for minor repairs, and getting a kit to re-grip his boom. We also took out two SUP's and paddled from the event site to the Hood River Bridge and back. Lots of fun and a good workout. We had to jump in the river a few times to cool off. On flat water, it is very easy to do. Neither of us fell off the board. I imagine it would be a lot more difficult in wind and waves....
Some of the guy's went golfing (Blaine, Brad, Jim S, and Mike), while others went Mountain Biking to Post Canyon Falls.
Late in the day, Blaine got a call from Ross. Kent had crashed his bike and broken his collar bone. He had been going down a "technical" section of the trail, hit some roots, then a steep turn, and then went vertical and hit a ditch in the bottom. He basically landed on his head and shoulder. His helmet and shoulder broke. Fortunately his head didn't..... It took Kent a long while to get up. He couldn't ride, so they had to walk down to the road, which took the better part of an hour. Blaine, Brad and I drove up to meet them. When we got there, Kent was sitting on the side of the road in a lot of pain. He did, however think it would be a good idea to get a Hero Shot for the blog.
Notice his left shoulder doesn't look like the right...
We drove to the hospital with Kent feeling every bump. The first 10k or so was over a very rough gravel road. It was not a fun trip. The people at the hospital were friendly and efficient. We were in and out in less than an hour.
Even I can tell that it doesn't look right...
The collar bone IS broken. They gave Kent a sling. Apparently you can't "set" a fracture like that - it just has to heal itself. In the Doctors words, "the next two weeks will really suck". Apparently in about 4 weeks, he should be back to normal - but no sports for some time after that....
Armed with lots of pain killers, they sent us home.
Rather than face a 16 hour drive home, Kent decided to fly. I will be driving him to the airport early Wednesday morning so he can get a 7:00am flight. We will organize to get his car and trailer home later in the week.
Kent took a lot of verbal abuse from his "friends" tonight - and I am sure it will get worse over the next weeks -- but in truth we are all feeling terrible for him. The only silver lining is it could have been a whole lot worse.......
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