Well a couple days ago i took a trip down south to visit my friend Nick Harry.
We ended up making are way down to Venice Beach. Babes Galore. Had a lot of fun.
My picture camera ended up running out of juice. Otherwise i would show you pictures
from the new NineStar location. They have ramps in the back which was sweet.
We got a little session in before they had to paint the ramps. All in all the trip was fun.
Hello internet world. As you all know I have an injured thumb, so I’ve been off work for a week or so. Here’s my little buddy Otis I’ve been hanging out with. He’s just the entertainment I needed while I was taking it easy .
I got my stitches out today, so I’m hoping to be doing some of this soon.
So Last week I was at the Giant China factory, and now this week I’m over at the Giant Taiwan factory. I went up on the roof of the offices and took a couple shots of the factory to try and show how big it is. Everytime I come here I’m amazed. The Taiwan factory specializes in higher end adult bikes, particularly Mountain and Road as well as all the high end carbon fiber bikes for Giant and many other companies. You can see Semi Truck trailers down on the left. Click in it to see it bigger…
After working a long day Friday I managed to accidentally cut my thumb terribly bad on a broken wine bottle. I sat in the hospital for 4 hours, and received 17 stitches. Knowing that Saturday would be a sunny warm day you could say I was more than bummed out.
In true Ohio fashion, the weather went from bitter cold to warm pretty much over night. Last week it was in the upper 20’s and looked like this.
Just believe in yourself from Giant BMX on Vimeo.
And this week it has been almost 60 degrees almost everyday. Crazy.
I’m over in China at our factory right now wrapping up 2011 bikes, checking over production and what not. Here’s a couple quick random shots from our China factory. These aren’t all BMX bikes, but you get a glimpse of a very small fraction of Giant …
Troy’s got a great interview up on ESPN about joining the Giant team. Check it out!!!!!
I got this text today from Tony Cherry.
“It’s a beautiful 35 degrees out. Takin’ advantage of it. Woop!”
Looks like he and Troy are soaking up the sun and clocking footage in sunny Ohio…
Congratulations to Tony Cherry making the move up to the Giant Pro team, joining Troy Merkle, Alex Raban and Chris Arriaga
New Team rider #2, introducing Alex Raban!!
Saturday was a significant day for me and my BMX carreer, I turned 30 and I’m pretty stoked on it. 17 years of riding BMX for me, and still keepin’ it real and progressing. Not many people can say that. I went out to celebrate with Ian Munro and Cody Bowers and filmed a few clips for our video we’ve been working on. Gap to fakie wallride.
So it’s becoming trails season all over the US, and Tony Cherry has been taking advantage by getting his dirt on. Thanks to Troy Merkle for the pics.
Turndown
Ron Kimler would be proud of this one. Can Can Xup
For the past several years Taj has been having back problems, but up until recently it has been bearable. Lately it’s gotten so bad that it’s taken Taj off his bike and he’s been having to do some heavy research to try and fix the problem. The following is from Taj’s blog on the Ride site:
Just back from the doctors and just went over my MRI results. Heavy news for me. Looks like we are going to do the fusion surgery of L5-S1. Surgery won’t take place for almost a month, but when it does Its only like a 2 day stay in the hospital, but it means that after surgery no activity for 3 months and no riding for real for 6 months! Yikes. I didn’t really expect it to take that long to heal.
That disc is not supposed to be doing that. It should be like the ones above and staying flush with the spine.
I have a pretty substantial rupture in my the disc between L5-S1. The treatments range for this kind of thing, but after a good talk my doctor and I have settled on the fusion surgery. The options though are as follows:
-Cortizone epidural shots like Tom Stober had to bring down the swelling but not actually fixing the disc. This can make you feel better because it relieves pressure, but it can last as little as a few days, or in some cases less serious then mine it can relieve the entire problem.
-There’s also a procedure to clip the part of the disc that is distended. Sounds like this is what Ben Ward was saying that Rich Hirsch had. My doctor said that usually when the disc between L5-S1 is herniated and putting pressure on the nerves it causes leg pain and shooting feelings radiating downwards. If that is the case then clipping the protuding disc usually solves the problem. I don’t have that at all, I only have pain in my lower back. My legs feel a bit week, but mainly its my back muscles that are unable to function. Doc says that clipping the disc very possibly may not relieve this problem since it may have more to do with the joints pressure on the nerves. Its interesting to see what functions of the body are “typically” impacted by disc damage at different levels. Each level has its own characteristics.
-We could possible do an artificial disc replacement. Unfortunately, this extremely expensive procedure is considered “experimental” by my insurance company and so I’m not covered for it. The up side is that at this level in the spine there’s not really that much movement, or at least, higher up would be much more crucial. A fusion at this level should not really be too much of an issue for flexibility for me. However, if in 6 months from now you see me just starting to ride again and I’m all stiff we can just blame that.
-So, we settled on the fusion surgery. Its what Ruben was describing last post. The crazy part is they go in through the front of your abdomen to do the surgery. Its a relatively small incision, but two surgeons are present. One to do the actual screw and plate and bone graft surgery, and one to monitor and control the extremely vital arteries that run right in front of the spine. Basically they screw and plate the vertebrae together so they can’t move, and then fill the area where the disc used to be with bone grafts that will fill it in so the damaged disc can no longer put pressure on the spine. I think…. I’ll get more and more precise with exactly what is going on as I learn more.
To be honest I was so rocked by the idea that I wouldn’t be able to ride for 6 MONTHS that I kind of stopped being able to think straight. Heavy news for me today.
Next step is to meet with the Vascular Surgeon to go over his procedures in the surgery and check to see if my splenectomy scars are going to be an issue for this surgery. After meeting with him I’ll be able to schedule a surgery date. The earliest possible time being between 3 and 4 weeks from now.
I’m pretty freaked out by all this, and dreading being laid up for so long, but at the same time I’m really itching to get this taken care of. Guess I’m staying in Austin for a while to deal with all of this.
