THE ROULETTE RAIL
Even more apt might be the Russian Roulette Rail. If you were lucky you managed to survive and hopefully went home with a shot in the bag and a smile on your face. If you were unlucky you hopefully managed to make it home after a stint in A&E yet still with a smile on your face, but sadly that would be due to the amount of drugs they had injected into your face.
This rail is a dark horse. At first glance it looks well easy, but frankly after seeing some of the slams I had second thoughts. A nice single 25ft bar was the target, set next to a wicked playground that would provide some late session fun.
The prep worked like clock work with Brad, Amber, Phil, Nick, Laura, Mike and myself all chipping in and getting everything staged to enable a pop onto both sides of the rail. After the last rail we had worked on the drop in to enable it to be placed further back from the rail so you had more time to prep prior to popping onto the rail. Sadly the playgound entrance meant we were a little constricted on that front. Yet after some minor adjustments we were ready to hit everything by 6.30am.
As Mike had not been first up for a rail before, he was pushed to climb the drop in. With no excuses he got himself ready and did a couple of drop tests onto the grass next to the rail. Everything felt good, so he went for it. First hit was a close backside 50/50. He then went for a boardslide, but clipped the rail with the nose of his board. This flung him onto the rail into the classic tree hugger style. That took the wind out of him, yet for some reason he did not move. He was just on his knees looking down at the ground for about a minute. Then he looks up and the right side of his face has blown up like someone has stuck a baseball to his cheek.
Shit...right...get some ice on it ASAP, and lets get ya down to A&E. Visions of Scotty Whitlake stylee of fractured cheek bones etc goes through my mind. Mike and I chip off as Walshy arrives on the scene.
Whilst Mike is getting injected in the face. The crew battle on. Brad and Amber, our token skiers try their best, but pay dearly. Amber clips the back of her head on the stairs. Luckily she had a helmet on. Brad also takes a harsh one and he is out. It looks like the rail claims another couple of victims.
So it was down to Walshy and Phil. These guys were soldiers. Taking hit after hit trying to break down the rail. By the time we get back from A&E they are all over it. We tweaked the drop in again yet it was not enough to enable Phil to complete the rail. For Walshy it made the difference. He busted out a nice 50/50 and then instantly stepped it up to a frontside lipslide. Excellent result. Yet the Roulette Rail still managed to claim his board (blown out edge), even if it did not manage to claim him.
On reflection a good setup and a sweet rail that just seems to be a little unlucky for the crew. Props to everyone who hit the rail. It's always tough when you see you mates get hurt to carry on battling.
To shake things up we are going to ditch the drop in for the next rail and re-hit our favourite Hemel rail to see if we can recharge the urban jib confidence, and bust out some more technical tricks. Hopefully a good result to report in the next few weeks.
Podacst of this and more resent stuff, including a nice C Rail shin splitter injury with a nurse injecting it prior to stitches. aarrhhh.
Get more from: