Hi folks,
I had a bit of a crash on my spedwing recently and thought I'd share the vid... it was my own stupid mistake and the lesson I learnt was not to stop thinking about what I was doing just because I was having the best line down the mountain I've had to date.
It was coming down the Great Orme at Llandudno, a route I've done maybe 30 times or more. I'd not done it for a while due to crap weather but had walked up 3 times without flying due to wrong conditions during the 2 weeks prior to this crash.
I got the nicest line on the top section... very smooth and much higher than usual which allowed me to pick a nice line through the gulley and around the cliffs. I think this is what threw me... I stopped thinking and got hit by a good bout of over confidence and cranked a hard left (downwind) BEFORE checking I'd cleared the wall.
As I came out of this turn I'd lost way too much height and was heading straight for a lamppost. What was going through my head was could I make it inside the lampost which I did but only to lose more height and then realise I was going to hit the wall.
The thought of whether to try and put my feet on the top of the wall and vault over it did flash through my head but I was going too fast to do much about this.
I hit the top of the wall arse first at about 45km/h - I had a goBandit camera with integrated GPS recording the speed and a GoPro HD cam which has a much better video quality. The GoPro pinged off my head as my arse stopped dead and managed to get a nice shot of my splatted on the wall!
Miraculously, I suffered no broken bones, just some pretty epic arse bruising, a gash on my left forearm, cut and bruised hands and fingers, bruises and cuts to my inner right thigh and a bruised heel. I could have easily ended up in a wheelchair with no nuts tho!
Its not put me off, but I am interested in getting some arse and back protection for my OZONE ATAK harness if anyone can recommend any that fit this particular harness?
Don't know how to embed youtube vids on this forum so you'll have to cut and paste the links...
Short version:
Long version with conversations with paramedics and passers by!
original YouTube Links
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