National Geographic Skater Crash Investigation Called into Action

Tuesday, 18-August-2015 - Boekel - It was a cool summer evening.  Jan picked me up and we headed to Boekel for the weekly Tuesday evening skate tour.  We were just outside of Boekel, when for no readily apparent reason, I tripped, fell, rotated with legs elongated, and landed hard on my left-side back ribs on the concrete bicycle path.  I wasn't able to roll to break the fall.  I could hardly breathe or talk.  It hurt so much.  I was trying to determine if I had any broken ribs and a punctured lung.  The group huddled around me, checking to see if I was alright.  "Did you black out?" "Can you stand up?" "Maybe it's a good idea to try to continue skate slowly at your own pace so your muscles don't tighten up." Theo stayed behind me.  It was a mystery how it happened, until I tried to skate.  There was something interfering with the wheels on my left skate.  I sat down in the grassy shoulder, and saw that the all of the spokes of my front left wheel had broken free of the outer rim (photo)!  It was time for National Geographic Skater Crash Investigation.  How did this happen?  Could I have prevented this crash?  I needed to find answers before I'd do any more skating after I recovered.  Bart removed the broken wheel and move the second wheel to the front position.  I'd be skating with three wheels on my left frame.  We looked at the right skate.  The right front wheel was also ready to blow, so he moved it to the second position.  We made it to the coffee break at D'n Brabander in Elsendorp, where everyone got to look at my broken wheel.  It was a slow start back to Boekel.  Bart kept the pace slow.  Ten skaters--good for 20 km. (pics 20).