Thursday, October 9, 2008

Insurance Pays, literally

Ambulance... $941.15
Emergency room visit... $445.00
Outpatient services total billed... $46,981.60

Total cost of breaking my arm = $48,367.75
or one of these....

Total I have to pay = $1,624.68

Thanks, insurance.. guess the $240/month is worth it after all.


And you thought this was going to be one of those dumb jokes that ends with.... "priceless!"

Though, the ability to have a functional arm really is quite priceless!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

13 Screws and a Steel Plate...

I'm going to be able to give someone a serious beat-down with a swift back-handed elbow/tricep to the upper lip... not that I'll do it. But here are the post-op x-rays with all my hardware. Enjoy...

















Friday, July 18, 2008

Southern California Spokeperson?

My good friend Janine Sides works for America.gov in DC, and is now making videos about American culture for the website. She recently called me up and asked if I could help her do a little spot on surfing in California, which I was more than happy to do... Taylor got some good face time too! As I expected from Janine, she asked me to get a bit cheesy with some of the lines she had me say... but I didn't mind doing it, and I think she did a great job putting it together. She's going to be making big time movies some day, and insists that I should take an acting class so she can use me. Not sure that will happen. But, anyway, here's the result...

AMERICA.GOV SURF VIDEO


And here are a few pics from the day we were filming...


Janine and I in front of ClearWater Glassing


Griffin and I checking out the glass job


freshly glassed... and so pretty




Wednesday, July 16, 2008

No Pain, No Gain...


Here's how it went down (or, how I went down- literally)... it was last Friday night, 7-11, and our crew was stoked for our plans to go out on the yacht - thanks to Jimmy K. The boat was at maximum capacity with about 40 people or so, all looking forward to the night's festivities. We downloaded all of the latest from iTunes, and stocked up on tons of good food so that we could enjoy a long evening of dancing and fun out on the water. Dru and I were especially excited since we planned to do a little wake surfing as the sun was setting (and shark feeding time was beginning). We've done the wake surfing thing a bunch of times before, so this wasn't anything unusual. Below is an example of us wake-surfing on a Saturday back in May, just in case you don't understand the concept:



So you can see that it's pretty basic, not overly dangerous, and quite fun. Anyway, Dru went out first and had a few successful (meaning fun) runs, and then it was my turn. As I started to get going and we approached the optimum speed, I hit a wave that covered up the front of my board and sent me plunging head first into the water. This is where it gets ugly- and if you can't handle gruesome details, you may not want to continue reading...

There was some slack in the rope when I went diving forward into the water and for some reason I didn't let go of the rope right away... so when the boat took up the slack at full speed, the rope snapped up hard, along with my arm - (I must have had a wicked tight grip on that rope for me to have held on that long, or you'd think the rope would've slipped out of my hands..?) At the moment of impact I felt some crazy sensations in my arm- which I've never felt before... one was the complete lack of response from the arm to move, despite my brain sending the signal and the very top portion of my arm moving. But, from about my mid-bicep down, I had no movement and was experiencing extreme pain and lack of feeling at the same time. As I reached over to grab my my left arm with my right hand, I felt bones side by side knocking together, and immediately realized that my arm was totally broken and that I needed to re-align it right then while the pain was all there at once. So, I gritted my teeth and thought of my orthopedic surgeon buddy Christian Heywood from DC whose favorite part of his job is snapping broken bones back into place, and I jerked my arm down into place. That hurt a lot.

Meanwhile, as the boat made its way back to me, my friends started to notice that I wasn't moving. I just sat in the water waiting for the boat to get within earshot of me yelling- "I'm done- my arm is broken - I need help..." As soon as they heard that, Dru and Chris were swan-diving baywatch style off the back of the boat to come to my rescue. They swam me over to the boat where I was hoisted out of the water by Renfro, Chris, Dru and maybe a couple others.

The pain was now setting in even worse, and as I stood there for a brief moment looking down at my arm that was just hanging limp from my left shoulder like a piece of spaghetti, the mental agony began to set in. I sat down quickly and there seemed to be a bit of chaos in how to best handle the situation. Quickly though, the decision was made to race back into the harbor and get me to a hospital. The whole way in was a blur because I was going through different phases of shock... I couldn't hear very well and my vision was pretty off- everything was really fuzzy. I was having a hard time getting warm, and was shaking quite violently at times, though Mekenna and Melissa did a good job of wrapping blankets and towels around me to help fight the shivers off.

Apparently Jimmy, being the good man that he is, was trying to get me to the dock as soon as possible, and in doing so, we picked up a bogey on our way- the harbor patrol. They were not being very cool to us at all, despite having a man on board with a severely broken arm, experiencing the most excruciating pain of his life. So- they followed us all the way back and were hassling us the whole time.

We arrived back at the dock and the plan was for me to jump into Diana's car and have her race me to the hospital, but when I tried to stand up,the pain was too much to bear. So we called the ambulance, and they were there within minutes. The EMT asked me on a 10 scale about the severity of pain... now, I'm not usually one to just throw out the 10 out of 10, because I think you should always leave room for improvement, however, on this occasion I didn't even hesitate to call it a 10 on 10. With that, he stuck the IV in my arm and gave me a quick dose of morphine, "like they do in the old war movies when somebody gets shot and they give the wounded a quick shot to help curb the pain" - that's how he explained what he was doing for me. It worked to the extent that I was able to get on the stretcher with less pain, and then I was quickly transported in an ambulance over to Hoag Hospital, where I took these (despite not feeling too photogenic ha.ha. -periods indicating that I know it wasn't that funny):




The humerus bone should be one clean line from shoulder to elbow, but as you can see, it snapped into three messy pieces. And, today I go into surgery to get a couple plates and screws in there to put it all back together. Hallelujah too, cause this arm has been a real pain in so many ways just hanging as a useless appendage over the last few days.

Because I've been bedridden since Friday, it's been a good time for me to sit back and reflect on life a little, and I have to say I am so lucky and feel so blessed for everything in my life right now. From amazing family and friends to a great employer who are all sincerely concerned for my well-being. I can't thank everyone enough for helping me through a rough week.

Anyway, if you made it through this novel, then I feel your pain, cause it took me a whole lot longer to write it- pecking at the keyboard with only one hand!

In my next post I'm hoping to have the x-rays of my bionic arm with all the hardware... should be interesting...



Sunday, June 29, 2008

J-M*N Surfboards


The concept is to provide high-quality, customized performance surfboards, uniquely designed to fit each individual's surfing style. Here's how it works... I'll consult with you on an individual basis, and then also with my team of pro-shapers at Clear Water Glassing & Promer Surfboards, to determine the right board dimensions for you. Then, we can talk about the aesthetics of the board. You gotta have something that sets you apart from the rest out in the line-up, and then looks good when it's not in the water. Anyway, you get the picture... custom is the only way to go. Not to mention that you save $200+ off what you'd have to pay retail, because I have no overhead costs!

Here are some of my latest boards...


This baby is fast and funky - the lime stinger


Here she is all waxed up, complete with traction pad and leash, ready to rip


The lime stinger and the chexter - front


and back


retro fish - the fof, with a conceptual jm logo


the rastago


the renfro









Sunday, May 4, 2008

The Evolution of a Board

From this...

The Bennett Blank




TO THIS:







Ok, so.. after a little contemplation I decided on a checkerboard design with some cool 80s vibe, though I had no idea it was going to be as much work as it ended up being...


Started by taping it up criss-cross


Then, I cut out every other square, to give it the checkerboard effect...


then comes the paint... by air gun... orange fading into red






Starting to remove the tape...


...getting closer


Peeling off every little square was actually a lot of work...


Then, to the bottom...
I wanted to do a rising sun-type design, and this is how it came out...


After all that work, I was pretty excited to get her out in the water...


...and in case you were wondering, she rides like a dream.



P.S. Now taking custom orders!



Monday, April 14, 2008

Shape Up!

Today I shaped my own surfboard for the first time, with the help of my friend Ray Promer at Clear Water Glassing in Newport. It took about 3 hours to shape, and now it's ready for glassing, though I'm trying to figure out whether or not to give it a logo or a paint job. It's in the shape of a retro fish, and I can already tell it's going to be a lot of fun- I can't wait to ride it. This may be the beginning of yet another hobby as if I don't already have enough...

At about step 23, seriously


Sanding her down from nose to tail and rail to rail


Shaving down the stringer


Documenting the specs



Now, I just need a logo.... any ideas?



Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Utah Powder

The greatest snow on earth...


Sometimes you just get lucky. That's the only way I can make sense of the impeccable timing of a strong winter storm that dumped over two feet of fresh powder and then left sunny skies for me on a recent Saturday of Snowboarding at Snowbird. (You like the alliteration there?) It was seriously some of the best snow I've had in years.. probably since I lived in Utah. It's easy to get good powder when you live there, but not when you have to plan your trip in advance and then hope that it's good. Anyway, here is my action shot of the day:

My good buddy Brett Shields enjoying Utah's finest. I told him I am going to posterize this shot.


Here, Colton got a good taste of the powder after a nice little kicker


brothas


The Shields clan and a Maughan


Since my freshman year of college, Snowbird has been one of my favorite resorts, and it did not disappoint this day. The only thing that could have made it any better would have been to have all of the old crew there like back in the days of skipping class when we had a big storm. For any parents reading, let it be known that it was rare that we actually skipped class, but when we did, it was much more productive than being in class. In fact, I recall taking note cards with me to study on the lift during finals week. You can't just not go if the snow is good, even if it's finals..

Anyway, I look forward to the not to distant future when Baird or Shields or Hoyt or Willie or Nels (well..maybe Nels has a couple years) calls me up to say they've booked our heli-skiing trip. I can only imagine what that will be like after getting small but sweet tastes of untouched powder. But to get miles of it.. that will be unreal.

Bottom line... I've got the fever, and I can't get rid of it.