Trying Not To Hurt Myself

Body ... starting ... to ... tighten

Today was more high falls and the first day of the air ram. We started doing falls into the old smaller bag at about 15 feet. The first one tweaked my neck pretty nasty (I tried to keep it off the mat, which is a big no no in high falls). After walking that off for about 30 minutes, I did another from the same height (that one was a sit fall, the one that I do the easiest). Eventually, I got up to about 30 feet on the high fall into the more forgiving bag. HOLY CRAP that was far up. I, naturally, made the same mistake with my neck AGAIN. This time it didn't hurt much (but I'm sure expecting to feel it tomorrow when I wake up). I thought I was sore this morning from the horses and falls. Just wait until tomorrow, I guess.

The air ram. What to say about the air ram? One of our instructors won't do air ram stunts in film because its just plain too dangerous. We had a lecture about how it will rip the patella right off our legs if we're a few inches off. Also in that lecture was how, if we had our weight distributed wrong, we would probably get tossed up, come back down and forcibly have our skulls crushed. If we allowed our legs to bend with the force of the ram flying up, we'd probably break a leg at least. Then, to finish the lecture, we were told to "Just relax and do it. Tension will be the main reason for injury." Uh huh.

--Injury report--
I'm not injured. 3 others from my 24 person group (half of the whole group) were. One skinned shin and a few tweaked knees. Nothing serious, thankfully. In the group that went after us, mental and physical fatigue had them shutting down operations early because too many people were making bad mistakes. One person had to get tackled hard from the ram after going off badly that I heard about, but from my understanding, there was a lot going on odd. A girl who was here the year before said that this many near injuries were far more than she had seen her year here. Someone in my group had a NASTY high fall (30 feet) as well. She hit the pad with her feet first (instead of her back) and was laid up for about an hour. She's walking around now, and says she's feeling better. I'll be interested how she wakes up tomorrow.

"This is freaking me out"

Those were the words that came out of my mouth looking down onto a crash pad getting ready to do a header fall (head down most of the way, then a forward flip to land on your back). It was intimidating (to me at least -- and a few others in the class who weren't very good with heights). I was able to do all 4 kinds of falls (header, face off, back, and sit) and I hit all of them without injury. The header and the back both had bad landings, however, so I was not pleased with them. The initial falls were from about 12 feet. I also did one from about 18 (a sit fall), and that was SCARY AS HELL looking off the platform. picture.

This morning, I rode horses. My ass hurts like nothing else. The only part of the horses that I really enjoyed were the falls off of them (which were surprisingly easy).

Tomorrow: more falls (maybe, maybe not for me), and air ram work.

Fun driving things

Yesterday (Wednesday), we did the best part of driving ... skids and slides. For the most part, the cars are torn up at this point.

I will also have some pictures later this weekend which will get scanned when I get home of me on a wire rig (everyone uses those these days, and I felt comfortable up there) and pictures of me doing the jerk harness. That was hardcore.

Today: falls <gulp>

Hot, hot, hot

Today was "fire day". Everyone in my half of the class got lit on fire for a 1/2 body burn (the other half of the class went yesterday). I was told to expect cold gel...which was pretty intense when it was put all over my body. It wasn't until my head, however, that my entire body was almost in shock from the wet freezing cold. On the downside, once the fire was set on my body (I did a V-Back style burn -- the accelerant was in a "v" on my back), it didn't completely heat me up. I only got to be on fire for about 8 seconds until I felt the heat (the reason #1 of why to go to the ground and get put out), so it didn't help my temperature equilibrium. After that was the hose. My GOD the hose was cold, and I had to try to wash as much of the gel off my body as possible.

My group didn't do horse work today, so that'll wait till Thursday. We did get to do tree snares (silly gag where the ankle is caught in a trap and then the trap carries the person into the air, supported by the ankle. We were wearing harnesses -- for those who want to know why people's feet and legs don't rip off during those things.

Tomorrow: More formation driving (we came up with a 10 minute, 5 person routine tonight) and E-brake slides and skids...Yipeee!!!!

Driving driving and more driving

Today was more driving, mostly close proximity stuff (intentional tailgating and driving side by side around a track). It was fun, but thoroughly exhausting.

Tomorrow: Burn, horse work, and whatever else at "the ranch"

Driving WOOHOO

The roar of the engines, and the screeching cries of the tires welcomed us to the first day of precision driving. We snaked through cones zigzag fashion, tried to control stops with left foot braking (braking while still applying pressure to the gas pedal), and did hard turns through cones. It was awesome. By the way, we got a turn in on a bunch of different vehicles, including my first SUV experience -- going MUCH faster around a turn than normally advisable in a GMC Envoy.

During the middle of that, we broke into groups and rappelled, although I'm still not sure if I'm spelling it correctly. I'm slowly getting over my issues with heights, which will be good when we do falls. After learning the ropes (pun intended), we went off the top of an airplane hanger today rappelling, which was DAMN HIGH UP.

I'm alive, no longer hurt, and can still smell the burning tires from the day.

Tomorrow: more driving with Steve Buckley (the instructor). I'm not sure what we're doing on what day, but we're supposed to get to 90 and 180 degree skids as well as close proximity driving. :D

Lots of info to catch up on

I'm going to start out with Friday. We did a "found weapons" fight, where we were told to make a quick funny (or serious) scene and fight each other. The other Jay from Chicago, Mark from Ireland, Jazbee from L.A., and I did a boy band scene. Overall, it was tons of fun, but I felt a bit constrained because they asked us to do something that was not over 1:30 (which for a 4 person scene and fight is HARD to do). The fight ended up a bit muddles, which was unfortunate, but oh well. There were some other fights which were great to watch, but got reamed by the instructors (like when some guy did a Travolta impression and fought with Staying Alive punches.

On to Saturday...

This was our second (and last) day off from classes. A bunch of guys and I went down to Seattle and the famous Pike Place Market and Space Needle. Sightseeing and mingling with other tourists was a nice thing to do, especially after going to a "local" bar the night before. I have a bunch of pictures from the day. Most of them speak for themselves, and the clearest ones were (of course) not taken by my shaky hands. Have I mentioned yet that I LOVE this new camera?

Tomorrow is day one of precision driving. The rest of the week after that is driving, burns, high falls, horse falls, rappelling, and wire work. For the most part, its things that require more thinking and less physical work than what we've been doing.

I miss you all who read this.

I need a keyboard

Today was weapon fights with clubs and knives. Mine didn't look terrible, but it wasn't nearly as good as what I was doing before. I was told that with a keyboard in my hand as a weapon, I may have looked better. The club is more of a bruiser/goon type weapon and my body didn't look nearly menacing enough. Darn. I knew that, but I want to have the opportunity to change what my type is. Tomorrow, we choreograph our own fights, and I'm going to use that opportunity to look as tough as I can be (standing up tall like a dumb american fighter). They're also going to be "found weapon", meaning ANYTHING goes as a weapon. I have a group of 3 others that I'm going to work with tonight to set things up so we can work out the tough parts tomorrow morning in the hour that we have before dropping it on film.

After tomorrow, which is weapons then something else "fun" that we're not being told about, there's almost no more physically difficult stunts left. Wire work may be harder than I'm imagining it, but it wont be nearly as bad as what we've been doing.

ok. foot's hurts

For the most part, the foot's only bruised (I think). Today was stick fighting with ratan sticks and knife fighting with some really great looking aluminum knives. I'm exhausted. The afternoon was knife fighting in a room that has windows that get direct sunlight but very little ventilation. With the 25 of us in there, it gets hot FAST.

From what I've been told, it appears as though there were layoffs back home at Motorola. I think that I still have a job.

I'm so tired.

Stair fall photos (none of me)

Ka-Blangey

Yesterday, for the most part was ok. We had a business meeting at night, tumbling at first, and stair falls in between. My cat almost ran away from my parent's house, but didn't.

The only real issue was when I bashed my foot against the side of the stairs (think railing) right on that part of the foot on the outside that curves back in where the bones meet. Needless to say, I was unhappy for a little bit. Fortunately, I wasn't hurt enough to not continue falling down stairs (I mean come on, how hurt could you be to not be able to fall down stairs). I hit it one more time during the forward stair falls, but I'll be ok.

Its holding all of my walking weight at this point in the morning, and together with my trusty Ace bandage, should be healed in no time flat.

Clubs and knife fighting is today. Fuck yeah!

Bull Dogging?!? What the hell is bull dogging

Bull Dogging (v) - High speed tackling.

We did that today, with clotheslines, bear hug tackles, and cross body block tackles. Pretty much WWE stuff. For the most part it was pretty easy, but I took a solid shoulder on my jaw, so everything became much more difficult (I had to make sure it didn't get hit again, and when something hurts, all falls become harder). When we brought the mini-tramp into the equation, all the hits were more spectacular, but the targets got a bit loose.

It has yet to rain in Seattle over the past week and a half.