Coinsidentally, at the recent Louisville MUni Rendezvous, I told some of
our riders that my signature move is called the "Ooooph". But they
informed me that they had been doing it for years.
My daughters (14 and 10) are into MUni. I upgraded my MUni recently and
cut the seatpost on my old Yuni24 to fit the older one, but the younger
one still only fits her 20" Torker. We've cut some air pressure to
soften the little bumps...works ok.
Yesterday we took an easy MUni ride on some flat woodsy trails near the
Wolf River. It has been raining a little each day for about 4-5 days
around here, but the trails were 85% dry-ish. There were puddles and
slick sections, but the kids masterfully picked out some good lines to
meander through the challenges.
On one quiet section of muddy doubletrack, Sarah (14) was leading, me in
the middle, and Ellen (10) behind. Soft sound of tires rolling over dirt
or gravel or mud. Birds singing left and right. Then, from behind,
OOOOOOOOOPH! Ellen had done her very first faceplant. She was riding the
12"-wide ridge between two puddles when her little tire sunk into a
muddy patch the size of a dinner plate. She landed hard, belly first,
which violently pushes the air out. There was no effective place for
[wrist guarded] hands to go to cushion the blow. The ruts left and right
were deep enough to cause the ridge to punch her right in the gut.
I've Oooophed 100s of times starting with Mountain B*king. I remember
the first times, thinking "Did I just break myself?" and "that was
loud." Well, as we all know, it is a violent and jarring way to stop.
And loud. When your body comes down on your belly, it pushed the air out
fast, making for a loud "Ooooooph". But after some consoling words, a
hug, a look-see for injury, she calmed down. Now its a big story for her
peers. She even wanted to preserve the mud-slick on her shirt so mom
could see. She had a glob of mud on the visor or her helmet. I acted out
how she must've skidded to a stop, with her visor plowing down the path
(exagerated, of course).
My baby's first face plant.
I'm so proud.
Tom.😄
--
Memphis Mud - Student of GrandMaster 2T
"winter in peanut butter comes turquoise" -Greg Harper
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