What's happened to Nate

Totally agree with you Nate. I really don’t have a desire to ride more gnarly stuff either but I will work on being smoother, lighter on my hands, and work on my skills. I just don’t need to do it on some really difficult terrain that I’ll never see in a race situation. I’d rather be pedaling and having fun vs trying to push my technical skills all the time.

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For real! #letNateflow2021 :rofl:

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I broke my nose/concussion on Porcupine Rim’s “The Notch” a few years back, after riding the entire Kokopelli trail without a scratch. It was so bad I had to get my nose reconstructed a few months later. The doc estimated 70% of my nose’s airway was crushed. I felt stupid until I realized there was an entire video series of people crashing in the same spot: A couple crashes we saw @ the Whole Enchilada "Notch" - YouTube. Then I felt even more stupid. It’s not worth it, we’ll never practice it enough to get it right, and our XC or light-enduro bikes aren’t designed for stuff like that. Hope you feel better soon.

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Oh man. I’m so gutted by Nate’s crash - it was such a random thing. I mean, the crash was not random but the rock going inside the one exposed gap in helmet definitely was. Everyone’s risk/reward calculation is highly personal. You do NOT want to re-crash after a concussion.

That being said, it takes effort to stay focused when the trail is easy. This is where it’s easy to drift off and this is where I’ve had most of my worst crashes.

Take care and heal well Nate!

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My 2 cents: I’m about to turn 43 and have been mountain biking for five years. For the first few years, I tried to push it on technical sections, push my jumping ability, etc. I realize now that although it feels really good to nail that stuff, it feels really bad to be off the bike because I screwed up. I still try tough climbs where the potential for serious injury is low, but trying to nail gap jumps or do gnarly descents isn’t worth it to me anymore.

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I’ve never tried the Notch. I go down the double switchbacks, and even then I walk that section.

Yeah. There’s some spots where it’s just not worth it. Just walk. The ravine at the end of Porcupine Rim is another example.

Walking a few times on a trail like Porcupine Rim is completely fine in my book, as it allows me to ride the other 99%. The trick is knowing when to walk!

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Yes and we don’t all celebrate the attempted Holocaust of indigenous people.

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I’m not surprised. It must be as much fun as it is for Australia’s indigenous population during Australia Day celebrations. AKA Invasion Day.
(Although, it’s looking like we’ll end up changing the date for that one soon enough).

Stupid GoPro effect … I know for an almost certain fact I wouldn’t ride that section. Yet I watched that clip and thought “that doesn’t look so bad”.

Yeah, and at point on the trail you’ve already cleared a bunch of stuff that seems similar. My fork just groaned and said “I’m done for the day. Use your face to break the fall”

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Probably time to mute my notifications at this point :roll_eyes:

There is an old saying in motocross/supercross…“with age get a cage”…a lot of those guys go to racing trucks offroad or cars as they get older, we don’t have that luxury. I’ve been racing bikes since I was 12, I’m 53 now. In my early 40’s I got the DH/FR bug…hit all the big stuff, raced DH…then one day it started to scare me and I started to focus on XC racing. I used to jump and bunny hop obstacles in XC races and people were like “WTF?”. But now I keep the two wheels on the ground pretty much all the time because I don’t like crashing and breaking bones. My advice to you Nate is do what you feel comfortable doing, you will progress at your own rate over time…if it scares you, don’t do it…but some day you will progress to the point where it doesn’t scare you, and that is progress.

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