About six weeks ago we went street riding in San Jose, California as a part of the Road Fools project. We started riding San Jose's City Hall and we got kicked out. I still had some tricks and a line I wanted to do. Later on that night I asked Stew Johnson if he wanted to go back and get some clips and he was more than happy to go back. At this time everyone was done riding besides myself Stew, John ludwick and Mike Hinkins.
We pulled up to the spot and I got one line done that I wanted to do. After the line I wanted to film a 360 over this gap so I jumped it twice I wanted to get my speed right. It wasn't really that high but the gap was long and I was very hesitant about doing it. Then the security guard decided to showed up and he kicked us out so I decided to just go for it. I did not have the right speed I needed to make it over the gap and I clipped my back tire at the end of the gap and I went straight to my face. I broke my jaw in three places, knocked a few teeth out and there was a cut on my lip that I could put my finger though and touch what was left of my tooth. I also had to get stitches in my chin. Up to this point I hadn't broke a bone in my life. Usually if you hit your jaw you would think it would be lights out, but I didn't get knocked unconscious the slightest bit... I was awake for the whole thing. In a matter of minutes there was a pool of blood on the floor coming out of my ear my nose and my mouth. At that moment I knew road fools was over for me. At that time Matt Coplon the team manager for Madera rushed over in the van and I was on my way to the hospital. Thank god Mike had his trusty i-phone on him and we got to the hospital in minutes.
When I got to the hospital I lost so much blood I began to get dizzy and waiting room was packed there was no where to sit and they took one good look at me and before I knew it I was drugged up and I had an IV in my arm. I stayed in the hospital for a good week. I cant thank Matt enough he came in and out as much as he could, Bryce Toole and Tom Villarreal stopped by once too and I was so siked. Besides them I was all by myself with no family or friends by my side struggling to move my mouth. The first day I was in the Hospital the nurse spilled water on my phone and I couldn't even call my friends because I didn't have there numbers. IT SUCKED! My mom flew out as soon as she could my girlfriend Maggie let me use her laptop so I had something to do. Staring at a tv for a week makes me go nuts. At that point I started to feel a lil bit better. I had surgery on my jaw and it was wired shut and I could only drink out of a straw, I could not eat anything. I could not fly home because of my head injury. I guess the air pressure on the plane could have left me in a world of trouble. So my mom and I stayed in a hotel right by the hospital until I got better so I could fly home.
I recently got the wires and all the metal taken out of my mouth and I can kind of move my mouth again. My lip is still not back to normal but it's getting there and I am still missing teeth. I hope soon I will get that fixed but I have to wait a little bit for my jaw to heal before I can do that. I’m just siked that I’m back home with my friends, girlfriend and my family. Im back on the bike now and it feels amazing.
I would like to thank everyone that was there for me. Aaron at The Athlete recovery fund for helping me out with all my bills, Matt Coplon for being more than a TM he is one of my good friends and all this would have sucked without him, Marco and everyone at props for the support and help, My girlfriend Maggie, all my friends and homies in the thegullyfactory.com crew and last but not least my family for being there for every step of the way.
Much Love,
Josh Eilken
Road Fools BMX Crash Segment, you'll have to keep checking back for the crash of Josh in the next episode.
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