I ate shit pretty hard the other day. Nothing broken, but dirt rash, cuts, and scrapes from ankle to hip and a big raw spot on my forearm. There's a drop on the South Austin Trail Network, that we chatted about a year or two ago, by the Espcarpment Spillway. Maybe a 4-footer or so. I've been slow rolling it for a while and started hucking right off it maybe 6 months ago. It's the kind of drop I hate with a few too many rocks on the lead-in. It's not enough to throw the bike off course, but it's enough that I think about it. I got a little too comfortable with it the the other day and went off it more casually than normal. Got crooked in the air and had about a full second airborne when I knew it wasn't going to end well. Landed with the bike traveling one direction and pointed in another. Bounced awkwardly and slid a few yards in the dirt and gravel.
I've been pretty good about wearing pads when I do stuff like that, but it was a spur-of-the-moment thing on a casual ride so no pads. We're getting more and more features built on what used to be my boring neighborhood cruise trail. Knee pads are probably about to become standard on more rides for me, and elbow pads on some days too. They'd have both prevented the worst of the dirt rash on this day.