Hello, everybody.  Well, this season has not gone as planned at all!  At the beginning of this year, I had awesome speed.  In arenacross, I was riding really well.  I thought I was going to do well in all my qualifiers, but injuries slowed me down.  At the beginning of this year, in the arenacross race in Louisville, KY, I got taken out on the second lap (I was running in second place) and got ran over.  This event hyperextended my elbow.  It took 1 1/2 months for me to heal from this injury, not riding once.  I had not ridden once, and it was off to my church's winter retreat.  There, I was wrestling around with some people, and I was slammed into the ground really hard.  This caused a concussion and a contused rotator cuff.  This was really upseting because now I knew I wouldn't be back up to speed in a long time.  The doctor did some computerized tests with my brain and said he would give me two weeks, then come back to retake the tests.  I retook the tests and all my scores improved by a pretty good sum.  I waited another week, and then started riding again.  I felt like a complete GOON!  It had been 2 months and 1 week since I had ridden, and I lost a lot of speed.  People that I would drop before were keeping up with me.  All this time, my rotator cuff had been bothering me, but the doctor said that riding would not make it worse, just crashing.  And if I crashed it would not get much worse.  Well just a week after I started riding again, I wrecked decently hard and landed right on my left shoulder.  The hurt one!  I re-irritated that rotator cuff.  It took another 1 more week tor  it to feel good.  The tally in this story is now up to 2 1/2 months of injury in just three months!  My first race back was the LLAQ at Wildcat Creek, my home track.  With about 8 days of hard riding in two weeks, I felt good enough to qualify, and I was.  The first moto, I got a second place start and stayed in second place for the first three laps.  I fell on my third lap pushing myself back to ninth.  I worked my way back to seventh.  On the second moto, guess what happened?? I tangled with another rider on the start and fell.  The back of my right elbow got slammed into, right in the funnybone, and busted it right open.  The gash was deep and bleeding really bad.  I couldn't move my hand since it the funnybone (a nerve center) so hard.  I couldn't continue the race.  I didn't want to deal with going to the doctor, so I went to a nurse in my neighborhood.  She said I needed stitches, but that if I held it together with butterfly tape, I'll have a bad scar, but it should be alright.  Another week goes by without riding.  I had a great race at Hangtime the next weekend.  And now its time for Hangtime LLAQ.  I felt really good during practice.  I had a great race the weekend before, and had been riding alot during the week.  The track was really muddy and everything was slick.  I got 38th gate pick and achieved a 39th place start.  My gate was basically a mud pit.  I was doing everything I could to get up front.  I charged from 39th place to 22nd place in the first lap!!!  I was in a position to break top ten at that rate.  All my friends said I look way faster that some of the guys in the top ten.  Well, with my luck, I probably can guess what happened.  I cut under a rider going around a turn to hit this step-up double.  I was on the gas too hard and my back well spun while I was going up the face and turning at the same time.  It kicked me sideways and nose down!  I slammed my right should into the ground amazingly hard.  I immediatley was in agony.  I couldn't move entire arm and my should always hurt severely.  No matter how I held it, my shoulder felt as if somebody had put a knife in it.  My dad drove me to the hospital where I had some X-rays.  It turns out I had a 2nd degree AC joint separation.  Basically I had a really bad should joint separation.  I tore some ligaments in there, and that is why it hurt so bad.  It took over a month to heal!!!  So today, it has been almost six months into the season.  I have been injuried for a total of 4 entire months!!!  BUT, I have been on the bike for some time since feeling better after my shoulder injury and feel even faster than when I was.  My shoulder still hurts me when I pick up heavy stuff, but feels good when I ride.  I am going to race at Wildcat Creek this weekend.  Hopefully, I will get top three and come out undamaged!!!  Wish me luck!

So, I had a doctor's appointment on Friday that went really well.  He said that all the areas my brain was struggling in (mainly memory) had improved a lot.  He told me that I needed to do some excersising to see how my brain reacted when blood was rushing through it.  So, today I ran 2.25 miles and did some intense ab workouts.  I felt completely awesome!  This means that I'll be able to ride a full two weeks before the Wildcat Creek Area Qualifier!  I'm stoked.

I just went to a sports medicine doctor today to get an evaluation done on my brain.  Everything went really well.  He did a bunch of tests on me.  I am completely stoked because he said that he is about 85% sure that I will be able to ride in two weeks.  I'll still be able to go to MTF!  This is AMAZING!

So, I had my church's Winter Retreat in Pennsylvania and it was pretty sweet.  I got to go snowboarding and just hung out for the weekend.  Well, every year all the guys get into wrestling matches.  I really have no idea what happened, but here's what I've been told.  We were going at it and somehow I was facing away from the guy standing up.  He picked me up and slammed me in head first into the ground.  People say that the floor shook.  I was unconscious for about thirty seconds, started convulsing, and was transported to a nearby hospital (its name was Frick Hospital  haha).  I got x-rays of my neck because it hurt really badly and I couldn't move it. I also got a CT-scan that confirmed my third concussion.  My neck is still really sore.  I'm not going to be able to go to MTF over spring break anymore, and my dad might make me sit out LL qualifiers.  So...yeah this sucks big time.  See you all at the races.

I just got back from the Toyota Arenacross in Louisville, KY.  My arm is killing me!  I had a so-so race in 125 Intermediate and had to go to the Semi after Collegeboy.  In the Collegeboy race, I got a great start, 2nd or 3rd place I think.  In a berm, some go cleaned me out knocking me straight to the ground.  I stuck out my right arm to catch myself, and right when my hand planted itself into the dirt, another rider came and hit the back of my elbow.  A searing pain went up through my arm.  A lap later I remounted and just finished the race.  I went to the paramedics to see what they thought.  After they looked it over and bent it this way and that, they said I probably hyperextended it.  I can't pick anything up with my right arm or bend my elbow.  This SUCKS!!!

Well, Arenacross went better and worse than I had expected.  During the first practice I felt really comfortable and got all the jumps except a huge 60 ft. triple.  My second practice I got out there and was flying.  I got the triple second lap and was just cruising the rest of practice.  In my heat race for 125 Intermediate, I got a second place start.  Chase Meyers made a mistake in the whoops and I passed him for the lead.  I won by a good margin.  My heat in College Boy went really well.  I got a second place start and stayed in it until the last two laps.  The big bikes (only one other 250F was racing) were catching me in the whoops and down the big starting straightaway.  I got passed in the whoops on the second to last lap.  Then somebody snuck around the inside of the corner before the finish line jump and stuffed me.  However, I was thrilled with my finish.  Up to this point the day couldn't of had gone better.  I felt awesome going into the main event for 125 B.  I got an incredible start and was battling Joey Leadbeater down the starting straight.  Going of the double right after the first corner, I must have hit a rock because I completely lost traction going up sideways off of the jump.  I shot me completely sideways.  I would have saved it, but somebody hit me.  It took my two laps to get going again, but I never gave up.  I rode as hard as I could with my cockied wheel and bent handlebars.  Fortunately, two riders had fallen, and I gained those positions.  When we got back to the pits, my dad noticed liquid all over my bike.  We found a small, steady stream of anti-freeze squirting out the back of my left radiator.  When I was landed on, something jammed into it.  I was unable to race College Boy.  Well, that was my weekend.  I adapted very quickly to the difficult indoor track and am very pleased with the weekend.  Hopefully, I can get parts for my bike before next weekend.  I'm headed off to the Toyota AX in Louisville!

So...my bike has been in the shop for the past three weeks and I don't know when it will be fixed.  I was riding at the Motoplex indoors, and it felt like my clutch would jitter as I would pull in the clutch lever.  The cable popped out of its bracket at the top of the engine twice, and Andrew Saltsman and I would put it back every time.  The last time I went out, I went around a corner, dropped my clutch, and then braaooooop.  My bike just died.  When pushing it, it made a clunking noise in the engine.  It turns out that there was a faulty bearing on some part of the gear shaft.  It destroyed my gears.  Luckily, Kawasaki is going to handle everything.  So, I am basiclaly really bored because I can't ride.  I have been doing some strength training and am actually about to go to the gym to do some cardio.  So hopefully am am able to ride in a couple weeks.

Well, the weather is getting colder, and the season is coming to a close. Lately, I have been putting in some great rides. I have gotten a lot faster than I was at the beginning of this year, am falling much less, and am becoming more consistent. My last race at Wildcat Creek MX was awesome. I was riding very well and actually kept up with the top guys in 125 B (on their 250F`s) for a while. My laps were very consistent and I never faded at the end of my motos. I might be getting a 2007 KXF250 the before the last race of the season and am ecstatic to learn a new bike and riding style. I am very excited to see the leaps I have made in my riding this year, and cannot wait to see what next year brings.

Well, July was an incredibly busy month for me. I was not able to ride very much, probably only one or two times. First, my parents went on a cruise for a week and a half. Then I had a missions trip! I went to Tijuana with my church and helped out some churches with VBS and just bringing more kids and adults into the church. After that, we went to San Diego where we hung out at the beach and just chilled for two days. Then, we went to Aneheim for the International Youth Convention. That was a blast. There were a ton of great speakers and bands that played. Now that August has began, I`m beginning practice more and more. I`ve been riding on Wednesdays and Saturdays(only when I can`t ride on Wednesday) at Wildcat Creek. There is going to be a Honda Contigency race there this weekend, so I`m looking forward to that. I hope to be able to compete in the next couple state races and finish top five in the Youth Class and B class.