By: Paul Zitzer:
Getting knocked out is a strange thing. Because when it happens, [and for vert skaters it’s more a matter of when, not if] a lot of the time it feels like it happened to someone else. Because, despite its being all traumatic to the dome and everything, the person getting knocked out doesn’t even really remember any of it happening in the first place. And I speak from experience. I’ve been knocked out pretty much all over the world. The time in Germany was my favorite. I only managed to get released from the hospital after assuring the doctors that if I didn’t leave immediately with my friends, they would surely be leaving with out me, where I’d be left alone to fend for myself in their fine but foreign country, as my so called friends continued on to Switzerland, France, and other places where it’s not uncommon to see people riding bicycles with loaves of bread slung over their shoulders. But I digress. Another strange thing about the times I’ve been knocked out is that the moment I come to I immediately suffer an extended bout of déjà vu. So, in the case of the knockout in Germany, I’m waking up on the flat bottom of the vert ramp thinking, “I can’t believe I just get knocked out in Germany again!” Even though it was really the first time. I think… Anyway, the German hospital ended up sending me on my way with a letter in my pocket, written in German by the doctor who was frowning at me over his Euro-styled spectacles, so that, should I be so unfortunate to at some point suffer a brain aneurysm and die right there on the streets of Stuttgart or wherever, the unlucky German tasked with trying to determine the identity of my dead corpse could find a little peace knowing I’d brought it on myself for not following doctors orders. Fortunately for me though, I lived long enough to get knocked out quite a few more times. But this isn’t about me. Rather, it’s supposed to be about the Vert Prelims in SLC. Now, I could give you the old rigmarole of who did what and all of that, but I’ll save it for the finals. Instead, I’m here to tell you something that you don’t know. So I axed some of the dudes in the comp about some of their stories of getting knocked out.
Check back to see some of Paul’s favorites athlete knock out moments.
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