Sea Otter spectacular
I used to live on Old Fort Ord, home of the Sea Otter Classic course. There is a section there where you can go down some very steep and FAST single track. Right at the bottom of the hill it transitions rapidly to an uphill. I was coming down that hill at close to 30 mph (seems fast but this is very packed trail and quite steep). I went up the next hill and saw my friends all cheering me on yelling my name and screaming at me. I could not figure out what the commotion was about...
I heard "Mike, Mike... Wake up dude are you all right?" I came to and realized that the screaming and cheering was my ride partner trying to get me to come around. I was out hard, helmet broken in two and my shoes were still clipped to the pedals (note, my feet were not in the shoes...). The bike was thrown about 15 feet from where I was and my front wheel was taco'd hard. I could not speak coherently and my buddy was doing cartwheels in front of me (or so I thought).
My friend told me to stay down, but I tried to get up anyway. I immediately fell over. I would get up, but immediately lean as I was walking and start doing a death spiral to the ground. (Looking back at it, it was probably funny to watch).
Long story short, my buddy ran down to the nearest house near Laguna Seca he could find to call the doc (my cell was in backpack, but I was too incoherent to tell anyone). The 911 dispatcher got a 4X4 ambulance to haul my bloody and battered body off the hill. All I could ask about was "is my bike OK?" (idiot).
I still don't remember the actual crash, just going down the hill. Went back about a month later and tried to figure out what happened. I think I got wide off the packed single track onto some wet grassy area (it rained the night before, trail was dry but patches of wet sand/grass) and turned to get back on the trail. The tire bit just right, ripping it off the rim and the rim dug into the sand. Endo I went...
I barfed for the next 24 hours and couldn't walk straight for two days.
Still cannot go down that hill with my hand off the brakes.