So my life continued on from having to sell my first bike to when I was starting an apprenticeship as a panel beater in Wonthaggi .
So I then decided to buy another motorbike as I was going to get my bike learners permit soon ,
so I thought it was a good idea , I brought a Yamaha IT 250 off the Huther family , they were selling it as Paul had a bad accident on it and had broken his leg . They said it was too dangerous to ride .
The funny bit is all these years later Paul married my sister Debbie so he is now my brother in law.
So I took possession of the bike and brought it home . I had barely enough mechanical skills to maintain it but I was learning .
So I passed my learners test and on the very first week I had it I rode it to the Main Street , on the road and around the roundabout .
I saw a few mates parked outside the one stop shop so I thought that I would show off and pop a mono on the way out of the roundabout.
Bugger , I mucked it up and it wasn’t any good or anything near like I wanted to do .
I turned off the bike and pulled off my helmet to then see a cop car pulling in next to me.
So I took cover in the shop and waited for a while , the cop just stood by my bike with a book and pen in hand,
After about five minutes I decided it was time to just face the music, I told the cop I had only just got the bike , yesterday and I wasn’t used to its power . He didn’t buy my story at all , and he booked me on a charge of careless driving.
I couldn’t believe it for that tiny mono , so I would fight it later in court.
The cops name was
Rod Churchill , or Known around as Rocca, I did sort of know him , and years later l regularly served him beers at the Killy pub and we just laughed about it .
So I worked at Wonthaggi Motors panel shop and at some stage they sent down a young mechanic to do the office work there, his name was Wes Bolding and we got along just fine , and became good friends.
He also had a bike a Kawasaki KDX 200 and they lived not that far from Wonthaggi on a farm at Lance creek . Wes had a bungalow out the back so I started staying there regularly and fitted easily into the household.
His mum Dawn , always asked me at breakfast time what we had done last night ?
I always answered with the truth no matter how bad it sounded.
She would laugh thinking that I’d made up and told her a story.
I think deep down she knew .
So they had a fair sized property about 320 acres and it was run as a dairy farm by Stumpy , Wese’s dad . So we started riding our bikes around the farm for some fun up until the day that Wes took me down the back paddock where there was a large disused empty dam.
I recon it had a five foot vertical wall at one end and Wes was jumping it and going high into the air and landing a fair way out into the paddock.
He stopped and said to me you should have a go , I said ok but how do I do it mate as I have never been over a jump before?
He said go back to the other end of the paddock and take a run up from there , and go as fast as you can and you will be right .
So being a bit green and uncertain, I did just that and I followed Wes’s instructions.
I wrung my bikes neck and smashed it quickly though the gears hitting top gear just as I entered the dam . At over 100 KMPH , I hit the wall and the bike launched it and me high into the air , it was the greatest feeling flying like that , but then in one second things went pear shaped, the front wheel started to drop fast towards the ground , and I thought in my mind , oh oh this is going to hurt.
I was totally tipping over and I could see the ground wizzing past my head fast now with the bike completely on top of me.
I braced myself for the massive impact that was coming, but you can’t really in just a few seconds prepare yourself for that.
I hit the ground so hard and with the cross bar of the handle bars across my chest in line with my nipples , it drove so deep into my chest on impact ,
I thought that it had squashed me as it pressed my chest to flat for a second with the whole weight of my bike crashing down on , it
I have never in my life been winded so badly before.
Wes dropped his bike and came running over thinking that I had to be dead , my eyes were rolled back in my head and showing Wes the whites.
I couldn’t move or make a sound for a minute but I could still just see and hear Wes , and after what seemed to be an eternity I made the most terrible strange and loud sound as my diaphragm tried to suck in some air . This sound intermittently lasted for ages before I could even sort of breathe again ,
Wes helped me get my helmet off and he breathed his own sigh of relief , after I was stable he left me there and rode back to the farm to get the Ute to get me back up to the house.
When he returned in the ute he opened up the tailgate and helped me to stand , its then I felt the real extent of my injuries as the impact with the ground had torn my jeans off my ass right down to my knees taking heaps of skin off in the process.
So now that I knew my bum was stinging so bad from the gravel rash , and bleeding a bit to top it off.
So I had to lay on my side for the ride back to the farmhouse.
So I thought that there was no way that I could go home in that condition so I hid out the farm for the next few days before going home and doing a great job of hiding the truth from mum .
Now this is something that I have forgotten , but when Wes picked up my bike from the dam , he measured the distance that I jumped and it was huge a bit like Evil Kanevil
It was definitely the new farm jump record farm record,
But because I landed on my back I’m not sure if it was official.
later on down the track Wes would ask me if I wanted to go and do some jumps , but I’d say no as I wanted to keep my pants on from then on .
The jumps came later .
Cheers
Curlyg
Hi there
If you like my stories may I suggest if you get a chance to visit and bookmark my new website that’s currently under construction,
there you will eventually find new stories that arnt displayed on facebook , they will be layed out in an easy to browse format ,
I hope to see you there
Cheers