Coinsidentally, at the recent Louisville MUni Rendezvous, I told some of our riders that my signature move is called the “Ooooph”. But they informed me that they had been doing it for years.
My daughters (14 and 10) are into MUni. I upgraded my MUni recently and cut the seatpost on my old Yuni24 to fit the older one, but the younger one still only fits her 20" Torker. We’ve cut some air pressure to soften the little bumps…works ok.
Yesterday we took an easy MUni ride on some flat woodsy trails near the Wolf River. It has been raining a little each day for about 4-5 days around here, but the trails were 85% dry-ish. There were puddles and slick sections, but the kids masterfully picked out some good lines to meander through the challenges.
On one quiet section of muddy doubletrack, Sarah (14) was leading, me in the middle, and Ellen (10) behind. Soft sound of tires rolling over dirt or gravel or mud. Birds singing left and right. Then, from behind, OOOOOOOOOPH! Ellen had done her very first faceplant. She was riding the 12"-wide ridge between two puddles when her little tire sunk into a muddy patch the size of a dinner plate. She landed hard, belly first, which violently pushes the air out. There was no effective place for [wrist guarded] hands to go to cushion the blow. The ruts left and right were deep enough to cause the ridge to punch her right in the gut.
I’ve Oooophed 100s of times starting with Mountain B*king. I remember the first times, thinking “Did I just break myself?” and “that was loud.” Well, as we all know, it is a violent and jarring way to stop. And loud. When your body comes down on your belly, it pushed the air out fast, making for a loud “Ooooooph”. But after some consoling words, a hug, a look-see for injury, she calmed down. Now its a big story for her peers. She even wanted to preserve the mud-slick on her shirt so mom could see. She had a glob of mud on the visor or her helmet. I acted out how she must’ve skidded to a stop, with her visor plowing down the path (exagerated, of course).
Naturally, she’s UPD’d tons of times. Even had some bad twisty falls. But this was my baby’s first certifiable face plant.
I’m so proud.
Tom.
