Scotty Cranmer Wheely, originally uploaded by Eric Takes Pictures.

In 2008 you hurt your foot. Are you all healed now?

For the most part, it is still a little sore. It is way better than it was that’s for sure. 

Are you going to ride again this year, 2009? 

Right now I am just taking it easy.  There is one contest in the end of April.  The ones that I want to focus on are in June, August, September and October. 

How is your conditioning?

I can ride fine.  I just did a show and I did every one of my tricks no problem. 

How did you get hurt?

Last year I was riding the best I ever rode.  I had all of the tricks that I was working on.  I was at the skate park going higher on everything.  I was having a blast.  That means I was going as fast as I can on the ramps and going as high as I could. However, when you go as high as you can, you come down eventually.  It was a crummy situation. I just put my foot down.  I felt the pop.  I fell down on the ramp and I knew my foot was broke.  I thought that it would heal in 10 minutes. (Scotty laughs).  So I hoped off the ramp and went to the hospital got the x-rays and it was pretty bad.  I ended up getting pins through my toes.  It was pretty wild.   The doctor said in six weeks my foot should be ok.

Six weeks go by and I could tell it felt just like it did six weeks ago.  I ended up going 15 weeks with the cast on.  When I got the cast off, I just wanted to put regular shoes on and wear pants.  I was wearing shorts forever.    I put long pants on and I felt awesome.  I saw my shoes, the right shoe was all dirty and the left shoe was brand new.  I tried to squeeze my left foot in the shoe and it was not good.  So I cut the tongue out, squeezed my foot in there, tied it up and started walking around nice and slow and with crutches.  That day, I got on my bike and rode 28 miles to Old Bridge on Route 9, just for fun.  I just missed riding my bike.  I just wanted to get out there and do it. It hurt.  But I took my time. 

Since then, day by day, it just kept on getting better.  I can ride now and land on it and it is fine.  I stopped going to the doctors after that.  I never went back.  I saw the x-rays and I saw they were all intact and I said, “if I give it time it will be alright”. 

I did my own physical therapy.  My toes were dead stiff.  I could not move them at all.  So I took an elastic band and tied it around my heal and toes and started tightening the band more and more and curling my toes.  It was horrible.  It feels great now. 

My mom was always yelling at me.  With my cast on, I was riding to Belmar and back.   I took my cast and cut a skate board deck in the shape of a shoe and duct taped it to the bottom of the cast.  I put a cleat on the skate board deck and I clipped into my bike pedal and went all the way to Belmar.  I had three cars at the time and all of them were stick shift.  I could not go anywhere. I was stuck in my house.    So I taped a wedge on the cast and put grip tape on the clutch pedal so I could use the clutch and drive myself around.   My mom was yelling at me, “You’re going to ruin your foot.”  She thought this was why it would not heal.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I am 22 now.  I will be 32 in ten years.  There is a guy riding at 41 so I will be alright.  Look at the best BMX rider of all time Dave Mira, he’s 34 right now and he is at the top of his game.  Every year he comes back for contests and he’s got new tricks and he is still going higher than everyone else.  So in my opinion that is a good age. 20 years I don’t know.  But we will figure it out. 

Thanks Scotty for the interview……

(If you are looking for a bike, you may want to stop by Scotty’s shop, SC Action Sports, in Howell, NJ on Route 9 North.  They carry a wide variety of name brand bicycles, skateboards, accessories, clothing and much more!)

(Want  more,  see our interview wiht Augie Simoncini, BMX Stunt Rider for “Hell on Wheels”  at http://erictakespictures.com/ )