Alright, welcome to the first of three parts from the ‘Cumlaude’ video by Jizzy Griptape. First up is Jesler van der Vlugt, Jizzy boss and legend in the Northern skatescene. Read a little (intense) backstory by Jesler about his part below:
A month after injuring my left shoulder, my right shoulder dislocated itself for the first time, resulting in me not getting the enders I wished for, as they all involved some kind of drop. Sucks, but that’s the life of a skateboarder.
While filming with Robin Hayford in Amsterdam Zuid, we found a spot that looked promising for a hippy jump suitable as ender. Hippy jump, shitty bank, low impact, it sounded like the perfect plan B for my ender scenario. After thinking about it for a while, and hoping that one of my other enders would work out eventually, the premiere was creeping closer with seven days to go. Sadly, my shoulder was still just as rusty as the chain of your pub bike, so I had no other option than to go for the shitty bank in Zuid.
We found Charlie Lanceplaine ready to film and met up with him at the spot, around 2 in the afternoon. Arriving with a complete mental support crew, I dropped in half way down the bank a few times, and got confident enough to go for it. The first few run ups were tensive, but I started jumping over the railing after a few, then started landing on my board and feeling myself riding down the bank, only to wake up six hours later in intensive care.
At the end of the bank I hit a little edge, which caused me to fall backwards and hitting the back of my head. I was knocked out immediately and got into an epileptic attack. A shitty bank resulting in a concussion is nothing new for me, but this was new territory for me.
According to the support crew, I was peeing and puking while I was unconscious, and lost my ability to breathe. On top of that my body temperature was dropping… Turns out my lungs filled up with fluid, and I was choking.
With blind luck two nurses cycled by, who did a great job at helping me before police and ambulance staff threw me in an ambulance and raced me to the intensive care. Obviously I don’t remember any of this, as the doctors told me it cost them a lot of effort to keep me alive. Somehow they managed to do that, so shout out to Medisch Centrum Amsterdam for the good care!
The doctor told me that “it’s a wonder everything is functioning… If we would have pushed you outside in a wheelchair you still would have had an angel on your shoulder”. Basically, I’ve been really lucky.
After 22 hours I was discharged from the hospital. Again, I’m really lucky that everything turned out fine and I can still talk and walk. I want to end this with a message for the kids: despite people saying a helmet isn’t cool, do whatever feels right for you and what makes you comfortable. If I’ve learned one thing, it would be that however wack something is, it’s still not as wack as laying in a coma with your parents standing next to your hospital bed.
Thanks to everyone who helped me with this project, both in front of the lens and behind the screens. It was a great time and I definitely enjoyed myself! Love you, xoxo
Filmed by Hylke Rosendaal, Mark Wagenaar and Stan Ceha.