FGFS is not just for the parking lot anymore as illustrated by Mike T. Schmitt and Matt Reyes of Wheeltalk. If ever you doubted the resourcefulness of this duo, let this flick by Bryan Dempler sort out your thoughts.

Thanks Slum for the flics.

October 29th, 2012
So right now I am healing from surgery at my Mom’s house in Northern Virginia. I am pretty much stuck here recovering from surgery for the rest of 2012. The Grime team was flown to Puerto Rico for the Fijate fixed gear event. Devon, Edward and Myself were all in NYC for Mr. Joe Krillz’ wedding. We all needed to get home to San Fransisco after the event and from what I understood that is what was happening. So we get our tickets and they are round trip back to NYC, and they say they can’t change them so we just enjoy San Juan and forget about it.

We rode the demo/event in the blazing Puerto Rican heat on some exciting but sketchy ramps. They supplied us with our own weight in Gasolina, a 10% alcohol “Capri Sun” style pouch of fun. We watched Chas from SF take the win of the crit race as we climbed, played, partied, painted and explored some abandoned apartment buildings where some bums were squatting with full electricity. [I found that a lot of places in PR steal their electricity off the grid, which rules.]

So we’re heading back into the event celebrating Chas’ win, only to learn that we all are expected to ride in a second demo. We are all pretty wasted but hop back on our bikes. It was dark but still lit enough to ride so we all tried to get loose. Most of us left bleeding but it was a blast. Devon and Combs killed it the most. Ed was doing tooth hangers up the rail and launching out and Hamrick was doing crazy gap to grinds down the rail from the un-copped scoop ledge. Slum is always really good so you know he did his thing and really lit up the crowd. I crooked up and down the rail and messed around with some unluc-e stalls and pedal feebles on the flimsy wall. Lucas Bockelman came out and scored some great footage and Slum is sitting on some video-gems as well.

So on the last night of our trip, i decided that if i have to buy my own ticket home, I may as well live tropical for a hot minute. I help the team pack up their bikes and start collecting as much spare change as I can find and rounding up everyone’s $5 Subway gift cards that we were so graciously given. I had like 10 bucks to my name but I figured I could survive. The awesome people at the bike shop Ciclo Canibal were super hospitable. Not only did they true my loose as a goose spokes, they gave me a place to crash while I was around and even let me eat their food.

I started spot lurking only to find a million amazing spots everywhere. I planned out some filming dates with a few filmers and got stoked to make my come-back edit since I was out so long this year from a thumb surgery. I put on my recently made shorts [because tight pants just make your legs too swampy] and ripped the fingernail sized scab on my knee from the demo. I picked the rest off cause once a scab dangles you gotta take care of business. That day I got a fresh coconut from a tree, lurked around for some new spots to ride and chilled on the beach. Sometime in that day some Staphylococcus bacteria hopped inside my knee and started partying. That night while I was out drinking my knee has become red and swollen. I rode to where I was staying and it started hurting and getting hot. The next morning it ached and looked like a red coconut. I Instagramed a photo of it and 30+ people told me that my knee looked like shit and to go to the doctor/hospital.

I walk to the Emergency Room of the closest hospital and they tell me to go somewhere else because they never heard of my insurance. I call the insurance and they fax the hospital some stuff and take care of it for me. 9 hours later of waiting around, getting my blood drawn in a waiting room, having people talk about me in Spanish, having my knee-juice sampled for lab reports,and having an IV of antibiotics drip into my hand, they let me go. I’m told to come back for lab results on Thursday. My knee still looks awful and I’m told not to walk or ride my bike on it so I chill for a day and get my prescription filled. On Wednesday the doctor tells me to see him even though my lab reports don’t come in till the next day. He tries to charge me $125 dollars for a 5 minute conversation that is not covered by my insurance in which he tells me to “get off the island” and “get surgery immediately”. Obviously I freak out and call some family members to tell them shit just got real. My dad offers to get me a ticket home Friday morning so I can get all my hospital records and sort things out with my bike getting mailed back on Thursday. Friday I land in Northern Virginia and go right to an Emergency room. The ER doesn’t think its life or death and have me make a Monday appointment with a orthopedic doctor and send me off with a second antibiotic to take while i wait. I feel like its no big deal and that the PR doc was just trying to scare me so I get excited and make plans to get back to SF within the week. Monday rolls around and the doctor tells me that the ER had underestimated how serious it was and schedules me for surgery the next day. He explains that the bursa sack in front of my knee cap needed to be surgically removed and the hole needed to be cleaned out. After surgery my knee will have a hole that I am going to have to unpack and repack with a ribbon of gauze for 4-8 weeks. FML. So now surgery is over and I’m sticking a sharp metal tool inside a hole in my knee to push in a blood-wick. I have a pressurized IV ball of antibiotics that I have to plug into my arm daily, Oral antibiotics and painkillers. So as I read magazines, hang out with my senile grandmother and take naps all over my moms house I will heal. I expect to be back in SF by new years and riding shortly after that. Maybe if things go well I will ride some here, but I’m not gonna push it.
So pretty much I picked a scab, some tropical funk got in my knee, and ruined the rest of my year. They did say if I tried to be a tough guy and leave it I would have lost my knee. I don’t have any regrets and loved being in Puerto Rico. I am grateful everything got taken care of and hopefully I will be riding/filming with Matt Reyes for a solo edit by early 2013. Lets hope the world survives 2012 for fixed freestyle’s sake.

-Mike T Schmitt

Jereme just put up some nice shots and nicer words about the GRIME CREW on his blog Bomb Hills Speed Kills. Check it out.