I was instantly paralyzed when I ran into a dead tree that had fallen across the trail and lay in the blind spot of the landing of a jump closing day at Crested Butte mountain bike park on 10/7/2018. The tree fell in a 40 minute window between laps, I had just ridden that same trail, same jump and it had been all clear. WTF!?

I broke and snapped the fork of my bike on the tree and then hit the tree directly with my chest, with enough force to fracture my t5 & t6 vertebrae. It did enough spinal damage to label me as a complete spinal injury at the t4 level. Millimeters away from being a quad or worse, or millimeters away from walking away…

As devastating as the injury was to my body, my life, and my mind I’m not going to let it define me or my life. And I’m certainly not going to let it slow me down and keep me from doing what I love. #ridelikeadanimal