So Will Demers from Brothers Factory really wanted me to put this video on the site because if he gets the most views in a week he can win $10,000 or something. Lord knows his greasey broke ass could use it. Plus we're down for the cause over here. Plus there's some good shredding in it from Jeremy Cloutier. Billy-D, if you win you owe me as many poutines as I can eat and as many Belle Gueules as I can drink.

Becoming a quadriplegic is one of the worst injuries imaginable. Anyone who has ever stepped on a board or been involved in an action sport has likely experienced some brief moment of repose where they’ve thought, ‘What if that happened to me?’ It’s the kind of fear we push deep down, pretend it doesn’t exist and pray some like that never happens to us. Thankfully incidences of paralysis in snowboarding seem few and far between. But what’s even more rare is to see someone recover from it.

In response to the Get Over It feature in the Winter issue Jodie Thring from Australia sent in the story of her struggle to return to snowboarding after a fall left her paralyzed from the shoulders down. Against the odds Jodie got all Uma Thurman in Kill Bill on it and recovered. Today she even competes, something she attributes to the power of the mind. “I am living proof that visualization can help repair the body,” says Jodie. Here is her story. —Gerhard Gross

I am currently Australia's only disabled snowboard athlete and the only quadriplegic snowboard athlete in the world. I learned to snowboard in Whistler in 1996 and never looked back; I'd found my passion in life. I moved to Thredbo when I got home so that snowboarding could be a part of my daily life. In July 2005 I broke my neck snowboarding at my home resort. I fell really hard on my coccyx after failing to ride out of a Boardslide on a box. It was a really random fall, which instantly paralyzed me from the shoulders down. I woke from an induced coma 10 days later to be told I was a C5 quadriplegic and it would be very unlikely that I would ever walk again. I'd compressed my C4, split my C5 in half and chipped my C6 with splits in my spinal cord. I couldn't talk because tubes were down my throat to assist me with breathing. I tried to ask my mom for a pen so that I could write my questions down, not realizing I wouldn't be able to hold a pen let alone write.

Jodie Thring [second from left] with fellow adaptive athletes.

I was moved from Intensive Care to the Acute Spinal ward a few days later and there began feelings of anger, denial, depression, loss and fear. How dare they tell me I was not going to walk again? Three months later I was ready for my first day of rehab. I was really positive and determined that I would walk out of hospital. It began with the doctor coming in every day for the next three months pricking me all over with a pin to see if I regained any sensation. She'd also ask me to try and move my toe. I'd lie in bed thinking, 'Move your toe Jodes, move your toe', trying to get my brain to send the messages down that were being blocked. Around the three month mark she came in one day, did the usual pin-prick and asked me to move my toe. I couldn't see it as I wasn't allowed to be moved for 14 weeks, or feel it, but my toe moved. Just a small flicker, but it moved. She made me do it three times to make sure it wasn't a spasm. From there I started to get movement in parts I couldn't feel and feeling in parts I couldn't move. The spasms started to kick in, which is part and parcel for a spinal cord injury.

After 14 weeks they sat me up for the first time and prepared my new motorized wheelchair, still not confident I would walk again. I told them I would be walking out of hospital and they said, “Jodie, we know you're really positive but we don't want you to be too optimistic". That just made me more determined to prove them wrong.

Shortly after I was moved into the rehab ward and that's when the depression really kicked in. On the first day in rehab they tried to teach me how to transfer into my chair so that I could independently get in and out of my bed, chair, etc. I couldn't even sit up on my own or push with my hands let alone lift my body. I burst into tears. Reality kicked in along with depression but I was still determined to do everything I could.

Like a baby I learned from scratch how to move again (except for the crawling, haha). About a month later I was able to stand up without falling in a heap and took my first step with a frame. After five months in the spinal ward I walked out of hospital with a granny frame. A month later I was able to walk unassisted. I was able to manage most things on my own by May 2006 and moved out on my own again, but stayed close to the hospital as my rehab continued two days a week for the next three years. I am now classed as a C5 Incomplete (standing) Quadriplegic. Nothing functions properly from C5 down. It's a lot easier to snowboard than it is to walk but I'm grateful every day for every step I can take, to be able to clean my own teeth, brush my own hair and wipe my own arse.

In July 2006, just shy of a year after my accident, I got back on my snowboard. I had been planning on spending the 2005/06 winter season in Japan so in January of 2007 I went snowboarding in Japan. In February I attended the first Canadian Adaptive Snowboard Program with the CSF (Canadian Snowboard Federation). There I met a guy who was working with Adaptive Action Sports in the U.S. and he invited me to go to Northstar-at-Tahoe for USASA Nationals at the end of March. In July I moved back to Thredbo and learned to drive Pisten Bully's. I had wanted to be a snow groomer and was about to start learning just before I had my accident. I went back to the USASA Nationals again the following year at Copper Mountain, skipped last season since I was broke.

This winter I had the opportunity to be coached for the first time so I'm living in Park City, Utah training with Team Utah. We are trying really hard to get snowboarding into the Paralympics for 2014, which will hopefully be a SBX event. The WSF (World Snowboard Federation) have started to hold SBX Adaptive World Cup's, which will be held in conjunction with Nationals at Mont Tremblant at the end of March, Copper Mountain, Colorado April 4^th to 11^th, then in Cardrona New Zealand at the end of July. We compete at Nationals in SBX, Slalom, GS, Slopestyle and Pipe. There's a long way to go as there is no classification process in place just yet. I'm competing against amputees who have full strength in their body, no paralysis, no spasticity and prosthetics specifically designed for snowboarding. It's going to take time but it will happen. —Jodie Thring

Jodie would like to thank the Canadian Snowboard Federation for their support of Adaptive Snowboarding.

Mid way through the SIA tradeshow in Denver this January photographer Russell Dalby and myself decided to book a last minute trip to Stockholm for a rail mission with the Brothers Factory crew. There was just enough time to jet over there, session for a week and get back to Vancouver in time to catch the Olympics.

Will Demers, Max Baillargeon, Jeremy Cloutier and Dalby made contact with Stockholm loc Kareem El Rafie who would guide us to the goods and headed out on February 2. P-O Houde and I joined them on the 6^th and Vermont’s Yale Cousino hooked up with us the next day.

Sweden is basically a rail riders dream. There are ridiculous spots everywhere that you can hit any time of day with zero bust. One of reasons appears to be that the same liability laws that we have here don’t exist over there (more research being done to confirm this theory). The another is something called Allemansrätten, or Every Mans Right, which guarantees the general public's right to access certain public or privately owned land for recreation and exercise. So when you start to session it seems that people figure it’s just your right to do what you want in that area—as far as I could tell anyway. And that’s pretty much perfect for shredding.

Everyone we ran into was claiming that this was the best winter (or worst depending on your point of view) that they've seen in 20 years, so along with tonnes of spots there was tonnes of snow.

The downside is that like most of Europe’s developed nations it’s pretty damn expensive.

Word is that Endeavor's Kevin Griffin and Jody Wachniak are over there as you read this getting their fill of what Sweden's got to offer.

Keep an eye out for a feature story dropping in SBC next fall and a travel part in Brothers Factory’s 2010 release The Next Level.

P-O rolled off the plane in Stockholm on Saturday night and had a shot on the gap to down bar (below) 10 tries later.

First night gap to down (shrinker angle). Kareem breaks it down...

Kareem told us about the Stockholm Perfect rail. This spot is far from N.B.D. Jeremy Cloutier gives the run down...

P-O tried to up the ante with a Cab 270 Pretzel out and came damn close but tweaked his knee on a landing...

Day two: P-O figured the trip might be over for him.

Yale getting braced.

P-O with prison stripes. We stayed in Langholmen hostel which was converted from an old prison in 2007.

If you were ever stranded in the wilderness you could just grab a couple of Will Demers' moustache hairs and braid them together to make a fishing line.

Max "CB4" Baillaregeon.

Owning the streets.

Gotta get old school when you go to Europe. Eddie Wall got a shot on this ledge a few years back.

Just outside the church. Any setup, any time, any where.

Red Bull hooked us up with a generator in the form of this car which they drove to any spot any time. Thanks to Jens and Martin.

Red Bull winch=speed.

Red Bull even brought some girls along to keep us company.

Massive triple kink, middle of the day, busy street, no problem. Cloutier killed it.

Sight seeing.

We're on a boat. Rygerfjord hostel. A little cold at night but nice and cheap.

We wrapped up our final nights with a stay at the Hilton. Ballin'.

Swedish girls are world renowned. It's true, there was P-hus everywhere.

The Vancouver Spring Olympics; that’s been the joke around here. While Cypress had to pour massive resources into relocating snow to host the promised events a similar lack of snow over on Grouse Mountain forced the cancellation of Monster Energy’s 11:58 contest.

Originally scheduled to take place on February 18^th after the Women’s pipe wrapped up on Cypress, the plan was to kick off the slopestyle finals at two minutes to midnight and shred and party the night away. After that was abandoned due to the crazy snow conditions (spring-like slush during the day, bullet-proof at night), Monster made a last minute attempt to salvage something of the event by turning it into a rail jam but that too was shut down, unfortunately, due to the same weather-related reasons.

But as they say, the party must go on—or is that show? Either way it’s usually a strange mix of both when the Party Snake crew is in the house—which they usually are if it’s a Monster deal. So last Thursday, with the lights of Vancouver smoldering away below us, SBC editor Scott Birke and myself headed up to Monster’s private chalet on Grouse to see what the night held.

Scott Birke with Monster Energy chalet.

Scott Birke with Dustin Craven.

Scott Birke with Geoff Brown.

Scott Birke with SBC senior photog Russell Dalby and shish kabob.

Scott Birke with Dano Pendygrasse.

Scott Birke with Monster's Nelson Phillips, baby Jodie and Dustin Craven.

Enough of Scott Birke. Party Snake Sean O'Brien with wearing war paint (it was icy as hell and he hooked up on a box).

Ouch.

Spy cam.

Austin Smith made a cameo with his GF.

Partners in plaid. Dinosaurs Will Die's Jeff Keenan and Russell Dalby.

Party Snake's Sean Kiv and Evan Chandler Soanes.

Nic Heringa.

That's it, I'm out.

Olympic half pipe Bronze medalist Scotty Lago has volunteered to leave Vancouver on Thursday after a photo of a girl holding the medal up to his junk and kissing it appeared on TMZ.com. It ran along side another photo of Lago holding the medal while the girl bit it (the medal not his junk). See photos here: http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/19/scotty-lago-olympics-vancouver-photo/

In an email statement U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt wrote, "Scotty Lago is a great athlete, but with that comes a responsibility of proper conduct, and his involvement in this situation is not acceptable. Scotty realizes his conduct was inappropriate. He has formally apologized and also made a decision to leave Vancouver today."

I get that an Olympic medal is coveted but does winning one mean you waive all rights to be yourself? After it was hung around his neck was Scotty taken to a back room and made to sign a contract saying, ‘I, the undersigned, do solemnly promise to never again party like I just don’t care’? (Apparently there is a caveat just below that sentence that states you are, on occasion, allowed to throw your hands in the air. See photo above.) 

Why do we expect the physical skills of athletes to be linked to their ethics? Have you ever thought, ‘Wow that was the sickest Double Cork I’ve ever seen. It must be the result of his high moral character’? Yet for some reason athletes are supposed to behave as if they’re Mother Teresa once their run, game, whatever, is over. I have feeling what Scotty is really thinking is something similar to the immortal words of Natalie Portman: “I never said I was a role model.” Once you’ve been given the medal it should be yours to do with as you please. At least they didn’t go as far as to try and take it away from him.  

Bill Marlot displays exactly the kind of conservative attitude that makes it easy to question what snowboarding, with its focus on creativity and freedom of expression, is doing in the Olympics. Snowboarders have always pushed conventional boundaries and broken the rules. It’s a large part of what made snowboarding so successful.

Earlier in the week Japanese shred Kazuhiro Kokubo found himself in a conduct-based mess with the Ski Association of Japan when he showed up at the airport with his shirt untucked and tie hanging loose. He continued to ruffle some suits when he commented that the Olympics “were just another snowboarding event.” [See Dean Seguin’s blog about it all here: http://www.snowboardcanada.com/Blogs/post/62/Kazu-Kokubo-Olympic-Badass]

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and the Ski Association of Japan, whether intentionally or not, attempt to water down the culture of snowboarding. On the one hand I’m sure they love the popularity of snowboarding—or are at least forced to acknowledge it because of the popularity—but on the other hand they get pissed when snowboarders do exactly what youth always do: party and cause shit. Organizations like this have an incredibly narrow definition of what sport is, which puts them natuarally at odds with snowboarding. There are those who would argue snowboarding is more sub-culture than sport. 

I’m glad the Games didn’t go by without snowboarders creating at least of bit of controversy. In a world of institutionalized sports and corporate sponsorships it shows we’ve got a bit of life left in us yet. Scotty you’re welcome back in Canada any time buddy.

[For the record I was surprised how hyped I got every time a Canadian has dropped in for their runs this week, be it Boardercross or Pipe. More on that in a blog coming soon.] - Gerhard Gross