Whats with the ------karma Witt,

I do agree that the conditions at the time were not good.  We had only a couple of hours to ride and we had to head back for the SLC event on the 9th.  The park had been closed the whole time we were there until that day.  I am 31 years old, and  I have a wife and a 2 year old son.  I knew that there was a big risk when I was doing my speed checks, but getting as hurt as bad as I did was the last thing I worried about.  My buddies were trying to talk me out of it but I did not want to go home without hitting it, and I allowed that desire to cloud my better judgement.  Fronts are my lock-down trick and I am more comfortable jumping large jumps doing inverts than I am doing straight-air.  They are just more comfortable for me.

That being said, I disagree when people put a lable on what skiing or snowboarding is.  It means something different to us all.  It is not a stunt show to me, but I am sure it is to some people, and I have no place telling someone what it should be to them.

To me skiing is not a sport, it is a culture a lifestyle, and a state of mind.  To me it is based on progression, and I will ski with that state of mind until Im done.  I do not enjoy skiing unless, I am pushing it.  My family and freinds worry about how agressive I ski, but it is what makes me happy.

I had a long conversation with Tim Windell the night before my accident, and the two of us talked about a lot of things.  We talked about what Windells is all about.  Windells is all about supplying a place for riders to get together and celebrate our culture.  It is a place to share ideas and be open minded about what is possible.  It is a place for kids to find for themselves what skiing and snowboarding means to each of them.

I dont expect anyone to see it the way I do, but thats the beautiful thing.  My view of what skiing is mine and I respect what it means to all the other riders out there.

I found some time ago that if you ride for yourself and your own personal reason, every day on the mountain is a good day.  Hell,  even though I almost died that day, I still had a great time at Windells and I will never forget it.

I hope everyone finds their own personal reason to ride and charishes it.

Hey you need to take it easy.  I'm sure he recognizes what he did was stupid and irresponsible without you blasting on him.  He is the one who has to deal with time off work, hospital bills, permanent injuries, and family probs I'm sure will result from this.  Its obvious that what he did wasn't smart- he fucked up.  The reason that kids have to work thier way up is becuase they have coaching and the camp is responsible for them and their well-being.  Brad is an adult with the ability to make his own decisions. 

I'm sure he didn't plan on seriously hurting himself and the reason that he messed up so bad was becuase he overshot it not becuase he did a front.  Even if he had straight aired it and overshot it he still would have had serious injuries... look at dumont. 

As far as it being a bad example I think your logic is incorrect.  Him having that bad of an accident will prob do more to discourage irresponsible kids than having pros tell them to be safe, then land tons of tricks over it without incident. 

Also you can't blame him  100%.  He did a few speed checks and consulted a few different people on how much speed he needed... it sounds to me like he got some bad information.  Still it prob wasn't a good idea to hit it when the conditions were so bad but I can see why he did it.

On a side not I do think he's overdoing it with all the posts about his situation.  People on this site fuck themselves up all the time.  Its part of what we do... I doubt anyone who is serious about park and does it for 5+ years is going to walk away without some sort of injury.  Its just about trying to assess the risks and make smart choices while still progressing and enjoying the sport.  

ha!
some places offer discounts to "special" people, so you alwys got that going for ya
way to stay positive while in the hospital, get better crazy man

Overshooting the hit is what put me in the hospital not the front flips.  I was going for a lawn dart.  When I came around and realized how far I was going to go I did not want to fight my forward momentum and land head first, so I rolled another one so that I could flop it onto my back.   The doctors say that I would have shattered both my legs and possibly would have snapped by back in half resulting in paralysis  if I would have landed on my feet.  The fact the I landed flat on my back disperced the energy of the impact over my whole body and saved my life.  The trick I did is not the issue, it was my decision to jump under icy conditions. 

I just think its funny because had he landed and rode away from it he would have been awesome but going 20 feet farther he is now a bad influence to kids. I could definately be wrong, but I don't remember people telling Dumont he was a bad influence to kids for massivley over shooting a jump. Or Tanner Hall for hitting Chads on a day that it was more like a park jump than a back country jump due to spring conditions. 

 I coach a freeride team in Northern Utah, and if kids were as easily influenced as you seem to think they are, I wouldn't have nearly as much work to do trying to get kids to try things out of their comfort zone. Kids are smarter than you think, you have a few idiots out there who do whatever they see done, but how about you give humanity's track record of survival a little credit. we didn't all try and squirrel tap T-rex for fun and end up food did we? If we all cared so much about being a bad influence on kids we would all be mad at pro's for getting wasted after contests, or smoking weed all the time. or for hitting rails which is technically breaking the law. if we are going to be on our high horse we should be on it all the time. I'm as guilty as the rest at least I realize I'm a hippocrit.