Unbroken: The Snowboard Life of Mark McMorris Page #4

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for a month straight.

Every single day,

two hours a day.

Like, I feel like a new person.

Like I'm happy again

because I'm not in

so much pain right now.

In the beginning it was hard

to even position him comfortably

because there was

something somewhere

going on in his body all over.

For the last month

I've been sitting

and last night I just was like,

it felt good to

be standing again.

It wasn't hurting my ribs

it wasn't hurting my back,

my shoulder wasn't

aching, my jaw wasn't,

felt like it was,

yeah it's good.

Amanda and I had

talked through it

and I think his

spirit was rising.

I think coming back was

at that point, motivating.

Whoa.

He was weak, but he was

moving relatively well.

With this whole injury,

I'm just happy to

like, be making gains.

Good, touch deeper,

and push, good.

Damien is a pretty smart dude

when it comes to working

on the body, you know.

And he would push me a

little bit more each day.

He didn't want me to be

dead the next day you know,

so we would start like

finding range in my torso

and twisting and like taking

impact and even pushing off.

Like in the first two months

we made a huge huge leap.

Good, a little more patience.

Don't reach too

far with the foot,

just let yourself

fall and catch, good.

Mark's capacity to heal

and build and move through

is really astonishing to

watch and be involved in.

And once he came back

up from Encinitas

and starting in after

that first month

it was like, this is

actually going really well.

Go on, two, three.

I feel like what's

going through his head is

he wants to be at the

Olympics, he wants to win gold.

That's where his motivation

is, and he's using that

to his advantage to progress.

You don't usually spend

that much time in the hospital

and that much time not being

able to really move that much

and then on month three

be in the gym squatting

and going on skateboard

cruises and by month five, six,

I was back to skating

pretty heavily.

If he has his pop

back skateboarding

he'll feel like he has

his pop back on snow.

You can't reproduce the demands

of snowboarding in

a gym environment.

It's not the same.

Does that have a little

niggle of risk and concern

in the back of my mind, sure.

I feel like he's come so

far in trusting his body.

I watched him transform

from being curled up

into a ball almost lifeless

to now we go surfing.

If he's able to

surf and cut back hard

and turn his body

through it then he knows

he has that mobility

and I think that

those things are

extremely valuable assets

to what he's doing and to

what's getting him back

to being back on snow.

He's getting stronger everyday

and he worked so hard

and put so much effort

into his training and wellbeing

because he wants to be back.

He wants to be back on the

mountain doing what he loves.

This is kind of creepy

that the last time

I strapped in or even

wore any of that stuff

I was pretty much dead.

That's pretty wild.

I'm coming back from a

laundry list of injuries.

It's the biggest year

in four years for me.

That's what I get nervous about.

You definitely think

about, like you're like,

how am I gonna do all

those tricks I did again?

We're headed down to the land

of kangaroos and vegemite.

Australia.

You ready? You ready?

Ready ready.

Thank you.

Let's do it.

Do it.

I love going down

to Australia to ride,

it's a really good place to

like, get your groove back

and not having to compete,

but knowing it's Olympic year

you definitely want to

like, get confident again.

Flew for 14 and a half

hours and then got in a car

and now we are an hour

in the wrong direction.

Make the correction, and

we'll be one direction.

If Adam drives on the road.

Dude is this car just so hard

to keep between the lines?

And we're back on the line.

Full gang mentality here.

We just all hang out together,

all snowboard together,

eat together, sleep together,

not together, but okay.

We shred together,

we love hanging out,

and we all push each other

so much and I don't think

I like being around anybody

more than these guys.

[Man] Ready to

get out, ready guys?

Woo.

[Man] That was a sick...

Sick exit, dude.

Dude everybody knows

you have the sickest exit.

[Man] Mark how hyped

are you right now?

Dude, the hype levels are

through the roof right now.

This is one of my favorite

places, the snowboard park,

in the world, so looking

forward to day one

and just hoping

everything feels good.

Hopefully I don't push it

too much and just have fun.

Having Mark back

snowboarding is

kind of a surreal feeling

to be honest with you

because you see him in

situations and you're like,

oh this guys probably never

gonna snowboard again.

Or like, this guy is

probably not gonna live

for very much longer

and then you see him

in the hospital and then

you see him at Fortius

working with Damien

getting stronger.

Worked his butt off, and then

all of a sudden he's just

in Australia with all the boys.

And now we're going snowboarding

and the world is

as it should be.

Other than all the political

and crazy (beep)

that's happened.

(inspirational music)

I had never been

hurt on that level

so I didn't really know what

I was gonna feel mentally.

That's when you're

like, am I gonna be able

to snowboard at a

competitive level ever again?

Or even do like half

the stuff I was doing,

or take those

impacts or whatnot.

(yelling)

I slammed my shoulder.

I felt out of

breath a little bit.

Because like, you can

work out all you want,

but then when

you're snowboarding,

you're like expending

energy but you're also

like trying to do everything

right and not get hurt.

You forget to breathe almost.

A lot of people don't

realize like the mental game.

Like a doctor can say

you're 100% cleared,

all your bones are

healed or what have you.

But like, being

ready to fall again,

being ready to take a slam is,

I don't know that's

a different timeframe

than actually healing an injury.

I was starting

to get frustrated.

I've done these tricks

before, why is it hard?

Well maybe because you

almost died five months ago

it's getting it back and

getting the rust off.

Try something

gnarly, take a slam,

you know like push yourself,

scare yourself a little bit.

Because then you like,

wake up, you know?

It's like having your

first sip of coffee

and being like alright,

I'm ready, I'm in this now.

[Man] How is he alive?

My body feels really

good but at the same time

I don't think it's

used to falling

the way you fall snowboarding

so everything is just

kind of like ugh.

[Man] You alright?

With everything

I've been through,

I think that I'm

gonna be dealing with

a little bit of pain

for the rest of my life

but as long as I

can do what I want,

that's all I care about.

(soft inspirational music)

Oh my word, just

like riding a bike.

Mark McMorris is back,

or riding a snowboard,

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