Pro snowboarder Kevin Pearce used to be one of Shaun White‘s biggest competitors. That all changed on New Year’s Eve 2009 when Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury while executing a half-pipe trick.
Nearing the two year anniversary of his death-defying snowboarding accident, Pearce got back on his board at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado.
Pearce spoke with People magazine shortly after the milestone trip to the slopes, “It felt so good. It just feels so much like before. There’s nothing really new for me that I have to relearn, so that was nice. I’m really in the right state to be snowboarding right now.”
This return didn’t come as quick as he would have liked, “I’ve been working hard at a lot of things, whether it’s physical therapy or eye therapy. I got eye surgery about a month and a half ago. Even though my eyes are a lot better now, they’re not perfect, so I have been doing exercises with them.”
Many of his challenges will never go away, “A brain injury is always a brain injury, and unfortunately I’m always going to be a brain-injured kid. The real issue I have is my memory. It’s hard to explain, because everyone’s always like, ‘Oh, my memory sucks, too.’ But nobody has any idea how much my memory affects me on a day-to-day basis.”
How does his mom Pia feel about Kevin returning to the snow? “She was really nervous about me going back out there I think she dealt with it really well, though … I couldn’t even imagine how I’d handle it if my son almost died, and then he tried to go back and do it again. She just wants me to do the best I can. She’s just there for me all the time.”
Check out video of his trip back to the slopes below:
Photo Credit: Twitter-Kevin Pearce