Sean Hartel - October 15, 2009 blog

Being a pro skier is probably THE most fun and exciting path I can imagine taking in life, but it doesn't come without its hardships. Most of the "not so fun" stuff comes in the form of injuries and sacrifices that go along with the lifestyle. Athletes in all sports get hurt, but freestyle skiers (as well as athletes in some extreme sports) "swim with the sharks and play with the lions." The more danger there is, the more fun we have. The riskier the stunt, the more appealing it is to watch; and we love being watched! To illustrate my point: Though I am actually afraid of heights, I love jumping off big cliffs. And if 10,000 people are watching and cheering me on, I'll jump off an even bigger cliff.

I love the thrill of being on the edge of losing control. At the same time, risks are stupid if they aren't calculated. I made the mistake of taking an uncalculated risk while I was out in Utah last January, and it cost me a successful season and a pair of knees. It wasn't even on a big jump or a jaw-dropping cliff. After a week of working the Outdoor Retailer Show with the Twinlab® crew (handing out product samples and cruising the trade show floor), we all decided to go out and have some fun on the hill at Snowbird. I shredded all morning with Twinlab's sales and marketing team (who are secretly very avid skiers).

On a not so difficult trail, I overconfidently skied “on the edge of loosing control” down a line that I didn't scope out (a big no-no) and came off a drop onto another trail. I dropped to a flat landing at a fairly high speed, and both my knees gave out. I think my buddies from Twinlab felt worse than I did as they watched me rolling on the ground in agony with slightly tearing eyes.

After that, I took a week and a half off before going to Aspen for a competition. While taking one of the athletes I coach to the hospital for a potentially fractured pelvis, I asked the doctor to take a look at my knees. A few MRIs later, I found out that I had two completely torn anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs), two torn meniscuses, and some serious bruising on my femurs. Thankfully my athlete's pelvis was fine, but I’d have to have surgery on both my knees. Lesson learned. Depression sets in.

Elana Chase, a coach I look up to, said a few words to me that are still ringing in my ears now: "This surgery will be a life changing experience." My whole life, skiing has been my biggest passion and has fueled my finest dreams. I have had many injuries, but none that have taken me out of the game for this long. I wasn’t able to jump or do anything remotely thrilling on my skis for a year. Some of my sponsors – the ones who are more concerned with immediate return rather than perseverance and accomplishing long-term goals – dropped me. (But since you're reading this, you can see that Twinlab still believes in me.) I was barely able to make enough money to pay the bills because much of my income is based on competition winnings, media exposure, and incentives. I didn’t even get the chance to achieve my goals for the season; no podiums, no film segment, no glory. No fun summer traveling to other countries and skiing in other hemispheres. No water ramping, trampolining, or other training. Just pain, followed by recovery, lots of hard work, and saving. Which brings me to the present…

After months of experiencing severe mood swings, losing 15lbs, and going partially insane (that's what happens when you take a thrill seeking adrenaline junkie off his feet for months), I'm finally able to have some fun again. I'm back in New Jersey, where I grew up, recovering from double knee surgery and preparing for the upcoming season. I have lots of medical bills to pay off, and I need travel funds to compete this year as well as the proper tools to train. I've been saving to buy a competition trampoline setup, a new bike, and a membership to a good gym. I'm also saving up for a Mac laptop so I can do my own video editing and offer viewers more videos of me in action.

About 2 and a half weeks ago I ran for the first time. Then I started road biking, then surfing. The depression lifts, and my smile is growing. Two days ago I water-skied. After a few cuts on the slalom water ski, I’m glowing and my smile stretches from ear to ear.

Next week I'm going to find a gymnastics facility that will let me do some bed tricks. Bed tricks include bouncing, flipping, and spinning off every part of your body EXCEPT your feet (you'll see some video of that soon) – I can't put those knees in jeopardy quite yet. By Christmas, I'll be skiing again. And by the end of January, exactly a year after my accident, I'll be jumping again.

I’m psyched to say that Twinlab just got me this really cool helmet cam to provide you with some insane 1st person footage of what I do on skis this winter. It's snowproof, waterproof, crash "resistant," and it also came with surfboard and ski mounts! Last weekend I got a chance to test it out for the first time... My big sister flew in from Colorado and we took a trip up to Block Island on my parents' boat for the weekend. I did some wakesurfing behind the boat on the way out, then some fishing. Wakesurfing behind that boat is awesome because it throws up a big enough wake to drag some knuckles. And fishing... my # 2 passion in life, is always great (I grew up living on a boat in the summers and offshore fishing for tuna, shark, etc). We caught seven tuna and one mahi mahi between 10 and 40 miles off the coast of Montauk. I even strapped the helmet cam to a gaff for a little underwater footage of the mahi mahi.

Now before I sign off I'd like to add a few side notes:

1. I've had my fair share of injuries from skiing, including 11 concussions and a few cases of amnesia, broken ribs, several broken bones in my back, more stitches than I can count on pretty much every limb, surgery on my left hand, broken pride, and a few other various fractures and severe bone bruises. None compared to my recent double knee surgery. Fortunately, I haven't had to endure child birth.

2. I love adventure, thrills, excitement, and danger. But this was a wake-up call letting me know that I'm not totally invincible… bummer

3. Stay tuned for the next video update. It will probably have much cooler footage of trampoline training, waterskiing and surfing, biking, and maybe even the bridge jump I'm planning on doing next week. Oh and most importantly, it will also include some of the workout tricks and exercises I do for skiing.