Never Say Can't: The Bruce Cook Story

so when i ride it's the only time i'm truly free it's just man and machine becoming one it's living in the moment in its purest form it's total control at a primal level i can fly flip or fall it's all up to me this is why i ride welcome to nitro circus live the music down just a fraction i gotta get really serious here this is the biggest trick in the world of action sports it has never been attempted anywhere in the world to a ramp canada we have saved the biggest trick in the world of action sports just for you guys because there is a canadian in the house who wants to try a double front flip [Applause] will you please welcome from kelowna bc bruce cool this is an absolute world first you will see every single member of nitro circus has come out to check this out he is about to take a dirt bike into uncharted territory he's got to take it higher and faster than anyone has ever jumped the bike before first gear wound out to the limiter everyone everyone stand up please please stand up and show respect to the brave canadian i'm not gonna lie to you this could go either i will be glad if he can walk away whether he lands it or not is not the issue he is throwing the newest biggest baddest trick in action sports and he is ready to go so everybody whistle scream get loud [Applause] in the blink of an eye your entire life can change [Applause] how a man deals with that change defines his character bruce was born here in kelowna in 1987 on june 17th i think we all thought we were having a girl and his doctor said oh how nice it's a boy so we had our boy and a new adventure our bruce adventure oh he's done so many crazy things [Music] bruce was never quiet and the time he could walk he would just put on a show for us and he like nothing better than us clapping and laughing we laughed till the tears were going down our cheeks he's never never changed he's just been like that all his life just performing everything is performing [Music] when bruce was about two maybe one and a half they got him a little plastic item called moco that was his two-year-old speak for motorcycle and he loved it i always made the motorcycle silence right and here we go so i just if i'd only have known that's where it started [Music] he was four or five my brother-in-law had bought a little 50. so they were coming down for christmas dinner and he said oh i'll bring the bike along so that was the day bruce got on a motorcycle and by the end of the day my brother-in-law thought it would be a good idea just to leave it here bruce found plenty of uses for it here it was wheeling on the round on the back wheel on this thing all through the fields here the rest is history the rest is history it was just a little bike to kind of have around the farm around the acreage to get around on and i kind of took that over as my own and um that was a really exciting time and a lot of hours were spent on that little bike of course doesn't take long until he hits little bumps and the little bumps become a little bit bigger bumps and the speed becomes a little faster and it's never just riding down the road or just riding on the hay field it's okay what can this thing do you know he's onto it for a few minutes and then oh i can do this or i could do that so progress from that very first time on to bigger better faster what more can we do with this thing and yeah not just him he's always got tom in there somewhere i mean tom's best friend and been involved in his life for still is [Music] we met bruce we were probably five years old i think and we're inseparable from kind of then on growing up tom i basically consider my other little brother because that's what it was and i think it does have to do with bruce just having two older sisters and like we were into outdoor stuff but just not the same that the crazy boys are so yeah they're just like two peas in a pod he's kind of been more of a brother than a friend and always building jumps and always making my mom and dad sweat and kind of just doing crazy stuff around the property he and tom oh my goodness gracious what those two wouldn't do you wouldn't believe [Music] it was usually building bike jumps or some sort of contraption or strapping something to whatever had wheels and towing it behind the quads or a car or whatever it is bruce would put tom on a bike and blindfold him a little bit left and then you're straight bruce is running behind him directing him go left go right go left go right yeah you're doing good right go go go go right right right they would just kill themselves laughing there's no end to it nice great he always wanted to do a little further and a little higher and he crashed a paramount he gets hurt a lot i used to get hurt a lot more so than he did oh there was definitely some sketchy stuff and uh probably spent as much time on the ground as i did in the air never made me want to quit oh bugger it was more determination to get back up and get back on the bike and hit the jump again and succeed nice as soon as he gets an id and he's head he's going to pursue it whether it's a good thing in the end or a bad thing and that's the testament to him and his his dedication and drive and his work ethic comes from his family bruce has got a great work ethic probably comes from my father his grandfather like he's he's old school big time he's yeah you get up early and you get to work and you don't stop till it's done and don't whine don't complain and just figure out how to do whatever you're doing whether it's digging a ditch or building a building or whatever it is get at it and over the years and years of that coaching or whatever it's kind of stuck with them that no such thing as can't to me it was more than just a phrase or or just a few words it was it was a way of life to never say can't when bruce outgrew the honda 50 it was obvious that it wasn't just going to go away and that would be the end of things with dirt bikes i knew that i wanted to pursue freestyle motocross or something on motorbikes as a career quite early on i was in middle school one of the projects was to outline a job or a career the teacher was going around the class asking each student which career they were going to pick and he came to me and i just told him i wanted to ride my dirt bike for a living and he kind of laughed and scoffed at it and was basically like well you need to pick something real i believe that it was suggested that he look at a dairy queen manager i laughed at that and i said no i'm going to ride my dirt bike for a living and that nothing was going to stop me so if he was going to tell me i couldn't then i was definitely going to do it and i was going to prove him wrong you never want to discourage somebody from going for their passion and living life to the fullest i mean he was he was so passionate about it and really loved it so much that no i never talked him out of it [Music] i wish i had that much passion for something again yeah the the cant portion of that fire that i can if i try so [Music] and then of course chris garwossiak was just a few years ahead of him at school [Music] my name's chris garwaziok from kelowna bc i'm 34 years old i've been a professional freestyle motocross rider for close to 20 years now bruce kind of had this magnetic thing with chris and chris would high-five him at the time he was a little kid to chris but really it was only you know five or so years separating them and as bruce developed his passion for dirt bikes he knew that chris had gone down that path i needed somewhere to build a jump to practice to train well bruce came and said hey my parents have property we'd be more than happy to let you build a jump up there so you could train ran it by my parents and yeah it was all good so i said if you're willing to get some dirt trucked in up to my parents then yeah you can set her up i never really understood what the jumping wasn't ever saw it chris brought a ramp up here and then built his landing then i really finally realized the magnitude of this jump this was now getting serious stuff [Applause] [Music] we just thought you know bruce was so interested and we thought that that was chris's thing chris would jump here and it would be enjoyable for bruce and i'm guessing that the whole time bruce was planning how he was going to get on that jump and do the jump as well you never know what he's got up his sleeve it's not just okay we're just going to do this he's always got some angle going there's always more to the story that's his nature i told bruce while i'm away i hope you don't go and attempt to hit this jump that i have set up at your place to practice on because the last thing i wanted was to be responsible for you know his kid getting hurt because of something that i was doing up at his parents property basically as soon as he left i uh grabbed the tractor and pushed the ramp into you know 30 or 40 feet and i got to try this thing like this is too exciting to leave alone that's typical bruce though i mean pushing it back when nobody's looking right that's that's just what he's gonna do you can't say no to the guy or tell him he can't do something he's just gonna motivate him to do it i started nice and close and then pushed it back a few feet at a time and um by the time he got back from his first trip i'd gotten the ramp back to about 50 or 55 feet and uh when he showed up i'd just geared up and hit it and just to kind of prove i could do it rather than rather than getting permission [Music] [Applause] i was pretty proud and kind of wanted to show them that what i accomplished and whatever it was a week or two and just kind of show them that i'm serious about the ramps and getting into it by the end of the day we had that ramp backed up to 75 feet and he was doing seat grabs and blooped out heel clickers and stuff like that bruce knew that he had to prove himself he passed the test from there on i started hiring him for shows we toured for you know seven or eight years after that he was just so driven and he advanced so fast and i mean it shows what the dedication he has to the sport [Music] for as long as i can remember riding dirt bikes was all i thought about from the time i opened my eyes in the morning [Music] until i went to bed at night it was all about riding and getting better i would do my chores and work several jobs but it was just a means to an end for bruce to fund his riding he had to work his goal was always to support his riding to take it to the next level to do it better to do it to be the to be the best to be the top best in the world if he could we're literally working you know 40 56 hour straight shifts so in my head i always thought like how's this guy get time to practice like how does he just hop on a bike and go so yeah he was riding on weekends in between when he could and he was still progressing at the same rate as most guys that were riding daily it was hard for him but i mean his work ethic and and what he you know grew up doing if if you believe in something and you want it you just push for it hard it's a drive that's in him and the drive is to ride that bike and do extraordinary things and from that comes the drive to figure out how when most people would relax after a full day's work i would come home and put in some time on my bike if you want to progress you have to treat your passion like a job there was nothing more important to me than making my passion my job good day that was fun that's a lot of jumps i bet we did 200 jumps oh no problem yeah oh yeah being one of the first guys in freestyle motocross in canada i also you know crossed paths with my buddy billy van voot who he got offered to do this tour down in mexico i was one of the first people that billy called to hook up with the mexico trip and billy was you know searching for another rider i suggested a couple guys from the west coast and he's like no wait a minute he's like i got this kid bruce cook he said he'll be fine he's a great guy to hang out with and a good guy to tour with like you won't get sick of him or want to throw him under the bus [Music] billy being from east coast and and chris and i driving from west coast we first met down in texas i was 75 miles from the border and a 14 year old girl ran a stop sign and i ended up t-boning her my van was practically totaled so i wasn't in the best of moods and up rolls our friend chris garwosiak and bruce cook i'm all excited to meet him and uh you know hey billy how's it going i'm bruce and you know a big frown on his face and he was pretty pissed off he probably said you know every swear word under the sun walking up to this kid it was kind of like ah yeah hey nice to meet you or whatever and still kind of laugh about it the grumpy old guy with the with all the misfortune in mexico so billy actually jumped in the van with bruce and i and the three of us we toured for you know three months all over mexico driving around in a shady van it was like super podunk tour like people were like oh how was mexico and rhyming off these cities in like the major cities and i was like we were at none of those we were all shaking our head the whole time because we had lights cutting out and people were quitting halfway through and going home we only had one run-in with the police bruce was driving the van and went down the wrong way of the street for about half a block just to pull into a hotel but no sooner did we pull in the hotel then the cops pull him behind us not a lick of english from the police and it wasn't looking good for us but then once we explained like you know what we were doing there and like kind of like who we are we were able to uh to bribe them with some posters and red bull and tickets to the show that was pretty funny you know watching bruce kind of squirm his way out of that it kind of clicked and we just worked together and could laugh through the misfortune and try and make the best of a pretty bad situation to do that tour with billy and chris perfect guys to do it with and through all the misfortunes and everything the end of the day i wouldn't have changed a thing when bruce met billy van vute in mexico they really hit it off and became good friends he really liked billy and uh we went on to hear that billy knew travis and that travis was open to having bruce come out and use his foam pit and kind of progress his tricks from where they were and of course it was really scary to know he was going to be doing more difficult things in the air [Music] first time i met bruce i just was like man that's a really solid guy always happy fit in with any group and at the end of the day he was one of the most badass freestyle motocrosses in the world [Music] meeting your someone you've looked up to and definitely a big role model to meet them in their personal kitchen for the first time and him just be so welcoming and literally opened his house and property to me pretty unique and not a lot of people that would do that that was the first time i met bruce cook i instantly adored him and he always had that big bright smile positive attitude and just a willingness to help anybody that needed help or you know himself die of 110 into something that he wanted to learn he is one of the nicest and the kindest and the most approachable people that i've ever met bruce has been like a brother to me ever since so bruce asked me he thought if he was able to do this new trick that no one had ever done if travis was able to submit him to x games he's like hey i want to practice a holy grab backflip i thought no one does a holy grail backflip he's like yeah i know [Music] it's a double seat grab where you let go fly through the air not holding any things and grab them on your bike and back on the motorcycle that's hard enough trick to do upright and he was convinced he could do it upside down [Music] the first i heard about it i just went that's impossible you can't do that you're upside down letting go of your bike that's insane first has always been kind of you know go big or go home and again you know maybe not always the best idea but you have to admire him i mean his tenacity and drive and you know willingness to take risks um it's admirable and he he does go for it and he's reached places that a lot of us aren't ever going to see in our in our lives because of it [Music] [Music] for me to have the real possibility to attend x games it was really exciting and i hadn't done any competitions in america at all so i was still completely off the radar it was kind of who is this guy from canada that thinks he can make it into x games and thinks he's got a trick that's good enough hey my name is bruce cook i'm 24 years old from kelowna bc canada and i think i've got a trick deserves to be an x games 18. put together a video that showcased the trick enough of the trick and me rotating around and showing that it was possible and with that video and travis's backing i was accepted for the 2012 x games it's awesome to be in a position where you can kind of help guys like bruce get noticed but at the end of the day i'm not an influence at all on who gets into x games or who gets into any big events the riders are but when you can send them footage and say dude this guy's solid he's doing a trick that no one else in the world is doing that's what got roose in x games the extraordinary feeling when bruce did did get onto the world stage pretty proud and very impressive like i say it was 100 his initiative his doing his drive his passion that got him there he never quit how many people in the world get that opportunity to have that kind of experience you know when we found out he had been invited to x games it's always this double-edged sword of i was so proud of him and so excited yet at the same time what's he doing to get himself there and what is that going to mean obviously we were super excited and proud of him and we all booked a trip so we could be down there to watch it but i mean it's always hard to watch someone you love doing dangerous things it's all about progression it's all about pushing it to the next level this guy i mean bruce cook first time at a major contest nerves have got to be going come on bruce nerves were high but uh i was confident with the trick and i was just eager to get it done and you know hopefully land that thing we went to x games the whole family went down everyone was in the stands and we had our canada flags and everyone was very excited to see his name come up around the boards uh on the electronic boards in the stadium like bruce cook that's my best friend like this is it's unreal i remember looking over at my wife and she's in tears before he'd even hit the ramp just because we're feeling the pressure and that's the thing with these upside down tricks like all of us know in this sport that you don't just get hurt sometimes you get killed and we all have friends that have been and it is kind of the reality of our sport but bruce's confidence was super high and he was ready to go out and prove himself so nervous for him he throws this thing so big when he went down i had a really hard time with it so i kind of exited the stands it was hard it was it was hard for us to watch really hard [Music] i ended up fracturing straight underneath my pelvis and uh i'd broken a couple ribs but the one mainly it was it was sticking out and yeah it was a tough thing watching the the rest of what i should be out there doing in the back room on a stretcher rather than being out there with the guys and showing the world that it was possible he knew it i knew it everyone watching knew it he was under rotating but you know what bruce did boom the biggest rock solid flip held at the longest i've ever seen anyone still to this day he's like you know what i'm here to put on a show and that's what i love about bruce even when stuff doesn't work out that doesn't discourage him that actually fuels the fire for him and makes him want to push harder every time he does something it fuels fire for the next thing the fact that he didn't land it he just wanted to keep trying to get to that stage again and find himself in a in a place where he's landed something and he gets that satisfaction in front of that big stage [Music] i was grateful for the experience and you know aside from crashing everything went fairly well and kind of started to get my name on the map as far as freestyle goes and the one thing that was good in my head was that i did go for it and did get the full extension and it wasn't uh just a small you know half-assed trick that i ended up crashing on and getting taken out that i was was able to show kind of what it was made of at the time and i was fired up to come back my name is paris rosen travis called me up out of nowhere three weeks ago and said hey i want you to come and continue the progression of the double front flip here at my house i have the resources to help you and here we are now working on consistency with the possible option of putting in the dirt we'll have to see how it goes the double front flip is by far and away the biggest trick that's ever been done on a motorcycle it's actually so big that it needs a specific ramp that actually helps get this initiated it's something that is so precise and the timing has to be so spot on and the ramp is so steep and has such a big kick to it it's so violent that i mean you actually need like a moose in the tire to pump the tire up because it actually would break the rim and pop the tire every time on the takeoff it is a violent violent trick [Music] the first time i saw the front flip ramp we all didn't really know what to make of it travis was excited as all hell just because that's travis [Music] oh dude that ramp is awesome he has that crazy wacky brain that sees like a million different possibilities when he sees something like that this could honestly make front flip safer it could open up a whole new era of what's possible on a dirt bike it's not about making things harder it's about making things that are amazing a little easier so the riders can do them safer [Music] we all gathered around to watch this crazy world first that was about to happen at travis's [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] um oh so close oh man you okay ah what is it what hurts nothing i'm good after paris went and it wasn't a success he made it very clear to us that he was done he was retiring from this ramp and trying to set this record and moving forward with it at all and that's when he passed it on to us this was kind of a one last two round for me man i don't think there's any better place or any better crew of people that can take this and and finish what i started so i'm going to just pass pass this one on to you guys and you know what i'm saying he said i'm not willing to come down that hard i'm not willing to have a takeoff that violent he knows i got a family i got a life this motorcycle is still back here in the shop he hasn't tried a double front flip since that day so that left travis with this front flip ramp but no one to try it i'm thinking man we got to have someone do this we need something big we need a banger for the north american tour it's our first time in north america to do a whole tour and we started thinking man who can we get to front flip who can get to front flip variation and who can we get the double front flip that was only one name that we wanted to bring in hey i'm bruce cook host of reckless abandon in my line of work things don't always go as planned actually things rarely go as planned [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] since x games i was doing some monster jams in the states and doing some shows kind of all over the place and it had been a couple months that i was on the road and it was time to go home and i was excited to get home and check the emails on my phone and there was one from travis bruce is by far and away the best rider that wasn't already on nitrous circuits he already felt like family he was already part of the van vood family the only rider that i thought was going to be good enough to get this double flip dialed [Music] he was looking for someone to come to his place and work with the double front flip and i was excited and skeptical and uh again a bunch of emotions all in one and came to the conclusion that you know if i'd passed it up at least going and trying it into the foam pit i would definitely be living with some sort of regret and just uh what ifs i don't like to pass up opportunities so it took three days straight driving to to get to maryland it was travis's place from california i was there for one reason again and that was to learn how to double front flip [Music] the first time i saw the double front flip ramp i literally laughed out loud it was basically like yeah you got to be kidding me like what is this thing um it's an extremely intimidating ramp remember laughing and then going in front of it and picturing going off it and just getting goose bumps and i mean i am right now just thinking about it and i'm gonna have to be hitting that thing at a good rate of speed and it was gonna be big and it was gonna be violent my initial thought was well why isn't trav doing it if it's such a good idea that when i was a little bit sketchy about the x games trick was crazy but i felt like this one was like a little bit next level crazy when he was training for that trick at travis's i absolutely just wanted to stop him but i know him and there is no stopping him it would have been damaging to our relationship and it would have been damaging to him psychologically because i knew he was going to do it anyway yeah it was really really really hard time for us you know what what do you do you hope for the best you want to support him but it's his sport and his decision so within a week of bruce cook being at the house he had bypassed front flips like he was like yeah it's simple this ramp no problem first time i came around perfect on a front flip and two three weeks in double fronts the thing with the contraption ramp is you've got less control of the rotation with a backflip you're doing your own pull so you can adjust a lot easier with this it's just hitting your back tire and throwing you into front flip and for the most part you're along for the ride you feel it through your whole body and you get slung forward and there's no going small with a double front flip it's commitment and you have to smash it yeah i mean it was scary it takes a lot to hold the throttle that wide open when you know how big you're gonna go there's a pause moment at the top probably 40 45 feet in the air and i almost crapped my pants at that time it was uh i was like holy i'm i'm high it was terrifying but that's why i do it i guess and i think that's why a lot of extreme sports guys do it it's that uh scaring yourself and pushing the limits and knowing your comfort zone and going way beyond that i never really voiced it to anyone but there was definitely several times where i thought to myself there's a good possibility i might actually pass this one up just continue on with life as i knew it just doing shows and basically furthering my career i also knew that if i made that call i would basically take it as giving up and letting the trick get the best of me and that's a tough thing for me um it's mind over matter again and and this time was tough matter made the decision at that point that i was going to go ahead and take this thing to a live show and uh to a landing round talked to mike pora and mike's like we need this for us tour i said yes we need it for us tour i believe in bruce bruce can do it these guys have been working really hard they took off a month of work let's put them in i was seeing the footage of it and and travis was getting me pretty excited because clearly if we could get a double front flip into the show um it would be the biggest trick in in the history of freestyle motocross no one's ever done it mike agreed that we could put him in for at least that first show see how it goes will you please welcome travis [Applause] bruce has always had his eyes set on the nitro shows and being part of the nitro tour because it really is kind of the most elite athletes and it is you know the most progressive show out there so i could see in bruce's eyes he was so pumped you know to have this opportunity to really prove himself to be in the limelight with you know travis and the nitro guys and stuff that i didn't want to certainly rain on his parade or anything meanwhile like i'm thinking dude like i don't know is is that a trick that you want to progress with well when bruce first mentions he's going to be doing that for the first time in the world and he's going to be in hamilton and ask if we wanted to go my your gut response is absolutely not um but of course you do i mean instantly i mean you're supporting him it's for him it's his passion so i mean there was no question we were going right right from square one but with a lot of trepidation i can tell you so because it's i mean just put yourself in our shoes how would you feel with somebody you know and love and care for doing something no one ever in the world has ever done before you go you support them you're you're there for them and you hope that it all goes well with these types of tricks they're intense and there's a lot on the line you have to be so committed to what you're doing you have to be so focused and you have to be confident it takes every inch of your being to tackle these massive world firsts and the consequences are very high and they don't always go the way we want to they don't always go with the celebration at the end before hamilton was lots of pressure but also confidence um yeah there was the normal nerves and butterflies but i was definitely ready to just get it done and get it over with yeah my name is bruce cook from kelowna british columbia canada and uh this is my first time riding nitro circus live and it's pretty awesome to have it uh here in canada and we're trying the double front flip tonight which is crazy i'm nervous excited you name it bruce said we can come down early just check out the stadium check out the whole event and what it was like walked in at the lower level there and the paramedics were just pushing the uh the gurneys they're just pushing them onto the floor and sort of strapping them down and getting them all ready and that was the very first thing we saw walking in it just had this sinking feeling it's just it just wished they weren't there as apprehensive as we were anyway about this whole thing and that just added to the apprehension while training for the double front flip obviously we did discuss you know consequences or the outcome or the the what-ifs we knew there was a good chance of crashing we knew there was a really good chance of crashing there was even a point i think where we agreed that if i came out of it crash or not with a broken leg that might be considered a success and going into a trick knowing you're gonna get hurt in one way or another it's a pretty crazy thought that's a hard one to wrap your head around for sure hey guys so awesome to be your first north american tour starting out jolene's hometown is going to be awesome it's really cold up here in canada a a lot of people have toques it's all right they're really pumped on nitro circus we got bruce cook going for a double front flip will you please welcome from kelowna bc bruce cool we were about midway up the stands everybody's on their feet they know it's the biggest part of the show and sitting by his parents we were just i was i was nervous for him obviously the worst case scenario crosses your mind you know he could die doing this this is the first time seeing it in front of a landing ramp and throw in lights and pyro and smoke and 20 30 000 people and it looks a lot different so you try and just get in your zone and try to do my best at uh envisioning that there's a foam pit and um it's just another day in the pit check this out check the landing off gigano right now oh the natural circus members including travers are sitting here to watch this happen right now such a surreal moment this is so much bigger than anything has ever done no one even did a front flip at the show and bruce is going for a double i was nervous i was just really really nervous i think everybody was nervous it was all exciting and we were we were just nerves and concerned this could go either way the audience was really engaged it's bruce he's an amazing person and one of our own canadian he was about to set a world first on our home turf and he is ready to go when you start making some noise he had an entire stadium behind him and a lot of people rooting for him [Applause] give him the thumbs up and uh usually third ones when i go so give a thumbs up and uh the announcements of the crowd it's go time and uh just do your turn at the right distance and try and do everything the same as the foam pit and uh [Applause] yeah i hit it and everything felt good i mean double front flip you're you're spinning fast and you only get a split second to spot your landing so you're 40 feet up in the air it's like when you're spinning you see rafters ground rafters and then um under rotated a little bit it landed vertically slid off the back of my bike and just folded so i was standing really close to the landing right alongside of it and he came around um [Music] and you can just ladies gentlemen he's getting checked right now he is getting checked i was standing at the uh the take off ramp so i wasn't able to see the lander but when i heard the crowd you know not cheering and saw people running i knew it was obviously not good to come running around the lander and see bruce laying there was definitely it was scary as hell [Music] when he landed i've never seen something look the way it looked and i don't even know how it happened but when one foot slipped off and it got caught underneath and it just i it's ingrained in my head as something that i want to forget and i will never be able to forget i mean something that you really have nightmares about and it was a gnarly trick yeah the consequences we knew were huge but it went really bad and i just everyone ran over to him and i just stood there i didn't want to go see i didn't want to hear what was possibly wrong or probably the worst part for me with bruce was when i went over there and i finally looked over he was moving his arms and they weren't picking him up i could see that he was conscious i could see that he didn't hit his head on the impact i thought it's not good i ran to him as fast as i could he was awake his eyes were open but they were the biggest eyes i've probably ever seen of fear uh somebody realizing that something horrible had just happened to them i said are you okay the first thing he said was i can't feel my legs and in that moment my heart stopped a part of me knew that the way that he landed and the fact that he instantaneously couldn't feel his legs that he was paralyzed [Music] i instantly knew i broke my back realizing you can't feel your legs for the first time that's a terrifying feeling [Music] you can feel right where the break is and everything's numb and it's just like a hot liquid going down your spine and definitely the scariest moment in my life and uh my parents were in the crowd so just yeah the thought of them having to see it that's the last thing i wanted was for them to be as scared and shook up as i was obviously our heart goes in our throat and but we've seen him crash a lot he usually takes a few seconds to recover and he's when he gets back up but it just went on too long yeah that was that was the the worst day of our life when we saw that he couldn't move and then trying to get down to on the floor and getting through security and get back to him and see what was going on that was just brutal [Music] i i went up to joe because she was talking to him when he was laying down and i'm like i just need you to tell me what's what's going on with him we didn't know she said well i don't really want to say anything right now but he can't feel his legs and then i just i started crying and then so all the things that we did around the property growing up those all those things kind of they disappear that's what i struggled with the most when i kind of found out the severity of it before he went in the ambulance we didn't say much you know just telling them that you know it's gonna be okay everything's gonna be okay but i do remember him like reaching out and like grabbing my hand and just squeezing real tight really hit home that this ain't a broken leg that i think this is something like way more serious definitely happy and fortunate that it happened where i did in in canada and with friends and my parents around one thing when i was sliding is i was slapping my legs and just feeling my whole upper body and wasn't even unconscious so my head's okay my neck's okay i can still move my arms fine and nothing was wrong with my upper body so i was kind of just at peace as much as i was terrified right off the bat because i just knew it could be worse it's just going to be another hurdle and another chance to just power back and prove to myself and everyone that what's possible a motocross rider from bc is lucky to be alive after a high-flying stunt went very wrong during an event [Music] it was really cold and and there was a lot of snow and ice on the road and i just remember feeling every single bump in that ambulance and uh wishing i could feel it in my legs and finally arrived at the hospital and it was pretty chaotic and i mean we still didn't know how serious it was or you know at that point it still could have been [Music] life-threatening [Music] as much as those of us who were there wanted to believe the doctor was going to come in and say this is what happened he'll regain feeling in a bit you know it kind of felt like no like this is the moment like this is happening it was scary as hell and that's it just felt like that was the answer we were gonna get and unfortunately it was to get the scans back basically comes in and says is the worst kind of break i've ever seen without the spinal cord being completely severed it's hanging on by a width of a hair basically so when you hear that it's not you're thinking walking's a bit of a long shot right now bruce had a devastating injury that involved an actual dislocation of his spine his spine actually hopped off in front of itself the spinal cord runs through that area and if you dislocate the tube and the hole for the spinal cord doesn't line up you can sever the spinal cord unfortunately in bruce's case there appears to be a complete injury in the spinal cord meaning no function of sensory or motor below that level for bruce that means realistically a very low if any chance of recovery of nerve function of his lower extremities he's paralyzed and it's not likely to get better [Music] [Music] the doctor and the team tells you the extent of the injuries that's when it really gets real and they're basically just telling me worst case scenario and uh everything i had hoped it wasn't it was and it's a lot to take in and a lot to stomach and definitely a scary thing [Music] they took him to the operating room and put in rods and screws or big metal lag bolts they go into the bones above his injury below his injury and they literally pull his spine back on the table into position and line the tube back up and then lock it down with rods that go through the screws it's a big surgery and a traumatic one those were brutal days after that though it was just he was in so much pain he just he couldn't function basically he said if i can't feel anything from here down nothing can't move it i try to move it and move my legs and my toes nothing happens everything was new we really didn't know what it meant for him and for us at that point you know we think it's really awful you can't walk but what about everything else you can't reach things you know how do you go to the bathroom bowel movements you're in like all the stuff you don't even think you can't feel you don't know right you're frozen from from from waist down that's the stuff that never really registered or i even thought about before and at the time you focus on a lot of the cats as opposed to the can so it's a pretty dark time next to dying breaking your back or breaking your neck is second on the list of catastrophic things and i just remember wishing i was gonna wake up from this nightmare um [Music] we were in hamilton from the night of the accident on the 3rd and it was the next friday the 10th that he came back to vancouver general hospital we just felt like everything would go better if he was back in bc yeah going back to vancouver was mostly important for me because it's the closest facility to home it was awesome but at the same time one of the parts that i knew was gonna be the hardest was my friends and family that i hadn't seen yet showing up and seeing me laid out in the hospital bed with tubes and and wires you know running into me and that's kind of the last place i want people to see me is at a major moment of weakness it was an emotional rollercoaster the first time i got to see him i walked in uh just gave him a big hug obviously i wanted to try and hold it together and you know be strong for him but i ended up having to step out and i broke down in the hallway right when you get to see your best friend just laying there it's it's tough it was really hard when we got to the lobby of the hospital it was kind of like deep breaths and forcing ourselves to go up there and when i saw him we just hugged and said how much we loved each other he was still there [Music] and still had his sense of humor intact as much as it could be so [Music] it was hard and i knew it was gonna be hard for loved ones to see me like that and it was just important for me to be the bruce that they knew and stay light-hearted and laughs and smiles are important so there was a ton of negative with it but there's uh just no real need or no real reason to talk about it so everyone was on board to just move forward and having family and friends and loved ones that close and that accessible was hugely important to my recovery i'm sure he was scared but he's such a positive thinker and he was he just was on the way to the next stage in his life bruce's attitude has always been a positive one he's always looked beyond the negative to a positive and breaking your back you can go into a dark place pretty quickly like poor me i'll never walk again i can't do this can't do that he takes the positive side and says well what can i do how can i make the best of this and it goes back to you don't say can't you don't quit you don't say can't you figure it out and he's figuring it out i knew just laying around in the hospital bed and thinking bad thoughts and having a pity party basically wasn't going to do anything for me getting pity from people and and words like that almost work against what i was working for which was uh staying positive and just kind of keeping those thoughts out of my head so smile for bc came around pretty early on with social media these days it's pretty unique that you can reach so many people in such a short amount of time and with something like a hashtag it's a way that anyone can click on it and share experiences and share adventures and share a smile i wanted to see people enjoying life and doing things that make them smile and that in turn would make my day and make me smile so smile for bc was a way for literally anyone in the world to be able to click on and maybe find something that would make them smile or boost their day it's a pretty amazing way to face this it helped all of us to keep on that smile and carry on one thing about bruce is he really does care about other people the last thing he would want is a choice that he made bringing other people down you know it helped him and it helped everyone out there who cares about him to kind of put this positive spin on an awful situation you know he's getting messages from europe australia across the world it blew me away like you know people that were talking about bruce's story and you know how positive he was and how strong he was it really goes to show what type of guy he is there was a lot of times in the hospital bed where i was brought to tears with the messages i was getting in from different people from all walks of life and they were using my story to inspire and motivate themselves it is something that has helped hugely with my recovery and just will and desire to basically power on and just drive forward i appreciate every single one of those messages just as much as the one before it really awesome for him to have that kind of network and it definitely set the tone for his recovery smile for bc was a way to remind myself that there's always something to smile about and whatever the situation it could always be worse [Music] after a few weeks it was time to move on to gf strong which is a spinal cord specific recovery facility my spirits were high and i was excited to basically get going the second i got there and yeah the first time i heard about mike shaw was when my sister brought it up that he'd had his accident about a month before me and he was going to be at gf strong also and he's around the same age and kind of similar situations so it was just i would know someone gf strong when i got there and it was crazy kind of how similar our personalities were my name's mike shaw i'm from vernon bc canada and i'm an ex-freestyle skier and freestyle ski coach and now i'm a public speaker and talk for a living on december 16 2013 only a couple of weeks before bruce's accident i was down in colorado we found this big roller at the bottom of the hill that was blown up by a snow gun this was my turn to go and i set off down the hill and on the way into the jump i got like a gut sinking feeling and i chose to ignore it carried on and uh [Music] oh press dude deep breaths deep all i felt was a hard hit to my face and i was tumbling down the hill and i couldn't get up and i slid to a stop face down in the snow panting like no no not now like not here not me and uh is in that moment i realized i'd broken my neck [Music] i first got really scared when i first saw someone lift up my arm into view of my eyes and then put it back down and i had no i couldn't i was like that's not my arm that's someone else's arm and i couldn't have imagined that feeling beforehand until i was in it i felt claustrophobic inside my own body it was the most trapped i've ever felt and there's nothing you can do about it when i woke up from the surgery i could just slightly open and close my elbows that moment changed my life forever then it was the start of a long grind after my injury i was fortunate enough to get room with bruce cook at the hospital we're both still like-minded about like we're in this situation but we can't go back and change anything so how do we go forwards i kind of blew past a lot of the checkpoints pretty quick they had about two weeks set out learning how to do a wheelie in a wheelchair and uh i told them that i i'd kind of grown up on one wheel on my dirt bike and so to be on two wheels doing a wheelie was basically cheating so yeah i guess i was into week three or four of wheelchair skills uh within the first two days and i just wanted to push it and i was okay with uh falling out of my chair i was okay with hitting the ground and i had to reassure the nurses over and over i mean falling three feet out of my wheelchair is nothing compared to falling 40 feet out of the sky and hitting the ground which i have you know several times [Music] in wheelchair skills class bruce was like taking jumps in his wheelchair and i was trying to keep up didn't have the arm strength to do it really but we both got to do things like play wheelchair basketball together and it kept it fun too you know because it's so easy to fixate on the negative side of it that having another person there who had a huge smile on his face too you know he was uh he was something else he helped me a lot in rehab my case with spinal cord injury is incredibly unique because i've had such a significant amount of recovery most people can't even tell that i've had a spinal cord injury there's certainly a bit of guilt that i feel because it's like why did i get better when so many people don't i know how fortunate i am i'm very grateful every single day for what i've got back but i know it's rare [Music] i was kind of maxing out the system that was set up there i was already kind of looking for more and looking for the next step so my sisters took it upon themselves to find something kind of next level that fit my mindset and kind of my work ethic a little better they found project walk down in california it's the only place on the west coast with one of these muscle stimulator machines that mimic you walking you get strapped in a harness and and held up and all these muscle stimulators put on and they fire at the right time and you walk at least half under your own weight so it was time to move on and work towards getting down to project walk and take full advantage of that as an athlete i've always searched for a unique approach to land a trick or do something that most people would think is impossible i found that same spirit in project walk like me they look for a solution that is out of the box project walk i can't say enough good things about them the vibe is awesome it's like a normal gym everybody there is just like has a very can-do attitude like there is no camp there so it's kind of it was a good fit it definitely was the more that he was looking for just the improvement in balance and his coordination and the things that he could do it was really noticeable to us day one i was standing up using their specialized equipment and approach i knew i would never stand again on my own but their approach helps patients understand that life is not over it's like a taste of hope and a future they were a perfect match for me but i could only go so far with them once i was on my own i had to learn to function day-to-day without their high-tech support and [Music] equipment the injury this early out still has a lot of things to deal with the hardware metal in his body is probably not adapted fully very likely has phantom pains where he had legs before and doesn't feel them now but you get phantoms the psychologic part can't be gone yet so he's dealing with both physical pain and mental pain he's i'm sure has a lot of things he's still dealing with that he just buries and pushes forward to go on [Music] since injury it's like everything's changed i mean um it's crazy how much more difficult even just running errands is and in and out of the car you know you have to think breaking down the chair 10 times if you got five stops and putting it back together and you don't really realize how much is different until you're in it and you're living it and it's like every day um there's something new there's some new struggle and but i just trying to look at as a challenge rather than a struggle or a setback and it's definitely hard with some stuff it life kind of hits you in the face i only like snow in my truck now uh yeah it sucks for a wheelchair everything from just getting your clothes all wet and dirty to literally not being able to move where you want to go and everything that's on the ground gets on your hands on your clothes and then you're taking that into your car and you kind of gotta really rely on places being plowed now whereas before you could just walk wherever you wanted literally every day reminding myself that it could be worse and there's people that would love to be in my situation and would love to be just these minor struggles uh people that are you know stuck in bed all day so it's in a way i've i've got it good i had no idea what spinal cord injury was [Music] i thought and my family thought and i think a lot of the general public thinks that the worst part about breaking your back is the fact that you can't walk and for me that's so far from the truth i never used to think twice about going to the bathroom i use intermittent catheters and besides the hassle of having to do that it's a mental thing they show up with a 14 or 16 inch tube and you know they tell you that uh you're gonna have to insert this every time you have to go to the bathroom and it was still fresh what that would feel like it took a week or two to be able to mentally get over that and be able to do that on my own and learn how to do it i can't feel anything below my belly button so even the sensation or the urge that i used to feel to have to know when to go to the bathroom that's completely gone with that comes accidents an accident can happen at any time and there's a lot of times i think to myself that you know i'm basically back to being an infant um your body doesn't care where you are you can be out for dinner at night or you can be at a concert or or somewhere that a bathroom just isn't accessible there's days where your body is just fighting i mean there's been days where i've had three or four accidents in one day and you have to just carry on and you know deal with general public and people that have no idea what's going on behind closed doors just the embarrassment and the frustration that comes with that i mean that's one of the hardest parts [Music] these days i take a backpack with me everywhere it's pretty crucial never used to have to pack stuff around but obviously with a wheelchair gotta be prepared for flat tire all the time so air pump pack a spare tube and tire irons and uh kinda gotta be prepared at any time to get a flat tire obviously you can't make it around with flat tires so even more crucial i gotta go to the bathroom so gotta pack a handful of catheters and uh basically the handheld urinal to go with it keep those close unfortunately pain meds they got to come everywhere it's one of the unfortunate ones that i'm still on but uh pain's pretty much constant so gotta keep those handy throughout my life i've dealt with pain and i've been good with pain and through all my injuries and crashes i've learned to have a pretty high pain tolerance the nerve pain since the accident is by far one of the hardest parts it's 24 7. they don't know what it's caused from but it's just a burning sensation all day every day basically feels like i'm sitting in a campfire at any given time and it gets a little bit better and a little bit worse and it's always there to be in pain 24 hours a day seven days a week is so draining yeah basically i'm at a point where i don't even remember what it feels like to not be in pain um if there's a day or an hour or 10 minutes that it's a little bit less it's such a relief the stuff that i used to take for granted i think everyone takes for granted every single day is now right in the forefront and yeah and if i could choose i'd uh i'd take that stuff over walking any day yeah i mean you just gotta be so much more careful with uh hurting yourself below injury because you can't feel it so um yeah i mean the other day i was just trying to blow some stuff off the driver with the leaf blower and was too rushed and didn't think about it and said it in my lap and was was blowing as i was rolling and i didn't realize that the exhaust was blowing straight into my legs and um yeah so i ended up getting a second degree burn and two third-degree burns on both my legs just because i was i was working without uh thinking about it basically just got sloppy so that's gonna take probably two months to heal so it's just uh yeah i go from it being a hassle every day to showering to not being able to shower and having to to sponge bath and stuff on top of that so it's just yeah another set back and uh just kind of angry and uh just upset about what that means obviously you can't feel it so that doesn't matter but just the the length the time it takes to heal and just makes life that much more challenging again [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so every time i've broken anything it's basically asking the doctor you know how fast can i get back on the bike or what can i do to get back on the bike faster and this time was no different i knew that i wasn't done and i knew my head that i was going to so it was basically how fast can i get back on the bike i think any doctor at that point kind of looked at me like i was crazy there was definitely a few times i don't know if you're going to get back on a bike or let's focus on basically getting better or work towards walking i guess with the doctor's permission or not i was gonna get back on the bike and i was gonna ride again [Music] he was home three months after his crash and looking at the bike we were down at the shop and you know he's like go pull my bike out like your dad's around i'm like i don't think we should he's like no just just pull it out it doesn't matter it's like i just want to try to sit on it yeah right off the bat my dad did his classic uh kind of laugh and shake his head and just no no type thing sitting out here he thought he was going to ride again paralyzed here down right i said how you get onto this thing well he was shaking his head and saying no he was lifting me on the bike and helping so lifted me up out of the chair and set me on the bike and it was basically as bad as i thought with balance he wanted to see how wide the seed needed to be and you know where he kind of slips off and stuff like that so it was awesome to see him get back on and you know we just see his eyes tied up when okay i'm gonna be able to do this again so you expect that from him he'll he'll push the boundaries with himself every day his injury even in a young person has a very significant mortality or death rate over five to ten years and the reason for that is the people don't put out the effort to live his will and his desire and his strength are what's driving him honestly the best thing for him is go back to what he loves in life because that's what's going to drive him to go forward and keep him going [Music] he had basically indicated from i would say one day in that his goal was to get back on the bike and ride again most people are still dealing with the emotional okay how am i gonna live the rest of my life bruce was past that he was like okay i'm getting back on a bike and his family was scared as family who are going through this life-changing experience with him we hope that it might fade yeah we really hoped that it would diminish but i think it just got stronger and as you know if you say can't to bruce then he will find a way to do it so i think that that just kind of drove him along even more [Music] the first time back riding it was just one of those moments where i don't know how it's going to go once i push off from the box van i might go 10 feet and fall over i might go 100 feet and fall over i just didn't know how balanced was going to be how it would feel yeah i was uh definitely nervous you're getting back on the machine that took you out so it's it's always in the back of your mind since the accident consequences are just so much worse [Music] [Music] basically went perfectly it couldn't have gone any better um yeah it was uh [Music] it was big it was just one of the happiest happiest days of his life when he got back on that bike and wrote it and realized that yeah it was doable to practice and do even more [Music] oh it's a wonderful feeling it's it's it's it's really great it's hard to explain so you think ah man he did it yeah good for him he did it the same time i know this isn't the end that's never the end right so you kind of brace yourself okay for what's next that's the issue it's not just oh bruce and i hit it off because we had so much in common but one of the things that we were both shared fear of was what are we going to do now [Music] our whole existence before depended on our sport it was like it was based on what we were able to do and now that that ability had been taken away what now i remember having the conversation and actually asking bruce i said what are you going to do after this and bruce said to me i don't know but i think i want to go back to riding motocross but bruce said i want to flip my dirt bike again and to me i was like that is incredible and crazy and phenomenal and i said go for it but you have this sense of like is it possible i knew that no one had successfully ridden away from a backflip as a paraplegic and i'm sure my parents and family and all my close friends and everyone really would have been okay with me uh just putzing around the farm uh once and saying i got back on and hanging it up but to me with getting back on the bike means getting upside down because that's what dirt biking is to me so that's something i knew i had to do [Music] when bruce was kind of well enough to start talking about getting on his dirt bike again i'm not gonna lie i said i don't want you to go inverted i just didn't i meant too many quadriplegics at gf strong and you know we'd watched him suffer enough so from my selfish perspective i didn't want to see him go inverted i said of course you're going to ride again but please don't go inverted see but i told you what what we say about his plans doesn't mean a whole lot because you know he's just he's that driven he didn't say he was i just knew he was and i also thought i didn't sign up for this but this is not part of the deal [Music] so it was almost a year after bruce's accident we were at travis's house in the fall it was a pretty special time a pretty epic moment to to be there and watch bruce finally be able to get on his bike and race around the motocross track it was just a great feeling to see him be back doing what he loved the one thing that he wanted more than anything since the day of his injury [Music] the first time i got to ride again with bruce on his modified bike was one of the best days i just remember following him and thinking like how awesome is this but i remember thinking like my friend's back like he's back [Music] cause [Music] bruce being bruce that wasn't enough he wanted to flip good [Music] we have a very exciting day here at pastrana land uh bruce is going to be doing his first backflip into the foam pit since his injury on his adaptive bike so we're all very excited and can't wait to just see the big smile on his face when he gets this [Music] hey how about that joe [Music] it's pretty awesome [Music] [Music] well go get to her now regardless what happened after that moment or what he did with it he did that and he succeeded at it i was just so proud of him and so happy for him it wasn't like bruce was just gonna flip to flip once and say i did it okay done he wanted to be the first freestyle adaptive rider to get upside down and and ride away as much as bruce may have thought shaking the rust off and and just getting back on the bike and you know doing that flip was gonna maybe give him some closure at its bruce um i really don't think closure is what he's ever going to need so if you google bruce cook it's double front flip crash everything was crash crash and just seeing myself lying on the floor and i didn't want the last thing on a dirt bike to be laid out on the floor or being carried out of an arena on a stretcher and and that's that with flipping again i wanted it to be at a nitro circus show in front of thousands of people again to a proper landing and um everything would just be legit there's just no arguing that's a comeback and uh i mean half of it's just proving to just not give up just power through uh no matter what the circumstances so i was really confident i was coming in hot and ready for the first show back when i first heard that he was hitting the farm pit and backflipping in the foam pit i thought it was just something he was doing for fun you know um travis called me and said bruce has got the back flip down and i really want to see him in the show and i said trav i'm not doing it i can't it's been hard enough to live with what happened to him because at the end of the day i was ultimately responsible for letting him attempt a double front flip in the show in hamilton and the thought of him hurting himself really badly again doing an extraordinarily difficult trick with amazing handicaps was not a risk that i was prepared to take then it went from travis to bruce himself so bruce started to call me and he convincingly um argued his point with me that that we should give him a chance to do this at least once just let me do it once i've just got to do it once and i told him the same thing i told trav i said i i i know this might be selfish but i just can't live with the fact that that you could become a quadriplegic out of this you're strapped into this bike so the chances if he had a bad accident of breaking his neck are really high i kept declining and i was determined to to keep with that because of the responsibility that i had i think there are certain points in this crazy business that we're in where you've got to draw the line somewhere and say enough is enough there's too much of a risk involved with this i couldn't live with it i couldn't give it a yes and bruce just never gave up and then the tour started um the north american tour started and bruce turned up [Music] we went through it all again and we did it face to face he came down and sat with me and he passionately not in any way was he argumentative or pushy or whatever he was just passionately putting his case forward i've never seen anybody want something so badly mike wanted as much if not more than anyone to have a successful first jump back another crash wouldn't be good for for anyone um ultimately he finally came to terms and if i was willing to take the risk then so was he i mean if a guy feels that strongly then he may as well do it because he's more than prepared to go with the consequences of what could happen from it he gave me a huge hug and we started making arrangements for the first show that he would perform in [Music] after that it was the the talks and you know i'm sure he was dreading talking to his family that he he wanted to go back onto her hard for the family again really hard because another crash when you're working with well the body that he has now and then being strapped to the bike and whatnot is yeah it's a scary thought i was happy for him but obviously as i knew in the background he's dealing with you know his family being opposed to it i spoke quite a bit with his family and and sisters and they were really upset about it you know even him just backflipping again just riding and they they were they were over it they you know their lives changed because the youngest brother is the life-altering situation and his parents it's been a lot on them for sure but um he's going to do whatever he needs to do to be fulfilled and be driven and i was happy but yeah obviously worried for him for sure knowing one thing and understanding his mentality the way he thinks is one thing from a parent though it's it's brutal it's brutal because the consequences of another hard crash are are really rugged like there's scary stuff if he breaks his hand or breaks a wrist or breaks an arm or tears a shoulder he can't move effectively right he's in a chair and he can't move so that's the issue for me again the anxiety level rises and it's just always on your mind it never never really goes away you can't hold a guy back like man i'd way matter you have a passion for this and just give her and and damn the torpedoes and go for it rather than sitting in a dark corner somewhere depressed so fly at it the day of the toronto show was every emotion you could imagine was going through my head yeah obviously nervous but uh just eager yeah just go into it with a ton of confidence and knowing that i was gonna land it [Music] we're back in canada this time we're in toronto we're surrounded by our family and friends what better place for bruce to do something that has never been done before yet again in canada it would have the most impact and be the most kind of meaningful um to do it in toronto which is uh it's an hour down the road from hamilton where uh my life changed so so many of the people in the crowd in toronto were in the crowd in hamilton so everything just lined up and it felt good so that helped my confidence even more going into it [Applause] folks i'm about to show you a little bit of vision that is the toughest thing any of us have ever seen around 21 months ago just down the road in hamilton we performed a show and a very special member of our nitro circus family tried to do a world first bruce cook did he's utmost to put his name in the record books and i'm going to show you what happened that night warning if you're a little bit squeamish please turn away otherwise this will set the story for you they played the crash video as a lead up and just to fill in anyone that didn't know what had happened it wasn't something that i was gonna watch or wanted to watch so i just kept to my own and head down and concentrated on the on the ideal outcome what you don't want to do is second guess anything and those thoughts are always trying to uh work their way into your mind you know um should you pull the plug right now or is it too late or should i be doing this but yeah you basically just overpower those with the with the good thoughts and the confidence and knowing this is the moment that all the practices led up to and uh knowing it's gonna be awesome and everything's good to go and just to prove the biggest badasses in the world are from right here in the great country of canada one of your own from vancouver bc will you please welcome back for the first time in almost two years bruce thousands of uh messages and uh well wishes and everything i mean thousands of people in that crowd had were the ones that sent those messages and everything and uh i mean they're complete strangers but at the same time you feel connected it's a pretty uh pretty crazy feeling very overwhelming who wants to see bruce cook back on a bloody motorcycle here we go we're live right now this moment you have to do a backflip and every single nitro member was out there again just like that night when he double front flipped and i took a step back and i thought it's all over again man like i couldn't bear to watch him crash the bike has to be laid down the boys will then lift bruce's leg over the top of that kawasaki what if man what if he gets hurt what is his family going to think what is the world going to think what's their buddy gonna think how's he how's bruce going to come back from this so you can't stay positive that long for two years you wait for this moment and if it messes up then what last two years are wasted i need you to stand up right now and stay on your feet because this is going to be a night we will never forget we were invited to come down on the floor wanting to be there but not wanting to be there i don't know overwhelmed it was overwhelming i mean the last time we saw him live performed when he broke his back in hamilton so that was the worst night of our life it was actually the second hardest day of our lives because it was just a repeat of hamilton the same stretchers were physically right behind us so the whole thing is just yeah we're a bit of a wreck it's a different ballgame having those closest to you there and it definitely ups that emotion and as much if not more so having to be perfect and definitely no mistakes the last place i want something to go wrong is in front of my family basically it happened once and i didn't want that to happen again so it had to be perfect this has never been done anywhere in the world before [Music] after you give the thumbs up or the nod um it's on that's a pretty crazy feeling the last time that it happened was the was the crash [Music] you know at that moment that last corner five seconds later everything changed and this time basically was thinking in five seconds it's gonna be a whole lot better so um yeah just uh this is basically what it's come down to and everyone's on their feet and um the crowd's going nuts to be in that moment and have to block that out it's extremely hard stayed focused and just go through all the steps and make sure the speed's right and lean forward and at the right point on the ramp just uh full throttle and and pull back [Applause] you want to talk about a comeback he did it he did it this is what love looks like the nacho circus family toronto how about you bang them together one more time [Music] what a legend this man had gone from almost dying and having everyone in the world tell him he would never be a motocross rider again he would never be a freestyler again he would never be able to do what he loves to that moment when bruce cook was once again a freestyle motocross rider i thought you know what he's gonna do everything that he ever could before except now he's gonna inspire a whole ton more people every day a thought that's consumed you um and then uh just kind of all comes to one moment my relief and uh everyone's relief just seeing it in their face and yeah that moment's why uh i think a lot of the guys in the sport risk so much is that uh reward that that outweighs everything so getting back on something that almost took me out just not giving up and not letting it get the best of me was a huge huge relief [Music] so bruce cook now he's a permanent member of nitro circus and very quickly becoming a global star thank you very great thank you thanks for coming the requests we get from television networks media outlets newspapers digital outlets all around the world who do you want for interviews out of all the cast we have including travis the number one person they want to speak to now is bruce cooke i think i maybe made it seem like it was uh supposed to be one and done and uh half of it's just uh trying to keep my family and uh friends at ease i think if i filled them in on all my thoughts they would disown me but part of what keeps me going is the feedback i get from people i've gotten hundreds of stories of people just you know pushing through bad times because of my situation i definitely get emotional reading those things because it means so much to me and it's almost um this whole crazy journey almost paying off when i kind of stop and just realize the situation and touring and traveling all over the world and performing in front of tens of thousands of people night after night it's pretty wild and yeah i'll often just kind of sit there and smile [Music] [Applause] perverse to be back in those stadiums and flipping in front of a crowd after everything i mean i think it is really healing for him and it's probably the only thing that could be healing for him that's why we didn't tie him up to a tree and not let him go because we knew you know that's his thing and that's what he needed he loves it and it's just so awesome to see all those people inspired and cheering for him and making the best of a terrible situation [Applause] it comes down to that what can i do you know if i push forward what can i do not the kents it's a joy it's a stress it's we know that it's bruce's joy and so of course yeah we're so proud of him and on the other hand saying please stop now [Applause] it's it's amazing touring with so many extraordinary human beings but bruce cook is at the top of that list i'd say courage is the biggest thing and that's something that can't be taught something that comes from within it's something that not a lot of people have it's that confidence to believe in yourself when nobody else does it's the courage to smile when nobody else can and it's the strength to find a way to persevere that's bruce something everyone can take a little bit of a lesson from something i wish it had a little more of yeah i would have to put this up there with the very top of recovery that i've ever seen to return to that level of adapting to life and learning to function really required tremendous effort focus and drive on his part i think we could all learn from that that that level of inspiration or push is there if you want to dig deep and find it many people when this type of injury happens don't have the ability to see by it bruce's story he has something immense to give back to the world now to take those people that are injured and show them look with work and commitment you can get back to enjoying life you know it has its trials and it's going to have its pain and have its adaptations but you can do it i think that truly is something to give back to the world we can do more than we think we can do we're stronger than we think we are bruce has been able to overcome such devastating odds to get back to a place in life where he is happy and achieving his dreams and his goals which are really their lofty goals we're all going to face something that's hard in life how you approach it is what's going to be the deciding factor to if you're successful bruce is the epitome of choosing a phenomenal attitude and giving his full effort into everything he does so that he can achieve greatness i mean as far as what's next i've got some more tours with nitro circus lined up and i want to continue doing that and just motivating and inspiring as many people as possible but the sky's the limit and uh anything i dream up i'm gonna go after and yeah i might have broken my back and might be in a wheelchair for now but the ideas continue to come and i'm i'm far from done [Music] it's not the end of the road it's just the end of these stories have told it's not the end of the road it's just the end of these stories after [Music] there is no map there is no chart i'm just following my heart not the end of the road it's just the end of these stories i've told it's not the end of the road it's just the end of these stories i've told i never tell myself to breathe it goes automatically yeah it's not the end of the road it's just the end of these stories it's not the end of the road it's just the end of these [Music] you

Channel: Nitro Circus

Views: 3,573,537

Keywords: Nitro Circus, Travis Pastrana, Nitro Circus Live, FMX, BMX, Skate, Scooter, Inline, stunt, stunts, action sports, extreme, ramp, ramps, epic, fail, awesome, best videos, top talent, world first, most dangerous, best stunts, crashes, wheelz, triple backflip, motorcycle stunts, BASE jumping, stunt gone wrong, toys, nascar, best stunts ever, crash, bruce cook, never say can't, parapalegic, adaptive athlete, parasports, world record, paraplegic backflip

Id: rU7mckHCpcA

Length: 116min 37sec (6997 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 02 2020