When Adolf Silva crashed attempting a double backflip drop at Red Bull Rampage last fall, most people watching thought they had witnessed the worst. Silva knew it almost immediately.
“The front wheel just cased and then my head just went boom straight into the landing,” Silva recalled during a recent appearance on the Gypsy Tales podcast. “And when my wife came there I was like that’s it. What do you mean that’s it? I said like I can’t feel my legs. No, no, no. It’s okay. It’s okay. I said no no no I know that’s it.”
He spoke about his injury shortly after the crash.
“I tried to do a double flip off my last drop, ended up under rotating and broke my back. My T2 and T3 were broken and dislocated all the way down to T6. I also broke my sternum and six ribs.” After a five-hour surgery, “they managed to put my back straight and fix the cracks with plates and screws.” Right now, he says, “I cannot feel from the chest down. We’re going to see how it evolves and what the hard work brings us.”
If you’ve been watching his progression through the Still Loco YouTube channel, you’ll know his attitude toward recovering is seriously inspirational.
“Okay. Yeah, your life changed, whatever,” Silva said. “But you can still go for it. You can still do stuff. You have to adapt to everything, but I’ve been doing everything I was doing before. You know, sometimes you need a couple friends to bring you up the stairs, but that’s what the friends are for, you know.”
Living in the moment
“Honestly, I had no plans,” Silva says when talking about his future plans. “I’ve always been like this. I’ve never really, even now, I have no plans. I’m just living the moment as it is and see where that kind of takes me.”
After an accident that changed nearly every aspect of his life, this philosphy seems to work for him.
“There’s no point on thinking too far ahead because everything can change in a second,” he said. “So you just go with life and see where it takes you.”
Recovery moving faster than expected
The recording is from exactly seven months after Silva’s accident.
“My doctor told me I should be in a hospital at least nine months,” he said. He was out in eight weeks. “So everything I’m doing already is like next level.”
Since leaving the hospital, he’s tried a bunch of adaptive sports and found a new outlet for adrenaline behind the wheel of an off-road buggy.
“The buggy, there’s no…
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