Extreme athletes get used to risks

When Bob Burnquist saw Jake Brown helplessly fall more than 50 feet to the mega ramp below him at the X Games in early August, he felt like throwing up.

Brown, trying to complete a 720 off the gigantic ramp, flew some 20 feet above the ramp's lip, but his momentum carried him too far away from the ramp and by the time he reached the zenith of his flight, he was in a freefall to the floor below him where he slammed into the wood, horrifying the thousands of people watching at the X Games and becoming a YouTube sensation.

Burnquist had perhaps one of the best views of the accident — he was next up.

"I saw that and I thought he was dead or paralyzed or something," Burnquist said Tuesday as he hosted a skateboarding clinic at the OGIO training facility in Bluffdale. "My mom was there, and she was telling me not to go. But I kind of had to. I didn't want the event to end on something like that. In my head, I was saying that's not going to happen to me so when I saw him eventually get up and walk away, I was ecstatic. It gave me a little more confidence that I was OK to go."

Brown was stunned, bruised and more than a little wobbly after his famous fall. After completing his run and winning X Games gold, Burnquist — who is one of the headliners at this weekend's AST Dew Tour stop in Salt Lake City, took the incident to heart and reevaluated his approach to the sport.

The sport, he said, now requires much more than a no-fear attitude to the life-threatening aerial tricks.

It requires a lot of physical and mental preparation.

"It takes us a few years to figure it out, but I'm a professional athlete and I needed to treat my body like I was a professional athlete," said Burnquist, a 30-year-old with all sorts of X Games, Dew Tour and other top finishes. "I've learned how to work out, to stretch and to eat better. We take a lot of punishment doing what we do. If you want to do it for very long, you have to take care of yourself."

The years of abuse Burnquist's body have endured are evident. All those times his body has become one with the vert ramp have left him in need of frequent trips to the chiropractor and physical therapist.

Climbing the stairs to the top of a ramp, or even hopping onto an elevated seat like a barstool, is a challenge and takes much more effort than it should for any healthy 30-year-old man.

He admits he's concerned about how he'll fare after he finally stops competing in skateboarding events and pushing his body to the limit. Yoga, weight lifting and cardio exercises have become part of his daily routine in an attempt to prolong his career and positively extend the quality of his life.