Watch: ‘Convalescence’ tells Jake Fox’ remarkable journey back to the bike

Crashes are, ultimately, an unavoidable part of mountain biking. But some crashes are worse than others. When Jake Fox over-shot the landing of an airbag, it shattered his C5 vertebrae. In Convalescence, Fox tells the story of his journey from that moment back to riding his bike.

When Fox hit the ground, he was rushed to hospital. That process ended with doctors completely reconstructing his C5 vertebrae. Even though the operation was a success, Fox was given just a five per cent chance of ever walking again. For an up-and-coming pro slopestyle rider, the diagnosis was devastating. How the young Canadian dealt with the news, and his recovery process thereafter, is inspiring.

How would you react if your life went from this... Photo: Bryce Piwek

... to this?

“I am not going to lie, it was really tough. Especially after hearing how well surgery went, I thought I was going to be walking out of the hospital in no time. This was definitely my lowest point in my whole recovery and I fully broke down for a couple hours thinking about what life in a wheelchair was going to be like,” Fox says, thinking back to that moment in the hospital. “I then regained my composure and realized being sad and negative wasn’t going to do anything but hinder my recovery. So I decided to stay positive for myself and my friends/family and do everything I can to be that five per cent.”

You can watch the rest of Fox’s journey below in Convalescence.

Jake Fox: Convalescence

What’s Knolly say?

In the late afternoon of July 6, 2021, Jake Fox broke his neck riding an airbag landing. He had a small slip up on a backflip tuck no hander resulting in him going over the handlebars and off the end of the landing. Jake was then rushed to hospital to undergo surgery to replace his blown up C5 vertebrae with an artificial cage. The surgery went well however his chances of ever walking again were a minimal five per cent.

Jake would then spend the next 3.5 weeks at Vancouver General Hospital seeing steady progress in regaining body function. Jake was then transferred to GF Strong rehab center where he would really start to see improvements. At GF Jake really stepped up his rehab capitalizing on extra physio and OT appointments whenever possible.

After extensive work and help from all the amazing staff at GF Strong, Jake walked out of the rehab center two months earlier than his expected release date.

This is his story.

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