Sports

Snowmobiler Recovers After 30 Foot Fall In Stunt

DULUTH, Minn. (WCCO) ― Jimmy Blaze doesn't remember hitting the snow after his 30 foot fall, or going to the hospital on a stretcher. However, the pain in his shoulder, pelvis and sprained wrist reminded him three days later.

"I can't twist, turn or do sit-ups," Blaze said.

The snowmobiler was doing a back flip on his snowmobile at the Duluth National Snocross on Sunday. It was a flip he'd done hundreds of times before. This time, though, the winds were just too much. He knew something was wrong as soon as he went into the air.

"I hit the ramp really fast. My feet weren't hooked in properly. The thing just came away from me," he said. "To tell you the truth, I really don't know [why I fell]."

He said he's fallen dozens of times before, most of them never this bad.

"It's a scary thing. It actually made me question what I'm doing now and how important doing shows is to me," said Blaze.

He's a hit on YouTube – more than 4,000 hits in just two days. Snocross fans seemed to have captured the fall from multiple angles. In some videos, people gasped when Blaze went down. In others, they laughed.

"That almost hurt my feelings, to tell you the truth," he said

Blaze isn't afraid he'll get hurt. He's come close to serious injury before. The name Blaze comes from a story when he was teenager in Alaska.

"Somebody accidentally squirted me with a bunch of gasoline through a fire and it burned off all the hair on my head and on my face," he said.

Next time, he said, he'll be more careful and avoid the super strong winds. The Winter X-Games qualifiers are in three weeks and Blaze hopes to be back on his snowmobile in two and a half.

 

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