What’s impressive about someone riding a mountain bike? When the someone in question is Martyn Ashton, it’s impressive as hell. In 2013, the international trials star and YouTube legend was paralyzed from the waist down when he fell backwards off a 10-foot-high bar and hit the ground with enough force to dislocate the T9 and T10 vertebrae in his spine.
For most of us, that would be it-the end of our bike-riding days. Martyn Ashton, clearly, isn’t like most of us. And that’s a compliment of the highest order. With help from his friends (and fellow trials riders) Danny MacAskill, Chris Akrigg, and Blake Samson, Martyn Ashton is back on the bike, defying the odds yet again.
“It was great to have all the guys there,” says Ashton. “It seems that for a lot of us, going out and riding bikes a lot of the time is about who we do it with – my friends and all the banter and laughs that come with it. That is what I wanted to achieve. It wasn’t to just be back riding, but to be back riding and feeling like I wasn’t the guy in the wheelchair.”
Great video. Thanks for sharing. Impossible to watch without having a smile on your face after seeing their expressions and hearing their laughter.
Amazing. Simply amazing. Only question; who started cutting onions in here?!
Yup, someone must’ve been cutting onions near my laptop too. Glad I’m not the only one.
My friend was paralyzed this winter in a ski accident. He’s been in and out of the hospital for the last six months. He’s been a real trooper but I miss our MTB rides together! Holy Crap! Did someone say anything about crying! He says he’s really happy because it didn’t happen to him when he was younger. I need to get him back out there!!!!!
Those are great friends.