Huck magazine

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Thayne Mahler is a talented snowboarder, be it in Alaska or in the park. He boasts Burton and Mt Bachelor as sponsors and has been a snowboard coach at High Cascade summer camp in Mt Hood for seven summers. But that’s where normality ends, for the thirty-year-old American does all of the above, including a pretty mean frontside three, with the help of a prosthetic leg.

The accident that cost Thayne’s right leg took place on a casual trip to Mt Hood back in 1996. Thayne hiked the mountain in the afternoon only to find conditions were not up to scratch and the wind was picking up.

“We decided to head down to our camp. I stopped on the descent and took a picture of two of my friends,” Thayne explains. “They continued down the mountain and out of sight. As I followed I lost my edge and began to tumble. I landed in a ten-foot hole next to the cliff I had fallen from. My right leg landed in some rocks and broke in two places on impact. I knew I had to get out of the hole on my own, so I used my board as a crutch to get myself onto my feet, but my right leg was still stuck in the rocks. I had to pry it out. When I got out of the hole it had started to get dark. I realised I would have to spend the night there.”

The following afternoon, a helpless and freezing Thayne saw a small plane circling and managed to get its attention by reflecting the light from his camera lens. An hour later a helicopter was coming to get him. He was ecstatic: “I even got a picture of it. What a way to get my first heli ride!”

After three weeks of attempts to save his leg, Thayne realised that amputation was his best option – not an easy choice for anyone to take. But is he complaining? Hell no! Thayne is one of those rare human beings who seem to find the positive in any situation. In fact, he was back on the snow just two days after getting his ‘new leg’ fitted.

“I got on my snowboard quickly after getting my leg because I had sat around for so long,” he explains, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. “The first run on my new leg hurt a lot. I only took one run that day. The next day I took two. I worked my way up from there.”

Today Thayne spends half the year working with the Dew Action Sports Tour, building skate and BMX ramps, and then riding whenever he gets a chance to hit the slopes. And the best part of it all? His snowboarding is just getting better all the time.

“My leg puts my body weight in an awkward position and doesn’t bend some ways I wish it did to do certain tricks,” he admits. “But I am constantly improving and I think that’s what keeps snowboarding from becoming routine for me.”

Life will continue to throw shit at you. And it’s the Thaynes of this world who make you realise that you don’t have to sink in it.

www.burton.com

This story originally appeared in Huck #009,
out now.

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