U.S. Ski Team's surfer/songwriter back in action

By Published On: September 6th, 2006Comments Off on U.S. Ski Team's surfer/songwriter back in action

U.S. Ski Team’s surfer/songwriter back in actionWhen American downhiller Bryon Friedman sustained a hideous crash more than a year ago, he never realized how complicated an injury could become.

Just as he was hitting his stride and beginning to land in the World Cup top-10 pool, Friedman broke his right leg and his left hand while downhill training in Chamonix, France, in January 2005.

Now Friedman is back on snow and training with the U.S. Ski Team. While he’s taking things day to day and still awaits another surgery, the 26-year-old has managed to make the best of his recovery time, discovering a new passion in surfing and also finding time to produce and release his first album.

“No injury is ever good timing,” Friedman said. “The way I broke my leg was really bad. I had no idea it could be so complicated, with compartment syndrome and all the things that can happen with an injury like that.”

On that 2005 training day, Friedman was firing down the course, coming into a big airplane turn out of a gully and putting so much bend into one of his tips that he lost control when he shot out of the turn. He started cartwheeling down the mountain and his ski didn’t come off his right leg.

“I’m going like 70 miles per hour and I just go into this fence,” he said. “When I stopped and looked at my leg, it was dangling like a piece of spaghetti. When I got to the hospital, the doctors said, ‘We’re going into surgery to save your leg.’ ”

With a broken tibia and fibula in his right leg and two broken bones in his left hand, Friedman has been through countless hours of surgery since the accident, and he still awaits what he hopes is the final operation to take a plate out of his fibula in November.

Fresh off the boat from New Zealand, where Friedman joined the team for the first time for training in August, he will head to Chile with the team on Sept. 11, and plans to get back into World Cup form.

“I just have pain when I ski in really rough, bumpy conditions,” he said. “It’s getting better and better. It hurts when I buckle my boots and start flexing into a turn.”

Friedman hopes his November surgery to remove the plate in his fibula will eliminate some of this pain. “At first, some people were like, ‘You don’t need a fibula.’ It’s only 10 percent weight-bearing.’ But most people aren’t racing 80 miles per hour down a bumpy course with 210s on their feet,” Friedman said.

Friedman didn’t do a lot of gate-training in New Zealand. He mostly concentrated on freeskiing and becoming comfortable on his skis again. “You gotta crawl before you can walk,” he said. “You gotta walk before you can run.”

In Chile, he plans to ski a couple days of giant slalom, then work his way into super G and downhill. “I’d like to be racing back on the tour, but for now, I’ll take it easy and just focus on skiing,” Friedman said. “To be perfectly honest, I don’t care how I finish. I want to finish well. If that puts me into the top 30, great. I’m really at peace with the whole situation.”

A big part of establishing Friedman’s peace of mind was directing a lot of his pain, frustrations and energy into his music. The Park City, Utah, skier relocated to Santa Barbara, California, a few months ago and there immersed himself in his guitar playing, which he took up at age 17. He also learned to surf.

“When I got back to Santa Barbara and was on my own, I started venting,” he said. “That’s where I took refuge in my guitar and music. Part of it, I had to get away from the snow in Park City and that scene. I’d come home, play music and write. It’s nice to think of getting this album done as an expression of what I’ve been through.”

Friedman’s nine-song album, “Road Sodas,” will be released in October. Check out the October issue of Ski Racing magazine for more on Friedman’s musical and surfing pursuits.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh