Earlier
this year, I received a text message from a good friend of mine asking me if I
knew what happened to Kevin Griffin.
Knowing nothing about the situation, I started making phone calls to a
couple of his friends up in Whistler to find out if he was ok. Due to the fact
that the majority of people I called were broke ass and hadn't paid their cell
phone bills, I ended up calling Kevin's Sessions Team Manager and getting his
contact info. Once I actually had Kevin on the line, I asked two things: 1) Was
he ok? and 2) would he like to answer a few simple questions explaining the
accident that almost cost him his season. After getting his permission to run
the interview, I sent Kevin a list of questions and waited for an email to come
back full of answers. As time passed, I took the pro-active approach and called
his Endeavor Team manager to figure out what was taking Kevin so long to get
back to me. During that conversation I was told that Kevin was back on his
board heading out to Calgary to go on a rail mission. "Damn" I thought, "That
was fast. What is this kid, unstoppable?".
After
reading this interview below, I think it's safe to say that there's not much
that can stop a guy that hustles as hard as Kevin Griffin. Read below and find
out why highway driving just isn't the same for Kevin.
How did you end up in your situation? What the
hell happened that caused your accident?
Well
it was dark and icy. It's called a "car accident". Yeah, I'm going with "it was
an accident".
Were you with anyone when the accident happened?
Yeah.
I was with Ashley Barker and Jody Wachniak.
What was the first thing that came to your mind
once you realized what happened?
"Holy f**ck were alive," and "the car sounds like it gonna blow", so we all greased
the hell outta there as fast as possible.
What did the doctors have to say about your
accident? Did you take their advice?
He
said "it's been much worse for everyone else that has gone off that turn."
Come to think of it, he also mentioned that we were "some of the luckiest
people that he has ever seen go off that turn."
How did you deal with it while being out of your
element? Any crazy situations arise?
Outta
my element? I'm from Winnipeg, hahaha...a car accident is mellow! We all
survived. No, but for real...I blacked out and woke up with Ash and Jody over top
of me like, "Griff, what the f**ck". They both went into hero mode and thought
I was dying. There was just too much blood spewing outta my arm. Ever since I
was a little kid, if I see lots of blood, its pretty much lights out. So that
was that. I kinda saw it coming, you know?
How long did it take you to get back to normal
health and able to shred again? Anything different now?
Well
the doctors told me 3 - 5 months, but I was boarding after two weeks, hahahaha.
There was sooooooo much pow in Whistler, I just couldn't help myself. But I'm
back to boarding at normal health now, which is good ‘cause the accident was December
5th, so that's a little over 3 months which isn't really that bad I
guess.
How do you feel now and were there any permanent
injuries from the accident?
I
feel better, but I just did two rail trips to Edmonton and back and now I'm
just terrified driving on highways. The second trip was on the Duffy Lake road
through the night. I just got back yesterday and I tell ya that it was not a
good time in the least. I can't really make a closed fist on my injured arm,
which sucks. I probably won't be
able to throw rocks as far, or really be able to climb as well as I used to,
but I'm sure I will manage.
Did your sponsors help you out once they found
out about the accident?
Endeavor
and Sessions really helped me a lot. Andrew Burns picked me up the next day
from the Willams Lake Hospital, which was cool of him. It was a pretty serious
drive, and he came on the snap of a finger for me. Thanks so much Burns! My
friend Gillian also helped a lot with getting me back and forth to Vancouver
for surgery, follow-ups and what not. I was real lucky to have so many people
care about me. We had (David) Brocklebank, E-man (Anderson) and Scotty Brown in
Scotty's truck ahead of us. They all got a hotel in Williams and ended up
hanging with me at the hospital to make sure that I was gonna be ok. That was
pretty awesome of those guys. Thanks guys.
Where can we see this accident? Any web coverage?
Jody
filmed the aftermath on his new iPhone with a camera, but he doesn't really want
the world to see it. Might be a bit much, you know?
After it's all said and done, what did this
accident make you realize?
You
really need to enjoy yourself out there no matter what you're doing because
shit can hit the fan real quick!
What's next for you with shredding?
I'm
gonna really get this 8 Mile part filmed and finished. Once the season is done,
I'm going to start roofing so I can buy a truck and sled, and then once that's
done I'm going surfing down south in the fall. I'm out.
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Related:
Endeavor Snowboards: By and For Real Riders
8 Mile Life: Full Movie
Video: Spring Sledding in Whistler
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