Video: Catching Up with Brook Macdonald 6 Months Post Spinal Injury

 INDEED !!!!! AND The power of the bulldog is astounding !!!!!!! WHAT AN INSPIRATION... LIKE PAUL BAS.

 Bulldog is back! I'm just surprised that Mt St Anne survived the encounter.
Btw, what's with the green nets above the trails in places in that video?

 @shredddr: think there under the chair lift

 my neuro was a hockey player, and said his goal was to get me back on the bike ASAP. my kind of doc!

 Haha!!! this deserves more upvotes...I'm dead

 @savagelake: my neuro said I should take walks around the mall, after screwing together my C5/6/7. Good dr. Lame advice.

 It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us.

 She did an excellent job with the interview. And Brook- cheers for your tenacity and positive attitude. Amazing!!!

 Was thinking the same. Once the Wu-Flu has passed, I’m getting my game up

 It’s irrelevant whether he was wearing one, if you watch the footage you’ll see he went into a rather extreme flexion of the spine. Apparently it seems a similar thing did Martyn Ashton. When you fall on upper part of your back and younget covered with your legs, the sheer force of your legs and hips getting bending your spine can crack it. Plenty of bone fractures (like AC that Tahneesuffered last year) and joints damage results from compressing forces not blunt force.

 @WAKIdesigns: it literally doesn't get much more blunt than a compression fracture- but yes, exactly, there is unfortunately no protective clothing that prevents that sort of mechanism.

It was a shock, to see Brook injured in that way! It was and is an inspiration how and he and no less his girl friend handle that situation! From personal experience I know the latter is definitely not a given... . Can't wait to see Brook back racing DH again.

 Pretty sure Brook has said multiple times he was wearing a back protector. Also remember Wyn saying the same when it first happened, and it was mandatory for MSA.

 Undoubtedly, landing with your back on a rock can shatter a vertebrae, a back protector can also (to some degree) prevent puncturing your inner organs if you land on branches sticking out of a fallen tree. No matter how unlikely it is please wear back protection when riding rough stuff, especially when competing in DH or Enduro. Backpacks are better than nothing but they are not as good as proper spine protector. Just don’t believe armor will solve your problems, it minimizes injuries, if you fk up enough, run out of luck, they make little difference. So make sure you don’t run out of motoric skill and talent before you run out of luck.

 It's semantics. He suffered blunt force trauma which led to the mechanism of injury which was likely flexion which led to the compression fracture. To echo what WAKIdesigns said, while spine protectors do provide some degree of protection against direct impact to the spine, they may not adequately protect against the extreme flexion, extension, or rotation which leads to the devastating injuries of the spine. Your best protection is riding sensibly within your own limits.

 @WAKIdesigns: Happy to see he is able to ride! However consider, that aside from a helmet there is no evidence that other gear protects a rider from any injury that is blunt force or any thing more than some abrasions.

 @duplex: sorry I misunderstood the term blunt force... I meant direct hit, when something hits the bone and causes a fracture. Every thing layer of even remotely harder between bone (and few ligaments around it) and hard object, will diminish the chance of the bone shattering.