Brage Vestavik Undergoes Second Surgery 1 Year After Rampage Shoulder Injury

Oct 11, 2022 at 14:30
by Sarah Moore  


Brage Vestavik has announced on Instagram that he's undergone a second surgery to reattach and strengthen the subscapularis tendon that was injured when he guinea pigged his big drop at Red Bull Rampage last year. He also got screws removed from the top of his arm.


bigquotesShoulder refix. Wasn’t really expecting this one. My shoulder hasn’t been good the last few months and I decided to give it a rest from riding hoping it would get better. With no improvement after 3 weeks of chilling, I went down to the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center and found my shoulder had some bigger problems. It looked like my subscapularis tendon detached and had been slowly ripping off after the first surgery one year ago. The tendon is now reattached tighter and stronger with 4 anchors, and I also got the screws in the top of my arm taken out with this surgery. Can’t thank @redbull @redbullnorge and the boss Dr Schultes enough for all the help. Big Up for all the support everyone. Can’t wait to be back!!—Brage Vestavik


We can't wait to see Brage back at full strength once again and wish him all the best with his recovery.

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67 Comments
  • 81 0
 This explains why he’s not in rampage. Hope he can compete in 2023.
  • 22 5
 This has been known for some time. Also was the reason he was not at hardline.
  • 5 21
flag PauRexs FL (Oct 11, 2022 at 16:45) (Below Threshold)
 Why is not the guy who stealed and succeed his drop?
  • 47 1
 And hopefully the Utah desert will benefit and recover from a year off of Brage.
  • 2 0
 That explains a lot, i thought he wasn't invited
  • 4 2
 @PauRexs: Danny Mac's presence would hurt too many feelings
  • 68 1
 Where can I buy some of this Red Bull health insurance. Has to be better than my ‘Merica’ care.
  • 86 11
 Norway has socialized healthcare. So "where can I get some of this" would be "just about any European country, including good ol' Norway." Friendly reminder that we need to get our shit together here in the ol' US of A.
  • 16 48
flag wilsonians (Oct 11, 2022 at 16:11) (Below Threshold)
 @WaterBear: Wonder how long he had to wait to get it as it was not a critical procedure. Wait....nevermind, Redbull got him pushed through to the front of the line is my bet.
  • 23 0
 @WaterBear: Getting to go to the private Red Bull Athlete Performance Center in Austria didn’t hurt, either.
  • 12 0
 @wilsonians: Looks like he was treated through Red Bull’s private facility. Probably had something to getting him pushed to the front of the line.
  • 18 4
 @wilsonians: Better than paying out the a** for health insurance and still not being able to get care.
  • 9 1
 @WaterBear: If you follow his IG, you'd know the red bull athlete docs figured out the issue and took care of him. I guess being an RB athlete isn't such a bad deal. USA will never get our shit together. Life is cheap, but living's expensive. Get a union job or pay your own way.
  • 20 1
 @wilsonians: You are right, planned non critical procedures realistically have to be handled privately, but any accidents are handled fast and for free. Also people with cancer are served as soon as possible like any life threatening situation. It seems that in the US people who cannot afford threeatnent are simply f*cked and no one care if they die, a kind of modern slavery if you ask me, you are just a labor force and a consumer so that rich people can get richer, but if your treatment costs exceed your value, then you would better die.
  • 8 0
 @WaterBear: It might look socialized from the outside, but the reason for our healthcare is actually a lot more basic and rational: Norway does not have a spare workforce. There are no extras. So investing in healthcare is to keep our companies floating. Getting people fast back into employment is a crucial cornerstone of our country’s economy.
  • 17 1
 @WaterBear: Hello, your friendly Norwegian helper here. Yes, we do have socialized healthcare here, but as an athlete in a sport with risk of injury a injury insurance sure is helpful to have.

I have injury incurance and it helped me get pushed into a private clinic to fix my collarbone when I broke it a few years back. It got fixed in 1 week from the injury and I was back riding within a month. If I'd go through the public healthcare, it'd be fixed but it would've taken 3-4 times as long.

However, as we do have subsidiced healthcare here, the insurance doesn't cost that much. I pay around $100 a year for mine, which I think is ok as I see it as a luxury item. The few times I've used it, I've payed around $20 at the desk including medication.
  • 2 0
 @lkubica: The problem -at least, here- is that public healthcare levels vary wildly from region to region, from hospital to hospital, and even from different departments of the same structure.
When I broke my arm, the ambulance trip took me to this huge hospital, 10km from home.
Orthopedic department was such a mess that I had to volutarily check out -bandaged, still geared up and dirty af- to another public hospital, this time 100km from home, where everything went just perfect.
  • 7 0
 @megatryn: Funny, I had surgery done on my broken collarbone the day after the injury. Twice, in fact (separate incidents). Public insurance in the Czech Republic, all I paid was a 2 dollars fee at the emergency. I can't imagine living without public healthcare 3
  • 3 2
 @megatryn: i have lever had to be in these queues that they always talk about when I have had serious injuries. Like a week tops.

@trigger: I have never heard of a spare workforce. What is that? Where do they have that?
  • 1 7
flag ilovedust (Oct 12, 2022 at 2:24) (Below Threshold)
 Love how Americans feel hard done by about their health provision yet Brits have to pay health insurance to get decent health care. The grass is not greener folks.
  • 10 0
 @ilovedust: This is what a google search says about America:
"In 2020, the average national cost for health insurance is $456 for an individual and $1,152 for a family per month" - www.ehealthinsurance.com/resources/individual-and-family/how-much-does-individual-health-insurance-cost

This is what a google search says about UK:
"According to our research, a 30 year old non-smoker who insurance providers would assume to be relatively healthy and unlikely to require multiple trips to the hospital, would pay on average ÂŁ39 per month for a mid-tier health insurance plan with a ÂŁ500 excess." - www.nimblefins.co.uk/health-insurance/cost
  • 2 0
 @mtb-jon: It really depends on when you get injured. I've heard of people who get fixed straight away as well, but I've also heard of people who have gone weeks without getting in. I got injured iwhen there were lots of other injuries aparently, so I got pushed back in the public system and my injury wasn't very serious (I basically got the choice of just leaving the collar bone to heal by itself), thus I chose to use my insurance and go private.
  • 1 0
 @megatryn: That is fair. I have also had to wait for minor injuries and so on. But I have never had to endure excruciating pain or been left unable to work due to waiting.
I appreciate that we have both systems tbh.
I wouldnt like a system where my minor injury could be pushed before someone elses major injury just because I can pay more.
  • 4 0
 Here in Switzerland, we used to have a single health insurance - state owned. Health insurance got privatised and now we have many different companies where you can get health insurance. The problem we have now is, that they are only focused on business. So their goal isn't to provide the best service possible but to pay out all those shareholders and the bonuses for the CEO etc. The insurances even have two different associations lobbying for their interests which now blockage the renewel of the different costplan for different medical treatments. Probably they fear that they would lose some of their profit while providing something that is basically public service which everyone needs by law.
I am not against liberal markets, but on things like basic health insurance or electricity it's absolute dogsh*t.
  • 2 3
 Join the military - best benefits you get.
  • 1 0
 @lkubica: chucking yourself off cliffs is not a good way to stay out of a surgical suite.....
  • 6 0
 @wilsonians: i had a non critical procedure 4 weeks ago and had to wait a whole week! Stupid socialist free healthcare!
  • 2 0
 they put redbull in the IV bag constantly - no wonder he looks so spritely
  • 1 0
 @mtb-jon: @mtb-jon: I have... from a shoulder dislocation and a upper humerus fracture, very simular to Brages. Emergency care was alright, I had to wait 7 hours since the docrors didnt manage to get my arm relocated so I had to do it under an anestehtic. I also suffered some damage to the ulnar nerve so i´ve got numbnes to my forearm down to the pinky and ring finger and worsened grip strenght. This was in march and I still havent got an appointment to a neurologist and the ENeG. A surgery (if necessary) should be done within 3 months according to recomendations.

Not sure if it´s fair to let the tax payers (fÜrsäkringskassan) pay my allowence from not being able to work. When a fairly quick and simple surgery might fix it.
  • 3 0
 @hilldescentcontrol: that sounds like it sucks balls. And I hope that you are not in to much pain and that you get that appointment asap!
And yeah, sometimes you do have to want. But it isnt due to some bullshit reason like some corporation decided that it you werent profitable or some lazy CEO needed a higher bonus. It is because someone else that needs an neurologist gets helt.

And I wouldn't worry about the bidrag. I am happy to pay my taxes knowing that it helps you.
  • 2 0
 I saw a Matt Jones vid a while ago I think Redbull cover athletes fees & sort out the procedures required. Perk of the job I guess.
  • 2 2
 @mtb-jon: a spare workforce is when your country has a lot of unemployed people with skills. Like USA. They are not unemployed because they can’t work, but because there isn’t work. We (Nordics) don’t have too much of that, though sweden has slightly higher unemployment among younger people than Norway
  • 1 0
 @trigger: thanks for the explanation! That makes sense. We also have a lot more laws protecting employees as well.
  • 2 0
 Yall seem to think you have the USA all figured out. We don't have A System. Maybe we should have one, but the reality is MUCH more complex. Anyone can get fixed in a hospital ER here in SF - ability to pay does not matter. They may try to bill you but are not really checking who you are and there's the blood from a turnip thing, too. Ethics are still in play here, if barely. People like choice and some choices cost more than others. Overall , the healthcare/insurance industrial complex is still a raped @ss (Anti-Cimex for you Nordics). Health should be a right, but the doctors need customers. Same with the pill makers. It all starts with garbage food. Eat healthy if you can afford it and stay away from Medicine Inc.
  • 24 0
 No hospital gown? Looks like Brage wasn't robed after all.
  • 2 0
 I see what you did there.
  • 21 3
 Can the Americans just read an article without explaining their healthcare system, guys we dont fucking care. Brage get well soon buddy!
  • 10 3
 IKWYM, but shouldn't we support them on their journey towards social and political enlightenment?
  • 7 0
 What else are we supposed to circlejerk around?!
  • 1 0
 Let me tell you how it works over here.....
  • 18 0
 Hang in there Brage, you'll be back to your usual 95kg of untamed viking shred energy in no time!
  • 11 0
 Man that orange shit takes forever to come off your skin.
  • 2 0
 Truth.
  • 55 3
 A certain former POTUS agrees with this assessment.
  • 7 0
 Bummer. I hope he makes a full recovery. It seemed like his career was just taking off when had this awful injury. Hoping this means they have the issue sorted and he is on the road back to blowing our minds
  • 11 0
 Brage was robbed
  • 6 0
 Heal well you Viking wild man! You were on fire last year at Rampage practice. I heard you also went to some of the old sites and absolutely stomped some of the biggest lines too! You'll be back better than ever!!!
  • 8 0
 Sadly, The Surgical tools to repair Brage did not survive !
  • 6 0
 With Redbull in his drip he’ll be out in the morning.
  • 10 1
 With diabetes
  • 4 0
 Looking forward to tomorrow's Sound of Pure Bike Mayhem release. Hopefully make up for Brage not being at Rampage.
  • 2 0
 Please tell me more... I'm clearly not in the know?
  • 1 0
 @Jordanh604: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG5sGEJdWXE&ab_channel=RedBullBike
  • 4 0
 The arrow sharpied on his arm; you gotta love surgeons. I'm surprised it doesn't say "cut here"
  • 1 0
 Oh yea...wait till you're older and see how all those youthful claims of fame feel to ya. Won't have one second of calm and comfort, it is all yoga to make it another few hours!
  • 4 0
 heal fast man.
  • 2 0
 Brage wins rampage without actualy being at Rampage.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG5sGEJdWXE&ab_channel=RedBullBike
  • 1 0
 Must. Resist. The pun urge.
Can we just stop Braggeing about this, please?
Ahh, lost it.
  • 1 0
 Take care man ,be safe :-))))
  • 1 0
 Gotta take a few years, and it’ll never be the same :/ heal up!
  • 1 0
 Put that screws to the bike
  • 1 0
 I imagine Brage going into surgery in the OR wearing that Red Bull beanie
  • 1 0
 Get better BRAAGE!!
  • 1 3
 career ender
  • 1 0
 Maybe, and hope not, but bummed to see the negative response to this POV - anyone who freerides and doesn't appreciate the fact that your only one little issue away from a "career-ender" of freeriding is fooling themselves...
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