{"id":2439851,"date":"2019-02-04T21:20:02","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T04:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=297095"},"modified":"2019-02-04T21:20:02","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T04:20:02","slug":"two-years-after-injury-nearly-took-his-life-15-year-old-canter-rides-at-x-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/two-years-after-injury-nearly-took-his-life-15-year-old-canter-rides-at-x-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Two years after injury nearly took his life, 15-year-old Canter rides at X Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 All that stood between Jake Canter and his dream of competing in X Games was remembering his Social Security number.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It was two Fridays ago when the 15-year-old Canter had his father, Carl, drop him off at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen. Canter, a U.S. Snowboard Rookie Team rider, was initially there just to hang out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Then, on Saturday, that all changed when one of Canter\u2019s childhood snowboarding idols, Mark McMorris, dropped out of an X Games competition. Late Saturday afternoon, the Canadian star McMorris was fresh off winning the X Games snowboard slopestyle competition in thrilling fashion. Riding high on the victory, McMorris opted out of the X Games\u2019 inaugural \u201cKnuckle Huck\u201d competition, which was scheduled to begin a couple of hours later. So he turned to Canter and told him that he could take his spot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018holy, this is really happening,&#8217;\u201d said Canter, a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/sports\/aspen-snowboarder-invited-to-swiss-park-session\/\">Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club athlete<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">With that news, the clock was officially ticking on Canter to gather the requisite information and paperwork to compete. At first, Canter\u2019s father didn\u2019t believe him. It was only a couple of picture texts of his son\u2019s competition bib, credential and paperwork that convinced him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Once Canter corralled that final required detail, his Social Security number, he was slated to not only compete in the Knuckle Huck, but to be the first to drop in. That meant the Silverthorne resident, effectively, would lead a crew of the world\u2019s best snowboarders down the big air course at Buttermilk.<\/p>\n<div id=\"single-mid-script\" class=\"p402_hide\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Riding behind Canter were snowboarders he looked up to, including Olympic slopestyle gold medalists Sage Kotsenburg and Red Gerard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Canter described the sudden nerves before the competition as the most extreme he\u2019s felt in his young snowboarding life. It was a mainstream moment where even his extended family members back in Wisconsin tuned in to watch, despite their scant knowledge of the sport. After he landed his first trick, Canter smiled wide at the bottom of the course.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt was definitely the best contest I could have ever done to debut at X Games,\u201d Canter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Despite his youth, it was also a major achievement for Canter. Just two years prior he suffered an injury that nearly ended his life.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"about:blank\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-rocket-lazyload=\"fitvidscompatible\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U5Ne5t2RqNc?feature=oembed\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><noscript><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U5Ne5t2RqNc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\"><strong>AWAKENING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It was early in the 2016-17 winter season when Canter\u2019s life was altered by an accident while practicing on a trampoline at Woodward at Copper at Copper Mountain Resort. As a kid, one of Canter\u2019s favorite places in the world were Woodward\u2019s indoor trampolines, where he\u2019d go each day after he finished up riding on the mountain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The accident occurred when another athlete on a neighboring trampoline lost his bearings in mid-air and collided with Canter. It resulted in a fractured skull, a traumatic head injury and a brain bleed. The injury forced Canter to stay off snow for a few months. Then, in the spring of 2017, the trampolining injury resulted in an even more serious health concern for Canter.<\/p>\n<p>Canter said spinal fluid was leaking due to the injury. The leakage, he said, led to bacterial meningitis. He and his family first realized something was wrong when a terrible two-week-long ear ache left Canter vomiting and then unconscious in his bedroom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Canter\u2019s family brought him to a hospital in the Denver area where doctors put him into a medically-induced coma.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI had no clue until I woke up and I thought I was dead,\u201d Canter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">While he was in the coma, doctors adhered breathing tubes to Canter\u2019s nose and throat and connected several IVs to his body. It was so bad that Canter said the doctors told his parents that he had a 20-percent chance of surviving. At one point, his family brought a priest into his hospital room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">When he groggily woke up from the coma on his sixth day in the hospital, Canter could barely see. But what he could view were the elated reactions of his parents and the doctors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The next day, Canter had no issues walking around the hospital. Doctors were surprised at how quickly Canter was recovering, as they expected him to be in the hospital for two more weeks. But just two days after he woke up from the coma, Canter was released from the hospital. And a day after that, he grabbed his skateboard to get back to riding.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until August 2017 when Canter returned to snow for the first time. That came right after he had his ear drum removed due to an infection stemming from the meningitis. The injury left Canter fully deaf in his right ear. But that didn\u2019t leave him too down to enjoy that first time snowboarding again in New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhen big things happen like that to you,\u201d Canter said, \u201cI don\u2019t know, everything feels so surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Despite the injury, Canter said his balance for snowboarding wasn\u2019t affected. Still able to compete in the sport he loved, Canter transitioned into a 2017-18 season, where he continued his progression as one of the country\u2019s most talented young halfpipe snowboarders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It was a successful season in the pipe for Canter, concluding with his victory in March of 2018 at the Burton U.S. Open Junior Jam, an annual competition that pits some of the world\u2019s best young riders against each other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Despite his success in the halfpipe, Canter had a change of heart later in 2018 after he learned bigger tricks on the slopestyle jumps in Saas-Fe, Switzerland. During the later half of 2018, Canter expressed to his U.S. Rookie Team coaches and sponsors, such as Burton and Red Bull, that he wanted to change disciplines. He said the coaches and sponsors were hesitant at first, trying to convince him to stick to halfpipe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cBut I knew in my heart I wanted to do slopestyle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The perspectives of his coaches and sponsors changed quite a bit when Canter won a post-Christmas Rev Tour Elite Nor-Am slopestyle competition in New Hampshire. And, after a few more events this season, Canter sits in first place in the tour\u2019s slopestyle standings. If he concludes the season in the top two, he gets an automatic berth to compete in World Cup slopestyle competitions next season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\"><strong>DREAMING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Two years after Canter suffered that traumatic head injury at Copper, it was Woodward that helped to provide Canter with the experience of a lifetime \u2014 riding with Danny Davis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Davis is the first name Canter says when you ask him about a snowboarder he idolized as a child. So when the youngster had the opportunity to tag along with the snowboarding star in early January, he soaked it all in. As Davis dialed in tricks ahead of his bronze-medal performance at the X Games, Canter played shadow to his 30-year-old hero. When on the chairlift, Davis asked Canter about typical things, like how school was going. When riding, Davis helped Canter to improve his tricks, offering up tips such as how to spot his landings and when to grab his board to maximize rotational force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But the main thing Canter took from Davis is to have conviction on a snowboard. Harboring that newfound confidence after his health scare, Canter is excited to follow in the snowboard tracks of predecessors like Davis and reach his ultimate goal: to compete at the Olympics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cHe\u2019s so confident in his riding,\u201d Canter said of Davis, \u201cEven if he doesn\u2019t land something right away, he gets back up and tries and tries and tries. His work ethic is just amazing. It was a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:aolivero@summitdaily.com\">aolivero@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/sports\/two-years-after-head-injury-nearly-took-his-life-15-year-old-snowboarder-jake-canter-competes-at-x-games\/\" target=\"_blank\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 All that stood between Jake Canter and his dream of competing in X Games was remembering his Social Security number. It was two Fridays ago when the 15-year-old Canter had his father, Carl, drop him off at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen. Canter, a U.S. Snowboard Rookie Team rider, was initially there just to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2439851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 04:38:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2439851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2439851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2439851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2439851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}