If you're pro skateboarder Jake Brown, you might want a snazzy nickname to go with your oh-so-tame birth name. But you probably don't want to fall 45 feet to achieve this.
Australian Jake Brown, 34, became Jake "Unbreakable" Brown after he walked away from a horrific crash during the 2007 X Games at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Brown was on the mega ramp. In his usual fearless style - fearless even among pro skateboarders - he completed a daring 720 turn over the ramp's 70-foot gap, but he missed the quarter pipe lips. Medics say Brown saved his life by landing on his side.
"It might have been funny if it had not been potentially deadly," wrote Andrew Dalton for the Associated Press. "Jake Brown's legs churned in midair like he was trying to run. His shoes shot off in different directions when he slammed to the ground. His body looked like a rag doll as he slid to the base of the ramp." Dalton concluded, "It looked like a fall Wile E. Coyote would take," referring to the Road Runner's cartoon predator.
Jake Brown was motionless for about 8 minutes. Then he got up, walked off, waved to the crowd and asked buddy Jason Ellis, "Do I get another run?" Well, even Jake "Unbreakable" Brown is not unbreakable. He cracked several vertebrae, and he still has a metal pin in a wrist that was broken. He even bruised his liver; have you ever heard of a football player with a bruised liver? Jake Brown needed several months of rehab before he could return to smaller ramps and six months before he again challenged a mega ramp.
Even before the Staples Center fall, Jake Brown had a reputation for adverse risk. ESPN once reported: "Jake Brown has some of the hardest vert skateboarding tricks dialed in, like 720s and his double kick flip mute. However, in competitions, Jake Brown tends to go for the biggest tricks, which often backfires if he doesn't land them. But skating conservatively is not Jake Brown's style."
Reporters now want to know if Unbreakable Brown feels fear on the mega ramp. Jake affirms that this is true, but he adds a qualifier. He says he always has felt fear, even before the 45-foot freefall, because this is a natural emotion for a cutting-edge skateboard stuntman. Online viewers will note that Jake Brown was carted off in a wheelchair, not a stretcher. "I knew what happened," Jake explains in his trademark unflappable style. "I just wanted to test my body and see how wrecked I was, you know?"
Sources:
www.dailyillini.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=6d7c665b-3f6e-412a-9c8d-1440173744ec
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/05/sports/sp-xside5
http://skateboard.about.com/od/proskaterbios/p/ProJakeBrown.htm
www.lgactionsports.com/athlete.html?athlete_id=72&sport=skateboarding
www.grindtv.com/athlete/jake_brown/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Brown
