Up to Speed with Johnny Waddell

Johnny Waddell is 23 and he has done more in his life that you could ever know. Sitting in the shade of the Syndicate/Santa Cruz tent at the NORBA NCS race in Big Bear, California, the Australian speed demon is reflecting on the last 12 months.

It was just more than a year ago that Waddell crashed during a run at the Mont-Saint-Anne World Cup race in Quebec. Going hard as always, he launched off a massive kicker, lost control and crashed headfirst. Suffering severe injuries, he remained in a Canadian hospital, in a coma for 26 days. Upon awakening on July 21, he returned to Perth, Australia, with his family, and began the grueling process of rehabilitation.

"Right now I'm just going along with the flow, seeing what comes up in life. I'm not in any rush," he says deliberately. The more he speaks, the more obvious it is that he is happy to be back at the races and to be back with his friends.

His recovery has surprised only the people who don't know him. The word determination has become his credo. "I was hating life in there," he says of his months spent in rehab facilities. "I knew I was going to be going back to the States, and I told myself it'll be over soon."

Waddell's rise to fat-tire fame began 10 years ago when he started racing mountain bikes. By the late 1990s, he'd come to the States and was a serious contender on the NORBA downhill circuit. He was picked up by Santa Cruz, and went to work making a name for himself as a fast and daring downhiller. As the freeride movement began to gain momentum, Waddell was destined for stardom, pinning it in films like Red Bull Rampage and Kranked 5. Just a few weeks before Mont-Saint-Anne he stood on the podium in Snowshoe, West Virginia, after finishing third in the NORBA downhill race.

Currently, Waddell is advising the Syndicate team. Although he isn't racing yet, he has his sights set on the horizon. It's probably only a matter of time before he's ripping back downhill. In early September, he's headed back to Perth, and has already laid plans to try racing again.

"I'd like to do some low-key races in Australia and see if I'm up to speed," he says with a smile. While it remains to be seen if Waddell will ever get back to the level of riding he attained before his Mont-Saint-Anne crash, it is a safe bet that he'll be working hard to do just that.