Kalle Palander, a Finnish alpine skier and probably my biggest idol ever tore his ACL in alpine World Cup finals in Åre 2006. At that time, I knew that ACL injuries were very common among atheletes and many of my friends had suffered from them, but this was the first time when I really paid attention to someone's recovery process. Kalle had the surgery in Helsinki performed by the same orthopedist who also operated my knee. After a couple of weeks he leaved for Croatia and started a hectic rehab program at Terme Selce clinic. Kalle's injury was widely known in Finland and he had a popular video blog on local TV-channel's web page. Recovery went well. When he came back to the World Cup next season people knew what he had gone through, he made a great comeback and strenghtened his status as my ultimate sports hero.

In January 2008 TJ Schiller tore his ACL in Colorado. He missed the entire winter and the next time I saw him in Whistler, where he worked as a summer camp coach. I heard his rehab had gone well, but he was mainly concentrating on instructing the kids, instead of skiing like he usually does. But as the the summer turned into fall, I hadn't heard too much of him, apart from a couple of New Zealand edits. Then in January 2009 I saw a video from Tignes Airwaves with TJ throwing some of the sickest switch double corks ever, and then he went for the X-Games slopestyle gold. 

2010 X-pipe winner Kevin Rolland had had two bad X-Games experiences before the big win. A year before he couldn't put his final run together and in 2008 he, as everyone here, tore his ACL after a great preformance in prelims. By looking at the list of finalists I noticed that Kevin was not in, but didn't hear about his knee until his French fellow Xavier Bertoni told me about it in Nippon Open. In August 2008 I saw Kevin skiing in Sas Fee Switzerland. I remember him saying: "Day two skiing, day one jumps." He was already hitting the big kicker and looked strong. Next winter he won the Halfpipe World Championships in Inawashiro Japan. 

Nick Martini had his black moment in the first Dew Tour stop in Breckenridge December 2009. After the injury Nick has taken good care of his affairs. He's got his own "blog" called "A Martini Recovery" on newschoolers.com containing text, pictures and videos about his rehab, life and ski-buddies. Nick's posts are published on the front page and the videos are showing off his sponsors. Really good for him.

Why aren't there more skiers like Nick Martini? I don't have as good connections to newschoolers.com as Nick has, and I was never as popular among the NS community as Nick was before his injury. But I could have done something better, maybe learn how to film and edit, but I don't have anything as funny to film as Chug Life has. However, it's good that there are skiers whose skills are not limited to skiing. My point here is: if you are a pro skier or if you ski like a pro, it is likely that sooner or later you are going to suffer from a long-term injury - ACL or something else. So if shit happens, be ready for that and think of your plan B in advance.