Andy and "the maggots" get props in The Steamboat Pilot

[cold_smoke]

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2...ptive_athlete/

Ski theft has lasting effect on adaptive athlete

Steamboat Springs — Temperatures crept above freezing in Aspen for the first time in days, but Andy Campbell didn’t enjoy a second of the sunshine Friday. He lay stranded in his bed in the Limelight Lodge, the hotel he landed in after a several-day stop at the Aspen Valley Hospital, where he was rushed after an unexpectedly quick end to his stint as an X Games athlete.

His leg was broken, and there was every reason for his faith in humanity to be shattered along with it.

Instead — reflecting on the bizarre, disturbing chain of events that took him from Steamboat Springs to the X Games and the Limelight — he saw the good in it all.

“It’s kind of amazing,” he said, pausing. “It reaffirms your faith in people.”

The crime
Campbell’s journey began two weeks prior. The former British soldier, paralyzed from the waist down five years ago in a rock-climbing fall, traveled to Steamboat Springs to ride with Craig Kennedy and other world-class adaptive skiers in the Legends of Deep Powder skiing event on Buffalo Pass.

Campbell said he had a nearly perfect day on the backcountry powder. But he didn’t expect two of the skis specially designed for his monoski to go missing while he was out.

The pair of 192-cenimeter Bro skis was built by Campbell’s sponsor, PM Gear, a small ski company headquartered in Reno, Nev.

The $798 set of custom skis vanished from a stairwell at the Steamboat Sheraton, where disabled skiers had been storing supplies throughout Kennedy’s weeklong disabled ski camp.

“I keep my stuff there all the time,” Kennedy said. “These skis were way back in the corner in a box, so someone had to go looking for them.”

The theft left Campbell with precious few skis for his first stint in the X Games.

The hunt
Kennedy and other Steam­boat locals printed fliers and notified every ski shop in the area to stay on the lookout for the unique skis.

Campbell, meanwhile, had to pack up and drive to Aspen with what equipment he still had.

“Obviously it was a bit of a sucker punch to find out they were gone,” he said, “but I had to go.”

Enter the “maggots,” the rabidly dedicated Internet message board posters of the Teton Gravity Research forums.

Campbell is a regular poster on the board that caters to powder-crazed skiers around the country. His friends were quick to get word out about the stolen skis.

The maggots scoured eBay and Craigslist. It didn’t take long for a clue to emerge.

“Some maggot from Steam­boat calls me and said he’d been offered a chance to buy them,” said Pat Keane, owner of PM Gear and a regular on the TGR forums.

That maggot, “Darkstar,” came to Campbell’s rescue five days after the initial theft. The Steamboat-based skier had stumbled upon the stolen Bros.

Over a series of posts he claimed friends offered to sell him the skis, which they claimed to have bought off a ski area employee.

“I don’t know what to make of it,” Keane said. “I said ‘Dude, I want that person arrested,’ and he got all nervous about that, then I asked, ‘How bout just a pound of flesh,’ and he really got nervous.

“We settled on him just getting skis from those people and getting them to us.”

One of Keane’s friends already was rushing to Aspen with a new set of skis and stopped by Steamboat to pick up the newly discovered loot, then continued to the X Games, arriving the night before Campbell’s Mono Skier X competition started.

The consequences
But it was too late.

There wasn’t time to mount any of the new skis, and Campbell broke his last good ski during the first qualifying run.

Desperate to make the event’s semi-finals, he borrowed the only ski he could find that had any chance of working. It was a far cry from the 192-cenitmeter beasts he had left in Steamboat Springs.

“I had to borrow a 155 women’s slalom ski from a spectator,” he said.

Still, Campbell said he realized all he had to do was qualify. Then, there’d be time to mount bindings on the newly arrived skis, and he’d be at full strength for the semi-finals.

“I tried to take it very slowly so I’d at least finish the course,” he said. “Even going slow, I was still going faster than some of the other guys.”

He took the easiest path possible and that, too, was going well until he approached one of the tamest jumps on the course.

“I was feeling a little confident. I thought, ‘I’m carrying enough speed,” he said. “Without as much ski behind me I had too much weight leaning back. I went into a back flip, crashed down on my back, bounced, landed on my feet and snapped my femur.”

The payoff
Campbell initially had plan­ned to return to Britain soon after the X Games. His plans changed.

The maggots aren’t the kind to abandon their own, and when news of Campbell’s injury made its way back to the message board, they rose up again to offer a hand.

The group has collected more than $2,500 — mostly through $10 and $20 donations, Keane said — to help cover medical expenses and any unexpected costs that arise because of Campbell’s extended stay.

Campbell said he never focused his frustration on Steamboat Springs.

“I’ll be back to ski that powder again,” he said.

He didn’t focus his frustration on skiers, either.

“Someone stealing skis is a pretty scumbag-type person, but then the outpouring of support and help I’ve gotten from TGR…” Campbell paused again. “To recover these skis, it’s amazing and reaffirms the skier mindset. It totally reaffirms your faith in people.”

these pics made it in the paper as well...
the first small on the cover and the second huge on the front of the sports section
cool to see the day after my 'Die living' stickers came in the mail, thanks
tye1on!

Hope your recovery is going well andy, you are an inspiration!

[Lonnie]

Damn. Totally sweet. THX for posting.

[lionelhutz]

Excellent article.
Made my day better.

[RootSkier]

Good stuff.

[H-man]

Right on!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

that is great. thx for posting.

[Tye 1on]

FKNA!!!!

great, well written article

[thefrush]

'Pound of flesh.' Classic. FKNA Andy!

[hutash]

There is a reason we are maggots, and that is a good example.

FKNA...it feels good to be a maggot.

[rideit]

Told exactly as it went down.
Strong work!

[Toadman]

Too cool x 2! And then some.

[Sphinx15]

FKNA! - That's fantastic.

Also just got the DIE LIVING stickers - going on with pride

[Micol]

Nice article!

[Binky]

That article is awesome, and it just put a huge smile on my face. FKNA!

[Hutch]

Wow, that's cool.

Not sure we needed a link to the forums, or to the thread, but how much traffic could the Pilot possibly drive?

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Great article!

[MultiVerse]

FKNA; made my day.

[Sinecure]

Awesome article!

[Neezer]

Just goes to show that society hasn't completely crumbled to the ground yet! That is some great feel good stoke right there!

[SnowToad]

Great read!

[brettf]

nice - and good to read something exactly as played out.

[MMP]

FKNA!!!!

^What he said^

[Tye 1on]

Speaking of karma, if those kooks can read their local paper, it'll be good for the thieves to find out the consequences of their actions...

[SchralphMacchio]

That article absolutely made my day.

[Burrrr]

I dropped an entire gallon of whole milk in a glass jug on my foot this morning. The bottle shattered and the milk proceeded to leak through my wood floors into the basement, right into my gear bag. My ski boots took a direct hit. About 15 minutes ago, I was day dreaming while looking out of my office window, when I noticed some lady side swipe my car as she was pulling out of the parking lot.

This thread made may day a great day. FKNA maggots! Here is the humanity!