Ok, so I’ve had a pretty nice life. I was born about an hour from London and when I was four years old my family moved to Paris. Then Dusseldorf and then Geneva – where my love for skiing began. After school I was able to get qualified to teach skiing, windsurfing and sailing. I continued living all over the world: Canada, Greece, France, Australia…
The 26th of November 2010 was a pretty significant day in my life. The details are a bit fuzzy (you’ll find out why in a second) but I managed to fall 26ft through a corrugated plastic roof, headfirst onto the cobbled street below. I was 23 years old; I was back from teaching windsurfing in the Scilly Isles and about to go work in a bar in the French Alps. I happened to be in London and a friend of mine invited me to a party in Camden.
I know I was out with friends in between a summer season and a winter ski season. I had met a girl and I imagine I was probably showing off, so I climbed over a little fence/gate and stepped on some corrugated plastic, that was over a covered walkway. That cracked, I fell through and that’s all I know!
I was in a coma for six weeks and when I woke up, I couldn’t walk, talk or anything more than twiddle the fingers on my right hand. Granted I had a pretty severe head injury, but few people would have expected that some of my first words were asking my mum to let me go skiing. This sounds like an exaggeration, but I honestly believed I could ski when I couldn’t even sit up in bed without help.
My Hospital Experience:
I was in two hospitals, the first one —the Royal London— I do not remember at all. I was there from the 26th of November 2010 until early January 2011. Six of those weeks I was in a coma and then I wasn’t exactly ‘with it’.
I then moved down to a neurological rehabilitation centre in Chichester Hospital, near where my parents live. I remember hospital being pretty pleasant, obviously as a 23-year-old guy, six months in hospital –where the next youngest patient was in their forties— isn’t exactly ideal. Saying that the nurses, physics and patients were all very nice. I had to relearn every basic function, stuff that we all take for granted, like: tying my shoes, using a knife and fork, walking and even talking. Although hospital may not have been a thrill a minute, it was actually incredibly rewarding.
To pass the time when I wasn’t doing physical, occupational or speech & language therapy, I had a DVD player to pass the time. I used my time very wisely by watching Cool Runnings (the film about the Jamaican Bobsled teams’ heroic journey to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary1) and a bunch of freestyle ski movies.
Fast forward through 8 months of hospital, years of physiotherapy, hours and hours in the gym and three years of university – where I retrained as a sports journalist. I now live in the French Alps and work as a freeski journalist. I make my money interviewing my absolute heroes, going to amazing events and competitions watching some of the most talented athletes in the world ski down some of the toughest terrain or perform ground-breaking tricks in snowparks.
I do ski better than I walk and I do find it easier than walking. When I’m clipped into a pair of skis it’s the most ‘normal’ I feel. When I walk I have a little limp, it doesn’t bother me, but it’s pretty obvious that something’s a bit “off” when I put one foot in front of the other. Obviously I don’t ski anywhere near as well as I used to, but the amount that I enjoy my time on skis is probably a few multiples more than I did before.
Skiing might not be that important to most people, but it was a big part of my life and now, without doubt, the biggest part of it. Physiotherapists have told me that many young men, with head injuries like mine, fall into depression or self-pity. I know that a positive attitude is what turned a traumatic and brain injury into the opportunity to begin an incredible career and literally live my dream!
I think that my story is proof that with a positive attitude (and a bit of luck), but with positivity, you really do make your own luck!
Skiing Before I Could Walk – Matt Masson
Waking up from a six week coma in 2010, I had to relearn pretty much everything. Luckily some things came back easier than others…
Watch my story on YouTube with this web address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=xnJExrygdSk&feature=emb_logo