The opening of the area's new motocross track in Gardnerville brought out at all the known riders in the area. X Games medalists Matt Buyten and Mike Mason, both locals, were wowing the crowd with their ability to hit jumps, fly through the air and get past the next turn with ease. But while there was a lot of attention on the professional riders, many of them were more interested in the slowest guy on the track.
In fact Trevor Snowden was so slow his pit crew lost him for several minutes as he negotiated the second and third corners of the track as other riders whipped past him.
No one on the track, though, thought he was just another wannabe.
The reason for his laggard speed is because, unlike the other motocross riders at the grand opening of the Nevada Motocross Park last week, Snowden doesn't have control of his legs. The 39-year-old Gardnerville resident has been without the use of his legs since suffering a life-altering snowboarding crash in 1997. And while accidents of that sort have been known to take down even the best in action sports, Snowden refuses to take a seat, although he spends his life in one.
"There's not too many paraplegic motocross guys like us," Snowden said. "You've got to be a bit crazy and little bit stupid and I was a little bit of all that..."
Crazy, he may be. Stupid, probably not.
Snowden may be crazy because he continues participating in action sports even though it was the cause of his accident. He was participating in a Big Air competition in March 1997 in Washington when during a practice run, he overshot the landing and broke his T12 vertebrae. There would be no miraculous recovery or even sulking for that matter, Snowden was ready for the next phase of his life.
"It was kind of a chip off my shoulder to put snowboarding behind and to go on with my life," Snowden said. "It was about three or four months of rehab and then mentally, I was cool. I wasn't too disturbed by it because I knew I had a purpose in life and I was just going to go for it."
In the 12 years since the accident, Snowden has become a pioneer in adaptive action sports. He's turned his "disability" into his brand. Even his motorcycle, a Honda 450 that is customized with a roll cage around his legs, boasts his nickname, "Trevair." And Trevor has seen a lot of air. His Web site, trevair.com, is littered with photos from stunts ranging from a 55-foot jump over two Cadillacs to a box grind over fire that was broadcast on ABC.
Snowden isn't done showing people that just because he might be able to park in handicapped spaces, he isn't limited physically. He works at Go-Ped in Minden, which produces gas powered scooters among other things, and has developed a Trevair Chair, which gives active paraplegics like himself a more comfortable and able wheelchair. The chair provides a lot of suspension at a reasonable weight and is similar to the one that Aaron Fotheringham used when he became the first paraplegic to complete a backflip in a wheelchair.
"I'm working on some other ideas where I want to do some scooter races in my Trevair Chair in the iPed scooter races and it would be for paraplegics and kids in wheelchairs that didn't necessarily want to ride a motorcycle or do anything crazy, but still have enough power to go around the track and race," Snowden said.
While seeing Snowden on a dirt bike may be an odd sight for many people, it has become a hot sport. The X Games, similar to the Olympics but for action sports, even added an adaptive action sports division. When the X Games announced the new division, Snowden quickly went to work on becoming better on a dirt bike and even sent in a tape showcasing his abilities.
In order for Snowden to ride a dirt bike he has to be strapped in with a series of straps that go around his legs and waist.
"He's completely strapped to the bike so if he falls over, he lays over along with the bike," said Scott Bolton, a member of Snowden's pit crew who also works at Go-Ped. "It's not like me or you, we hop up on our feet and we're good again; we dust ourselves off. He's got to lay in the mud until somebody scrapes him back up again."
Snowden didn't make the final cut for the X Games, which begins Thursday in Los Angeles, but he's still willing to push the envelope.
"No. 1 progression," Snowden said of why he continues to be involved in action sports. "You've got to keep the progression alive (for other adaptive action sports participants) even if it's just a steady flow. You can't always progress 10 light years ahead. So, just keeping the progression going and just staying active."
