This shot isn’t that old… 2003 or 2004 maybe. It was shot a couple months after Chad Kagy broke his neck and had plates put in. He was in the middle of a very long, miserable recovery process, and was almost ready to finally get out of the neck brace. In the weeks leading up to this photo Chad was in this position almost constantly… scratching away at scruff under the brace. Of all the injuries I’ve seen friends have to recover from, this was one of the worst for sure (more recent horrendous injuries to guys like Stephen Murray and Mike Aitken not included).

I was setting up to shoot something a bit more straightforward, and this was an outtake which ultimately became my favorite shot. This photo eventually got used a few times if I remember correctly, but it’s original purpose was for a recovery feature on Chad in BMX Plus! Magazine. One thing Chad mentioned recently that I never thought about was that he actually got more coverage when his neck was broken than when he is riding totally healthy. Funny how that works. Anyway, he obviously came back from the injury, and has been killing it since.