Monster Mike Schultz - Adaptive Moto X and Snocross Athlete! - The Downshift Ep. 62 - video Dailymotion

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On this episode of The Downshift

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:08 My name's Mike Schultz.

00:09 I race dirt bikes and snowmobiles.

00:11 I have four X Games gold medals, and I'm a left leg

00:15 amputee.

00:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:29 Ever since I was little, I grew up out in the country

00:31 on the farm.

00:32 And we had three wheelers and four wheelers,

00:34 and I just loved to ride and ride my bicycle.

00:39 And I got into BMX racing when I was about 13 years old.

00:43 Lining up with other guys on the start gate

00:46 and taking off, trying to beat them to the finish line

00:49 was kind of addicting after the first time I tried it.

00:51 So I started racing the dirt bikes in '97.

00:55 I worked my way up into the expert class

00:57 at the district level.

00:59 But the snowmobile ended up being my forte.

01:02 And the dirt bike kind of took the back seat

01:04 as a training tool, basically, or a cross-training tool

01:08 for the snowmobile season.

01:10 My snowmobile race career was going awesome.

01:12 I mean, I made it up to actually one

01:14 of the top five guys in the world on the snowcross machine,

01:18 which was going really well.

01:21 So I was looking strong going into the season.

01:24 And it was first qualifying race that morning,

01:27 December 13, 2008.

01:31 The starter flew the green flag.

01:33 And I was kind of in a good position

01:35 coming down this whoop section, downhill.

01:38 And I just made a charge.

01:40 And my sled started swapping side to side.

01:43 And I'm like, I couldn't hold on to it.

01:46 And it kind of bucked me off the sled.

01:48 Just the way my foot impacted the ground,

01:51 it hyperextended my knee joint basically 180 degrees

01:55 and kicked myself in the chin.

01:58 Instantly, I was in the worst pain ever.

02:02 Thankfully, my wife Sarah was there.

02:04 She's a nurse.

02:05 And yeah, it was really good she was there,

02:07 because I was kind of freaking out.

02:10 And she kind of kicked into nursing mode

02:12 and tried to keep me calm.

02:15 A few months later, towards spring,

02:17 I got word that they're bringing adaptive supercross

02:21 to the summer X Games, which is supercross

02:25 with guys with amputated legs and arms,

02:28 or even paraplegics were out there racing bikes.

02:32 And that's when I had the idea of starting

02:35 to work on my own prosthetic leg.

02:36 In March 2009 is when I started drawing on my first creation.

02:50 I ended up calling it the Moto Knee, which is still

02:52 what I call it today.

02:54 I'm just scratching my head.

02:55 I'm like, OK, I've got this much space to work with.

02:58 I need to have this much range of motion

03:00 to be similar to my real leg.

03:03 Right away, I knew I was going to use this little Fox mountain

03:06 bike shock.

03:07 It's got compressed air in it as a spring,

03:09 so it's super lightweight and adjustable.

03:11 And I tell you what, I was so excited putting

03:15 these pieces together.

03:17 It's way deeper than just building something in the shop.

03:22 I mean, this, I'm going to connect it to my leg,

03:24 and I'm going to walk on it and ride my dirt bike.

03:26 So I hoped.

03:28 And I'm putting this thing together,

03:30 and I put it onto my socket, and I kind of squat up and down

03:33 on it.

03:34 And I'm like, yeah, this kind of feels

03:37 how I thought it was going to.

03:38 I tuned the shock a little bit to give it

03:41 a little more dampening on the compression side of things.

03:44 And after a couple of adjustments,

03:46 I put it back on and headed down the trail.

03:49 And within less than a minute, I knew I was really

03:52 onto something good.

03:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:57 I come back into the house, and my smile's from ear to ear.

04:07 And I'm just so excited telling Sarah about my MotoKnee

04:12 and how well it works.

04:13 And I'm like, I think I'm going to go racing again.

04:17 And she's like, OK.

04:22 Seven months after my accident, we're

04:23 headed out to Los Angeles to the Summer X Games

04:27 to race my dirt bike after I had my leg amputated.

04:31 And I just kind of stepped back and looked

04:33 at that whole situation like, wow,

04:37 a lot's happened in the last few months.

04:40 But yeah, we headed out there.

04:41 And my goal was to medal.

04:44 I wanted to be one of the top three

04:46 so I could bring home X Games hardware.

04:48 I ended up taking silver medal out of the deal.

04:50 But for me, it was just as good as gold.

04:54 I mean, to be out there after what

04:56 I'd gone through so recently.

04:57 And yeah, it was a heck of a highlight for my race career.

05:02 And I'm like, I want to keep doing this.

05:04 [ENGINE REVVING]

05:07 I realized that, you know what, there's

05:12 a lot of other guys that could benefit from something

05:14 like this as well.

05:15 So I'm like, yeah, I think I should start my company, which

05:19 I come up with BioDapt in July 2010.

05:23 That summer, I worked on development

05:26 and having a few other guys try it out to get feedback.

05:29 And I tell you what, seeing somebody else

05:32 get on my equipment and just be able to make it rip

05:36 is so rewarding.

05:39 The racing thing, it's just so deep in my blood.

05:43 Yeah, I'm a competitor from the ground up.

05:47 And I need that adrenaline rush.

05:48 I need those butterflies in my stomach

05:53 when I line up at the gate.

05:55 And that's what a lot of people just don't understand.

05:57 They're like, why do you want to put yourself in that position

06:02 and have that opportunity or that likelihood

06:05 you're going to get hurt again?

06:06 Why do you do that?

06:07 And it's like every other racer knows what it is.

06:11 It's just that adrenaline rush and that feeling

06:14 of just going fast and competing against the guy next to you.

06:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:24 [BIRDS CHIRPING]

06:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:31 [BIRDS CHIRPING]

06:34 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:37 [BIRDS CHIRPING]

06:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:44 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:48 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:59 (music)

07:01 (upbeat music)

Monster Mike Schultz - Adaptive Moto X and Snocross Athlete! - The Downshift Ep. 62

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