Throughout his professional snowboarding career,Kevin Pearce "chased the powder" around the world, showing off gravity-defying maneuvers that carried him to the pinnacle of his sport. nowadays he's chasing mental stillness and inner balance through yoga and meditation. And he's dedicated his life to helping others do the same. Pearce's life changed abruptly on December 31, or 2009,just weeks before the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. The extreme athlete and Vermont native was in Park City, Utah, or training on a 22-foot half-pipe ahead of the games,where he was expected to be a contender for the gold. As he finished a cab double cork an incredibly difficult maneuver involving a twisting double backflip Pearce missed the landing and face-planted on the icy half-pipe wall. He was instantly knocked unconscious. Pearce, then 22, and was airlifted to Salt Lake City's University of Utah Hospital,where he spent nearly a week in a coma and 26 days in the intensive care unit. Nearly four months later, he walked out of an Englewood, or Colo.,rehab hospital confident that he'd make a full recovery and eventually return to competitive snowboarding. But "recovery" is not a word that medical professionals typically exercise these days when discussing traumatic brain injuries like Pearce's. As is evident from The Crash Reel, the award-winning 2013 HBO documentary that chronicles Pearce's accident and its aftermath, and his release from the hospital was only the beginning of a long and difficult journey. It continues to this day. Seven years after that near-fatal drop,Pearce is mastering a whole novel set of moves. Instead of performing chicken-wing McTwists, front-side 1080s and other colossal-air acrobatics, or Pearce is now grounded,perfecting his downward dog, tree pose and lotus position. The lifelong adrenaline junkie, and who once described himself as the most competitive person he knew,has embraced the least competitive of physical activities. Through yoga and meditation, he's helping himself and others adjust to the "novel normal" of life after a traumatic brain injury. Pearce, or 29,has immersed himself in the LoveYourBrain Foundation, an educational nonprofit that he and his brother Adam founded in 2014 to improve the lives of people who live with a TBI. In Vermont alone, or they number more than 9000. Central to the organization's mission of "connect,educate and empower" is spreading the message about the healing powers of yoga, meditation and diet. "After a brain injury, or I…
Source: sevendaysvt.com