After nasty spill at X Games, Paris Rosen on road to recovery
Apple Valley native Paris Rosen suffered extensive injuries after this crash landing July 30 during the X Games at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Photo submitted
Friends are helping the Apple Valley native get back on his bike with a fundraiser on Aug. 29 at Ansari’s Bar and Grill
by Andy Rogers
Thisweek Newspapers
All Paris Rosen wanted to do was show off his best trick at the X Games.
He attempted a tricky front flip during the Moto X “best trick” competition at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 30.
His goal: Build up speed, jump off a ramp, spin his motocross bike forward, and show up on YouTube.
He did wind up on YouTube – but the crash landing knocked him unconscious, put him in the hospital and sidelined him from competition.
Rosen, who grew up in Apple Valley, got his first bike when he was 19 and found a spot behind the Dairy Queen in Lakeville to ride his bike.
“I used to crash back there,” he said. “Now I crash on live television.”
For the past 10 years, he’s been pushing himself to try risky tricks and take the sport to new heights.
“I’m at that level where you’re innovating things,” Rosen said. “I’m naturally apt to constantly further myself and riding. We’re addicted to what we do. It’s the adrenaline.”
He kept doing harder tricks until it became comfortable and didn’t scare him anymore and moved on to something more risky, like a front flip.
Paris Rosen spent several days in the hospital after a nasty spill on his bike at the X Games last month. Phot submitted
“Eventually you do things so crazy that people want to film you and put it on TV,” Rosen said.
He performed a front flip more than 30 times in the weeks leading up to the X-Games.
“I had it dialed in,” he said.
Rosen has been using a Honda bike since 2003. After seven years of taking jumps and spills, the bike had seen better days.
“It was giving me all kinds of trouble,” Rosen said. “It didn’t allow me to get focused. It was chaos beforehand. I made a hesitation. With a front flip, you can’t make an ounce of mistake on it. It’s like trying to chip in a golf ball from 100 yards away. A little to the left or to the right and it doesn’t go in the hole.”
Rosen missed the hole. He missed the green. He landed in the sand trap, upside down.
He crashed hard enough to knock himself out. Hard enough to send him to the hospital. He crashed hard enough to become a YouTube sensation.
He dislocated his hip, tore the cartilage that held his ribs together, severed his liver, bruised a lung, and broke one of his lower vertebrae.
“I’ve crashed hard before, but it was the first time I was knocked out,” Rosen said. “Usually when you crash, it’s all kinds of pain. This time I didn’t have to endure any pain from my injuries, right away anyway.
“It was kind of nice, believe it or not. I said I wished I got knocked out every time I crashed.”
Rosen has fallen off his bike before, but the adrenaline always helped him rub some dirt in it and walk it off.
It took him a while to walk this one off.
He has spent the last month putting himself back together with the help of a few doctors and friends.
He plans to get right back on a bike in a few weeks and get back to the ramps in a month and a half.
His lower back is completely healed, but his ribs are giving him the most trouble now.
The trouble is, Rosen doesn’t have a working bike. He had to sell his Honda to pay for medical bills.
He has medical insurance, but it isn’t very extensive. He has a high deductible and reached his max out-of-pocket quickly.
“My insurance is keeping me from being broke for my entire life,” Rosen said. “I have a friend with $200,000 of medical bills. My insurance was cheap and affordable. It’s keeping me from being broke. I’ll just be broke for a couple years paying max out of pocket and deductible.”
His friends couldn’t help him stitch up his liver, but they can help get him back on his bike.
There will be a fundraiser from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 29, at Ansari’s Bar and Grill, 1960 Rahncliff Road, Eagan.
Owner Ramsey Ansari grew up playing soccer with Rosen.
“I knew he was hurting a little bit with hospital bills,” Ansari said.
A regular customer at the restaurant, Mary Jouppi, and Ansari combined forces to host and promote the fundraising event.
“We want to get him a new bike and get him back on his feet,” Ansari said. “He wasn’t able to make rent or buy food. Everything. And he hasn’t been able to work.”
Some of Rosen’s X-Game friends – Tim Oliver, Justin Hoyer and Circle J – will be on hand for performances at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. in the parking lot.
There will also be a spaghetti buffet at noon and a silent auction at 2 p.m.
Some of the items in the silent auction include an autographed Arnold Palmer Wheaties box, Joe Mauer gear, green fees, gift baskets, gift cards, Buck Hill season passes, a Fendi handbag, and some of the gear Rosen crashed in.
Andy Rogers is at andy.rogers@ecm-inc.com.
