The Glorious Life of C.R. Johnson
After sustaining a traumatic brain injury, pro-skier, C.R. Johnson spent a month in the hospital recovering from a life threatening skiing accident. While recuperating from a near death injury is one of the most monumental things a person can do, this video has hidden gems of inspiration, and the greatest thing a person can ever do --- coming to peace with one’s life. This is extremely important because C.R. Johnson dies about a year after making this clip, and the video is C.R. realizing that there are some things in life that are worth dying for.
Ever since C.R. Johnson was young, he had an undying passion for skiing. He would ski treacherous runs at Squaw Valley, his home ski resort, where he learned to ski big mountain lines and the terrain park. The terrain park is a part of the mountain that consists of man-made jumps and rails, that tricks can be performed on. Squaw is where he learned to cultivate his skills, and where he began to compete in smaller competitions at the mountain.
When he got older and continued to compete, he became known as one of the best terrain park and big mountain skiers in the world. Competing in contests such as the X-Games and the Dew Tour, he dominated the contest scene. In competitions he did a lot of spins and technical grabs, even landing one of the first 1440’s, four complete spins, which really helped him kick start his professional career. However one day when he was skiing at Brighton Resort in Utah he had an injury that would change his life forever.
In Brighton he was filming powder skiing for the film “Show and Prove”. He and some fellow professional skiers were testing a few natural features on the hill, which are buildups of snow that can be jumped off of, when the disaster happened. C.R was leading the way down the hill and his friend was following. C.R. happened to stop in the landing of a natural jump to get his equipment, when his friend ended up accidently landing on C.R’s head.
The impact hit C.R. right below the helmet knocking him unconscious. He was quickly life-flighted to the University of Utah Hospital, where he remained in a coma for ten days. After being in the hospital he was finally released, and he had to learn everything new again. First he learned how to “blink, then swallow, then how to use his vocal chords, then relearning to use his arms and legs, then relearning to walk, he relearned everything, literally everything”. However, it wasn’t physically relearning to ski that was his biggest obstacle to overcome.
As C.R. shows in the video, the biggest obstacle that he overcame was coming to peace with his own life and having an undying passion to return to skiing after such a life-threatening injury. C.R. showed determination in the video when he was trying to relearn how to drop cliffs. Even though he was formerly one of the best skiers in the world, he got tripped up when he started dropping cliffs again. I believe that this struggle of C.R. can be taken as inspiration. He shows us that no matter how many little obstacles come our way, we should treat each obstacle as an opportunity to get better and to get closer to our ultimate goal. When we have a goal to aspire for, like returning to skiing, we should not let cliffs get in our way of achieving our overall objective.
C.R. could have very easily thrown in the towel, and stopped skiing forever. No one would blame him, because he was risking his life every time he went down the mountain. However, C.R. needed to look at his life, and figure out what he really valued doing. I believe that he valued his friends and family first, but they never discouraged him from skiing. Also I don’t think that he had a lot else going for him other than skiing.
It would have been different if he had another job, or had hopes of doing something else with his life. However, he made all of money from winning contests and his sponsors; he had no other sources of income. He made his livelihood from skiing; he had some great skier friends. He wouldn’t have it any other way. He was a skier at heart, and he didn’t know anything else. His whole life revolved around skiing, so he knew that it was essential for him to return to the sport. Once he realized that his whole existence was skiing, there was no way that he could possibly leave the sport. This is when he realized that “The Joy [he] gets from skiing, that’s worth dying for.”
He continued to ski for about a year after this video was made until one day everything changed. C.R. was skiing with some friends, down a very treacherous run at Squaw valley which was his home resort. When he was going down the tight and rocky run, he lost his balance and rolled down the mountain headfirst hitting his head on the rocks below. Even though he was wearing a helmet, the blow was so serious that he ended up dying instantly.
While the video’s original intentions were to be something of hope and recovery, meant for a small group of people who religiously follow skiing, the whole meaning of the video changed when he died. Even though this video was made about a year before he actually died, he almost speaks in the video almost as if he was already dead. In the video he explains that his whole life was skiing, his family, and his friends. It is like he is talking in retrospect looking back on his life. He literally had nothing else, I imagine him in heaven, saying “Yeah, I’m glad I made the decisions that I made, it was all worth it”. He wanted to comfort his family, friends, but mostly his fans that did not know him that this was something essential that he had to do, because it was what made him happy.
One aspect of the video that adds to the dramatic nature of the clip is the song. The song starts out slow when he is explaining his injury. It gives a gloomy mood to the video at the beginning, but when C.R. starts skiing the song picks up. While the song is still slow, it gives a happier mood to the video. The song has an inspirational message. It says things like “you should chase your wildest dreams”. The song gives the message that you can do whatever you want, and it fitting perfectly with the overall theme of the video.
He wanted to show people in the video, that it was essential for him to return to skiing. He explains to them how much he needed skiing in his life. He also gives advice to those viewing the video that is applicable to things far beyond skiing. He explains to us that some things in life are so important that we need to be willing to give our life for it. This insight about life shows that C.R. had more knowledge about the meaning of life than most people far older than he was. It is only a near death experience that can give someone this much insight about life. C.R. was able to come to the realization in his near death his experience, that it is not the years of one’s life that are important, however it is the life in one’s years.
The original viewers of this video were people who bought the movie Seven Sunny Days. It was made by a small ski film company called Matchstick Production. This clip was just a short extract from the film.. However, once he died the video got put onto youtube, and the number of views to the video exploded. Putting the video on the internet helped people who had never purchased the movie, to be inspired by this important segment of the film. People came from all walks of life to remember C.R. not just as a great skier but as a great man. The vast majority of people who comment on the video, are just regular people who want to remember C.R.. Most of the comments are simple mementos, usually just say the words “RIP” however, there are many comments about how C.R. inspired them. He inspired people like va7kpt who commented on youtube “It makes me feel as though things aren’t that bad”. This video also gave insight about life to people like templars83 who said” He died doing something he loved dearly, doing what he loved most. If that is not worth dying for what is?! I think this is much much more respectful then people who grind their lives away counting the hours on the clock when they can leave their shitty jobs to go home to their shitty meaningless lives”. They say he was the hardest working and most inspirational skier. The most interesting thing about the video is how the video has over 70,000 views and it has only one dislike. This is a sign that C.R. is truly remembered favorably by all of those who watched the video.
While, C.R was a great skier who won a lot of contests and really revolutionized the sport, he should not be remembered as just a skier. He should be remembered as a great man, who was a great friend, and was truly at peace with life. He was the hardest working skier and was so passionate that he was ready and willing to give his whole life for the sport. I believe that we should look at C.R. for inspiration because he is a great example of how to live our lives. He shows us the importance of things in life and shows us that sometimes things are so great that they are worth dying for.
