Roy Tuscany is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the High Fives Foundation, whose mission is to support the dreams of mountain action sports athletes by raising injury prevention awareness while providing resources and inspiration to those who suffer life-altering injuries. In 2006, Roy suffered a life-altering injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down and was the catalyst to the creation of High Fives. Roy turned the financial and community support of his own recovery into a ‘pay-it-forward’ adventure with the creation of High Fives non-profit foundation. After earning degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Vermont in 2004, Roy decided to take two years to pursue his true passion of being a professional free skier before putting those degrees to use. Just before his two years were up, on April 29, 2006 he had a skiing accident that changed his life forever. During our podcast recording Roy takes us through the moment when he went 130 feet on a what should have been a 100 foot jump. He landed from about 30 feet in the air and the resultant impact with the ground caused him to fracture the T-12 vertebrae in his spine. Upon impact, Roy thought his legs were shot through his body and and he was sure that his legs were coming out of his shoulders. This injury left him without any motion, feeling or any ability to move his lower extremities below his belly button. This was a start to a new phase of his life. During our conversation, Roy talks about a way for listeners to experience what it feels like to have paralysis. Make a fist and put it on a solid surface or table and then try to lift your ring finger up. It is nearly impossible. Give it a try. "Whatever Roy puts into this recovery, Roy will get in return." Roy believes he overshot the jump for a number of reasons, which includes, not doing a speed check that day (I couldn't find a good video example of this, but Roy explains in the episode), a new pair of wider skis with a fresh coat of wax and the snow being harder in the morning. All of these factors combined resulted in increased speed. Roy remembers being immediately devastated, but that didn't affect his sense of humor because he was joking with one of the EMT's about going to a sushi dinner later that night. Roy's positivity throughout his journey has been a staple in his recovery and in High Five's culture today. Not long after Roy arrived at the hospital, a radiology tech told him t
