 So this is the look of defeat slash victory. Hello there, my beautiful, lovely, talented, and delightful, good-looking internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me here today on Footless Joe, where I am still Joe and I am indeed still missing a foot. I usually like pull my leg up to show proof, but I'm wearing jeans and boots right now. So you're just gonna take my word for the fact that this is not a real leg. Hear that? Now I have placed wanted posters around saying, you know, my foot went missing, I still haven't been able to find it, but no one's given me a call yet. So if you see a disembodied foot wandering around, chances are it's mine, give me a call. Today we're gonna be talking about a story of failure and victory all at the same moment. A really cool thing happened this weekend, something that I have been dying to do slash terrified to do for my entire childhood and adult life and a riveting tale of amputees and snow sports like snowboarding. We shall dive in into just a moment, but first I wanted to thank our sponsors today, which are my beautiful, amazing patrons over on Patreon. Also a heads up if you are a patron of mine or you'd like to become one, I have some cool polls coming up in the near future where you will be able to vote on things that determine future things on my channel. You'll see what I mean soon, but I'll hop over to my Patreon and check it out if you're interested in supporting this channel in that way, link on screen and also down below. Also stay tuned until the end of this video for some cool announcements, but without further ado, let's talk about what happened this past weekend, which was I, gosh darn it, went snowboarding. Now, if you are new to my channel, you may not know why this is a thing or a big deal. I mean, snowboarding is cool, right? Like people get excited about it, whatever. But this is something I have never dreamed of being able to do. Back before I had my leg amputation, I was expressly told never to try skiing or snowboarding because of the damage in my ankle that I had. So it was always off the books for me. And I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, meaning that we are near Breckard Ridge and Vale and some of the most amazing ski and snowboarding places in the world that I have never even been able to consider going to because I was not physically capable of it. But now that my amputation has really healed and I'm doing well, a friend of mine invited me up to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We have no idea what we're doing here. We're the least snowboarding people in all of Steamboat. The drive there is absolutely gorgeous, by the way, to learn snowboarding from him. And a very important detail here is that he is an above knee amputee with two Paralympic medals, a gold and a bronze, and is an absolute sweetheart. Noah, thank you again for having Brian and us up. Now the story here is not amputee snowboards for the first time. In fact, there will probably be another video for another time, but the story I actually wanted to tell you is what happened after I learned snowboarding. So before we get there, the long and short of it is, Noah did a fantastic job of teaching Brian and I like the basics of how to get on a skateboard on the snow and not totally die. Like we were sufficiently bruised and sore by the end of the weekend, but it was absolutely incredible. Here's the video of me attempting one of my first runs down the tiny little training bunny slope where it's really just kids and then me trying to learn to snowboard. But after the lesson, the next day, Brian and I went to like actually try some of the slopes. And the reason why there was no footage that I am about to show you is because it turns out when you are both learning to snowboard, you kind of need your hands free for when you repeatedly fall and hit the snow. I now very much understand why people who do more extreme sports always have like go pros on because there was no way I could like hold a camera and film either myself or Brian while also trying to snipe up right on the snow. So with that being said, I do have plans to do a snowboarding video in the future where I'm bringing someone with me to like actually show you guys what I'm doing and what I'm learning and how I make it work with my leg, which is really exciting to me. But with that brief synopsis, allow me to share with you the tale I promised, one of success and failure all in one moment. So I've had this tendency since I was a kid to push through things, to push past pain, to get it done. And I think there are certain situations in which that can be an asset, but oftentimes for normal daily life, you just end up hurting yourself. And it took me years, and I do mean years to unlearn those habits. Like when faced with anything difficult with any kind of physical challenge, I would always push through discomfort and pain and end up damaging myself further or hurting myself rather than say, hey, I need a break or I'm not capable of this right now. And over the years, I've gotten increasingly better at knowing my limits, but to be honest with you, this is something I very much still struggle with. I feel like there's something in me that's equated value and worth with the ability to push through pain or prove that I can do it anyways. And that is just a false narrative and I've tried really hard over the past few years to recognize that, to put it in its rightful place when it comes up. But a new sport, something like snowboarding, when there are a lot of people watching when you are surrounded by people who are fantastically, athletically capable, and then there's you, it brought up a lot of old temptations for me. So towards the end of the day, my leg was starting to hurt quite a lot. So I took a break, thought I was good, said, okay, let's head to the top. So we went to the very top of the mountain, don't worry, it was like green and blue slopes all the way down, so I thought it was gonna be fine. But I got about a third of the way down the mountain and I was in a lot of pain because the way that I have to slow down the snowboard puts so much pressure down into my prosthetic socket and just jabs my tibia right into that carbon fiber and it's rubbing back and forth and caused a lot of pain. So I took a couple breaks and was like, I gotta get to the bottom, I gotta do this. Like all these children on their skateboards who, skateboards, all these children on their snowboards who learned three days ago or zooming past me doing awesome and then there's me like sitting on the ground feeling like an idiot. A very uncoordinated duck or perhaps a gazelle in the snow. Long story short, I did not look very graceful and I felt that energy bubble up, right? That push through this, you got this Joe, keep going, no need to call it quits, like you only got a few more hours to go, just stay on the mountain like push, push, push through it. And then for one of the first times in my life when I was presented with this kind of a situation, I really stopped to reevaluate what I was doing and why I was doing it. I was literally hurting myself when there was no purpose to that. There was no one telling me I needed to stay on the snowboard and get to the bottom of the hill. There was no one telling me that I sucked or I was a failure if I didn't. The only reason I was refusing in my own brain to stop was my ego and feeling like it'd be shameful or weak if I did, but the reality is it's not shameful or weak to listen to very real signals your body is giving you. I actually think that's a sign of perhaps a little bit of wisdom and growing strength. And so just when I was about to get on another lift, I called it, I said, you know what? I am to go back down the mountain. I need to be done with this day. So this is the look of defeat slash victory. I'm on a green slope, which means it should be very simple to get down. I looked at it, my legs been super angry. I decided to cut my losses and walk like an idiot down the mountain, which is not fun, but I knew my limits. I stuck to them. I'll call that a good day. So I stopped and I took off my snowboard and feeling like someone who was very out of place. I walked on the side of the run all the way back down the mountain, just carrying my snowboard, limping along in the snow. Generally, that's a situation in which my little competitive ego would not allow me to dare consider. Honestly, for dumb reasons, like the fact that I saw no one else doing the same thing all day, the fact that I thought people would think judgmental things about me whizzing by, but I stuck to it and I did it. And slowly but surely, I walked my way down and I called it a day and I got back home and I got my leg off and I actually rested. And that story would have gone so differently pretty much any other time in my life. I would have pushed it and pushed it until perhaps my leg was bleeding in my socket for all I know, because if you grit your teeth and you get through it, that means you're worth something, right? No, actually, it turns out if you take care of your body, you can do something the next day. If you don't take your body to the absolute breaking and shattering point, which I am very familiar with, life is still good. In fact, it feels better. I feel like this is a struggle for many people. This idea of like never give in, never give up, never quit and no matter what the reason, these are kind of theologies, I guess philosophies would be a better term. Philosophies that are taught to so many of us and in so many motivational quotes and posters. And again, I think there are certain situations where they have their place. When we're talking about daily life, where I am not a professional snowboarder, this is not the last run of my life where I have to prove something. I'm just a person trying something new and learning it and leaving a little bit of my ego back in the snow felt like failure, but was honestly the biggest success. Looking back at this weekend of snowboarding, it's absolutely amazing to me that I was able to try this and do this. Something I literally could not do three years ago with a human body part I can now do with a metal one that's suctioned on to me. But the bigger win for me was knowing when to stop because that is a very hard balance to get a hold of. I think it was really important for me to demonstrate to myself the benefit of stopping because I was actually able to walk the next day. Yes, I was sore from everything. I felt oh so many times while learning but I didn't push myself past my actual limit. I got to that limit and then I called it and that is something that I have rarely ever been able to do and it's a good sign of progress and something I hope to continue to build on. If you're like me and you relate to this, if you also have that like grit your teeth and get through anything no matter what mentality, hey, I get it, I am the same way. But I wanted to share this story for those of us who do have this trait and for those of us who have it pop up in perhaps not the healthiest of places, there is a lot of value in knowing your limits and stopping when you hit them or even before you hit them. It's not any kind of character flaw to say, hey, I'm in pain, I should probably stop instead of just smiling and pretending like you're fine and gritting your way through it. Also again, a huge shout out to Noah. Thank you so much for taking the time with Brian and I. That was such a gift. It was amazing to learn from someone who so knows what they're talking about. Also just a delightful human being but also someone who knows amputee life because he is one himself. It felt really comfortable and really like exciting and accessible and awesome to be able to learn in that kind of environment. And it's one of my favorite memories of 2021. I guess it's only like two weeks. It's one of my favorite memories in a very long time. So thank you, Noah. I really do wish that this video had more like snowboarding footage just because I'd be really excited to share that with you. And also it's just visually neat to watch. But like I said, my hands were occupied and so were Brian. So that did not happen this time but I do have a plan in the future here to get you guys a very cool snowboarding, learning to snowboard as an amputee video which I think might be really awesome for my audience who is amputees to kind of learn a little bit about it. And also for those of you who are not amputees which is most of you. Hey you two Lakers, how's it going? Kind of see how it's done and also just see some cool snowboarding stuff. So be on the lookout for that video in the near future. Now at the beginning of this video I promised an exciting announcement and that is what I'm about to give you right now. I recently joined up and partnered with a company called Wiscio after thinking about it for quite some time. This is a place where you can go and you can have me answer any question under any topic you might like. You can check out the page at this address or also linked down below. But I wanted to make something really clear. When I was talking with this company I really wanted to make sure that if I started this service that it was something that be accessible to anyone regardless of your financial situation. So I have them set up a tip only option. So if there is something that you're wanting to know about becoming amputee, about life in the aftermath of trauma or motivation, general advice, whatever it is please feel free to use that. It is $1. I will answer your question as thoroughly as any of the other options. And if you have the financial means feel free to tip whatever you might want. And if you don't, that's okay too. So check it out. I'm really excited to start answering some questions. I've already had a couple of requests and it's been really fun to be able to answer things more thoroughly and in depth for people one on one. So check that out. If you have anything you've ever wanted to ask me I will be responding to all requests on that platform. And with that being said, thank you again to my amazing patrons for sponsoring these videos. Thank you to you sitting in front of your computer screen or perhaps in front of your phone listening to me right now. You could be anywhere in the world doing anything. And you chose to hang out with me for a few minutes and that means the world to me. Thank you for your time, your attention, your energy and your sweet comments. I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys. And here from the sky all about.