Industry News
Hardcore shredder Tatum Monod opened up on social media yesterday about the battle she’s been having with a severe concussion. This girl can throw backflips and double backflips all day. She does huge drops. She drops big lines in Alaska. And she rips with style.
The 29-year-old Red Bull freeskier from Banff, Canada, well known for being the first woman to throw a double-backflip on skis, suffered the debilitating injury seven weeks ago, and says it has challenged her more than she could have ever imagined. Tatum has competed in the Freeskiing World Tour, winning the qualifiers in 2011 and scoring second place overall at the Revelstoke, BC event—her first ever big-mountain contest.
She has redirected her focus from competitions towards ski films, following a breakout, award-winning performance in the film, Less, by Level 1 Productions in 2014.
Her full post below:
I don’t like sharing my personal life to much over Instagram but I think this is an important message to share.
Some injuries you can see and some live under the surface, I’ve been struggling with a severe concussion for 7 weeks and it’s challenged me more than I ever could have imagined. There were days I couldn’t even get out of bed, plagued with symptoms that I’m still working through. Head injuries are very complex, no two are the same. You can hit your head hard and be totally fine or you can take a knee to the face/ get whip lash and be completely debilitated.
With a regular injury the harder you work at rehab the faster you recover, a head injury is the complete opposite. There’s no formula to fix it, sometimes all you can do is stare at a wall. I hesitated sharing this, not wanting to let my sponsors down, not wanting to be the ‘injured one,’ and trying to pretend it wasn’t so bad but I think it’s important to share the lows and not just glorify the highs.
This is not a pity post I don’t need sympathy, the message is that although a perfect image is often portrayed EVERYONE has their struggles but we CAN overcome them. People often don’t see the hard times but the reality is life is full of ups and downs even if that’s not what you see on the gram. All my love goes out to those who have suffered a brain injury, remember your not alone and you WILL get better reach out to a friend even if it’s hard to explain how you feel, (you may not even understand your own symptoms!) I still don’t think the effects of concussions are openly talked about enough.
Thank you to my friends and family who helped me so much during this time. I’m happy to say I’m heading out today to start filming again for my movie and shoot with @arcteryx, things are looking up and I have a feeling I will never take a day in the mountains for granted again
Achievements
- Film parts in:
- Pretty Faces (2012) Unicorn Picnic, Pretty Faces
- Less (2014), SmallWorld (2015), Habit (2017), Level 1 Productions
- The Line (2017), Helio Productions directed by Jimmy Chin
- All In (2018) Matchstick Productions
- Best Female film edit, International Freeski Film Festival (IF3) 2014
- Best Female film edit, International Freeski Film Festival (IF3) 2015
- Skier of the Year, Freeskier Magazine (2014/15, 2016/17)
- Best Female Performance, Powder Awards (2017)
- Does a backflip for the cover of Powder magazine (2018)
- Inducted as a Pioneer of Skiing into the Bow Valley Sports Hall of Fame (2018)
