When it comes to the world of
action sports, people often think of names like Travis Pastrana, or Johnny
Mosely, and Rory Bushfield is often hidden in the shadows. To Rory, that means
absolutely nothing. As a professional free skier, base jumper and sky diver,
Rory lives every day on the edge.
Rory was two years old when he
started skiing, and although he does not really remember learning how to ski,
he is very grateful that he did. Being a young boy, he played as many sports as
he could, until he was fifteen and decided to focus on one sport. Rory’s love
“to ride down snowy mountains,” led him to choose skiing over every other
sport. Around the same time he chose skiing, he met a woman named Sarah Burke.
Like Rory, Sarah was a free skier.
Sarah was always showing up the boys on the slopes or in the half pipe, and
Rory wanted to beat her. After years of friendly competition and friendship,
Rory and Sarah became the “hot couple” on the slopes. And Rory fell in love
with Sarah way before she fell in love with him.
One day, Rory took Sarah for a
flight in his plane. He flew Sarah over a spot where he had dug out “Marry Me
Sarah!” in the snow. Shortly after he proposed, Rory and Sarah were married.
Throughout the course of their marriage, Rory taught Sarah a lot, and Sarah
taught Rory a lot. I asked Rory what it was like to travel the world and ski
with Sarah, and he told me, “I feel so lucky that I got to be so close to her. She taught me so much! And she was the golden ticket to travel
with. She had everything really dialed
in.” They were truly soul mates, but life would deal them a cruel blow.
On January 10, 2012, Sarah was
training in Park City Utah when she caught an edge coming down from a trick and
landed on her head. She was airlifted to a nearby hospital, and died nine days
later.
While Sarah’s death hit Rory very
hard, it did not take him long to ski again. He said, “I live to ski. So did
Sarah.”
Since Sarah’s death, Rory has added
more than just skiing to his repertoire. He, “Started (base) jumping about a
year and a half ago. It’s the best way to get places. This summer I was
skydiving into the blackcomb glacier in the mornings so I could ski all day!”
Rory also joined Travis Pastana and the Nitro Circus crew where he took skiing
to a new level. He traveled with the crew on their tour, performing on the
roller skis. When I asked him what this experience was like, he told me,
“Completely crazy! Roller Skis have no
brakes! Everyone in nitro land was
awesome! It was one of the nicest most
grounded groups of people I have ever hung out with.”
Not only is Rory a talented skier,
roller skier, base jumper, and sky diver, but he also proved that he is a very
talented diver. Rory appeared on the TV competition show Splash where different
celebrities learned different Olympic dives each week and competed with each
other for the trophy. Early on in the competition Rory ruptured his eardrum and
was not able to do any of his dives into water until the live show.
Nonetheless, Rory pushed through and won the show. Rory told me, “I got really
lucky to be on that show. I was the only athlete. I think just having a past of competing gave
me an edge. I knew how to train with an
injury.” 
Being a competitive athlete, Rory
knew how to overcome an injury and come out on top. He told me that in his
skiing career, the biggest challenge he has ever had was overcoming knee
surgery. Rory does not plan to let anything slow him down. He lives to travel
the world and ski. He said the hardest thing about traveling so much is
“Leaving my dog Dextor behind when I have to.
I got her registered as a service dog so nobody can say no to her but I
still go places she can't...”
Rory loves trying new things, and
he gets a sense of accomplishment from successfully doing new things. In his
future, Rory plans to “adventure the world with airplanes, wheels, skis, and
floating devices.”
In his career, base jumping and
skiing have taught Rory some valuable lessons, but he said the most valuable
lesson they taught him is “Enjoy every moment! Life is short.” Rory wants to
“get all I can!” in the time that he is given to live, because he knows that
one day life will end, and he does not want to have any regrets.
Rory has not thought much about
what he would be doing if he was not skiing, but he said, “I hope I would be
doing something that gave me a shivering smile!”
Rory lives every day to ski, and
although everyone views the sport as dangerous, Rory said, “It's not that
dangerous, people are just scared of too much.
It's so damn fun. To each their
own, but I think people are missing out if they don't scare themselves all the
time.” So get up, go try something new, and get the most out of the life you
are given.
