After more than two years off his pipe skis, Tanner Hall dropped in at the end of 2011, days before Christmas. Whether Hall would ever return to halfpipe competition has been a constant question in the more than two and a half years since he severely injured both knees in May 2009. Last summer, a video of Hall gingerly making his first turns after a series of surgeries gave little insight into the question. Now, the three-time Winter X Superpipe champ said that after all that time, skiing pipe was still like "riding a bike" for him. With his old tricks coming back to him quickly, Hall has a few new tricks on his agenda and he intends to return to competition later this spring. We caught up with Hall for some first hand insight into his return to the stunt ditch.
How does it feel to be in the halfpipe again?
December 23 was my first day back in the halfpipe since my knee injury in May 2009 and it felt good. Everything came back pretty nice. I was doing nines, fives and alley-oops. That was the first day, and then I took alley-oop flat fives the second day, along with some right flares and right nines. It all came back pretty quick, like riding a bike, you know?
We've seen you doing a lot of gnarly stuff on trampolines recently. Will you be transferring those skills into the pipe anytime soon?
Well, right now, I'm just working on getting the old tricks back. I have been working on a lot of new ones on the trampoline and I'm really excited to get them going here in about three weeks from now, after I start feeling a little more confident. I would really like to get a double cork 12 down, an alley-oop double flat 9 and a switch alley-oop double. That's just three tricks, and then I think life would be pretty nice.
What has your training schedule been like for these two years leading up to your first time back in the pipe?
You know, a lot of bike riding. A lot of agility training, a lot of running. I've been doing a lot of explosive training, focusing on quick twitch muscles, trying to just break through all of my scar tissue. It's pretty much a lifestyle change. For how severe my injury was, I pretty much needed to clean up my life and dedicate every day in its entirety to putting my body back together. I've gotten much more focused on being smart and finding ways to take care of my body on and off of the hill, whether it's the food I'm eating or choosing the right muscle groups to train and the right training methods.
Shortly after your knee injuries in 2009, you said that you were "over and done with the contest scene." At what point did you change your mind about that?
If you really want something bad enough in life, you can go out and get it. It just depends on how hard you're willing to work for it. I'm glad that I found my drive again because I feel like it was lost for about a year there after my injuries. And then I found it about eight months ago, put my head down and started working as hard as I ever have and it's brought me here.
Do you plan to compete in anything this season?
I think I might do WSI. That's a big thing that I would like to take care of. I think it would be on point and if I just ski pipe and have fun, ski every day leading up to it, I should be ready for the last big contest of the year. It'll be good.
Does that mean in 2013 you're back on the full pipe competition circuit?
I'm going to pick and choose. I don't think that I have to do all of them to get into the Olympics, which is the ultimate goal. So right now I'm focused on getting myself back into skiing pipe and ready for that last contest of the year at WSI. And then when 2013 rolls around, I'm going to sit down and look at which contests are crucial for qualifying for the Olympics in '14 and make a plan to do those.