WCMX @ Adaptive Motocross
What's up, guys! My name is Nathan Rocuskie, I am 22 years old and from Central Pennsylvania. I grew up racing Motocross and competed at an amateur level at a pretty intense rate basically my whole life. During my time, I have won multiple state championships, and a couple of tri-state championships, and I got to compete in the biggest amateur national race called Loretta Lynns. Loretta Lynns is an amateur national race that you have to qualify for. First, you must qualify by area qualifier, then by regional. Making it to an event like this is a dream come true for a lot of us racers! When I was 17 years old, I began training myself very hard as I was close to starting my professional career. The plan was to end my amateur years at Loretta Lynns by doing well at that race. During practice one night at my training compound, I came up short on a jump which sent me straight over the handlebars, causing me to shatter my t-12 vertebrae, leaving me paralyzed from the waist down. Many of you may know what comes after that: surgery, months and months of physical therapy/ occupational therapy, pain, struggling, depression, confusion, frustration, and so much more. From there, where do you really start heading towards? What's right and what's wrong as a newly “disabled” person? These are questions I used to ask myself- the only other thing that ever came to my mind was why change now? Why stop now? And I pushed exactly towards that! I remember my therapist telling me how crazy my ideas were and basically laughing at me for telling them that I would be riding a dirt bike in less than a year and that I would be doing backflips and taking my wheelchair to the skate park. They were stoked for sure, but it wasn’t something they actually expected. I dug deep in therapy getting myself as strong and healthy as I could. I ended up not being able to continue physical therapy because I exceeded my goals multiple times in just days. So insurance quit paying for it. At that time it was time to find my happiness again. I remember the first time we strapped me onto a 4-wheeler, it was the rush I had been waiting on for close to a year! From there, it didn't stop one bit! I ended up meeting one of my best friends, Jonathan Starks, who races Adaptive Motocross and does WCMX. This dude drove to my house and surprised me with his adaptive dirt bike and said “Just don't hurt yourself” and the first lap I rode the bike I was already hitting jumps again. He later on ended up building me my own WCMX wheelchair in which I later on came to become the world's first t-12 paraplegic to do a double backflip. From there the sky was the limit! All I wanna say to you guys out there, maybe feeling similar to how I did: don't forget to have fun! Life does get complicated and rushed but take time for yourself and do what your soul really needs! Last but not least, the only disability I see in my eyes is a mindset. Don’t let your mind control you and hold you back! Go try that new hobby you always wanted, go try to invent something, or simply just go do something and enjoy yourself! That's all things to be proud of and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! Thanks for reading guys! Here is a WCMX VID I made go check it out to get a better look at the things that make me happy! 😁♿️❤️
