Tanner Hall has won X Games gold a record seven times and made freeskiing sexy for a new generation. He talks about surviving broken ankles, gnarly knees and a whole lot of wheatgrass...

Head
In sport you beat your body relentlessly every day. I’ve knocked myself out a couple of times. Well, more like three or four times and that’s really not a good thing to do. I grew up not wearing a ski helmet but I've started wearing one now.

Knee
I’m the best at working through emotional pain and physical pain. It’s crazy; I’ve managed to win even when my body’s in bad shape. Last year my knee was really bad, but you have the adrenaline and if you really want it, you can do whatever you want.

I crashed and hurt my right knee in January and I competed in the X Games on what I thought was a blown-out knee, but I just had a really gnarly bone contusion which lasted all year.

Training
I don’t need a fitness schedule as I go skiing whenever I can anyway. Skiing’s the easy part of life you know what I mean? As you get older you take on more responsibilities and life hits you in the face pretty quick, so when you’re skiing and it’s fresh air, no problems, that’s the best part.

Ankles
On March 5, 2005 I had my biggest accident. I smashed both my ankles. It was at Chad’s Gap in Utah. It’s about a 130-foot gap in the mountains. On the morning of the accident I’d done the best jump I ever did in my life, but I knew right off this time it was too slow. I came up five feet too short and you could hear my ankles break as I landed. Right away I felt incredible pain. I’d never felt pain like that.

I shattered my taluses, the bone that connects your foot with your leg, and I shattered my calcaneuses, the big heel bones. I had to have surgery on my right foot as it was so bad. They put two big screws through my talus to reconnect it and put a plate that looks like a piece of Swiss cheese with six screws in my heel. The doctors said I’d never compete professionally again but I didn’t even listen to that. From accident back to competition was ten months. I won the X Games and every contest I did that winter.

Nutrition
I’m smarter about what I’m doing the older I get. You can’t eat bad food your whole life and be out drinking a ton of alcohol. I sprained my ankle four times in a row last winter and hurt my knee. I realised if I wanted to keep doing this at a top level for a long time I’d just have to take care of myself. I don’t have a strict diet, but now I know I can cut out bad food and still eat food I like. I eat chicken, noodles, steak, vegetables and a lot of fruit; I have crazy smoothies every day. I drink a lot of wheatgrass most days too. You get used to it.