Intense skier Rory Bushfield (Sarah Burke’s Husband) talks about why he decided to join ABC’s new reality diving contest, “Splash.” Thus, has he injured himself while training? Bonus, Rory tells it’s an “honor” to be coached by Olympic diver Greg Louganis.
Rory Bushfield, the 27-year-old air-hound from just outside Calgary, Alberta, has a very uncomplicated attitude. Get low, go big, and stomp. Appetizingly modest and personable, Bushfield lets his actions talk louder than his words, a peculiarity showcased in his imposing film segments he produces each season. He now resides in Squamish, BC where he shreds the backcountry on a daily base, repeatedly progressing his method and pushing the skiers around him.
He is also passionate not only for the snow but his dearest Sarah…
He recalls…
I can ramble for a while about Sarah. It’s not very hard. That girl. I feel like I’ve had a guardian angel this whole time; she’s been looking out for me. Sarah. We miss her. I miss her.
I watched how she lived her life, and so many things she did I never understood. Like she would lose her cell phone, and she didn’t care. I just couldn’t understand how she could do that. She just had it. She had it right. She was living every day. She didn’t let little things get on her nerves. She let big things get on her nerves, and she did something about it. She was so good at worrying about things she could control and not worrying about things she couldn’t. I was always the opposite, worried about stuff I can’t control. That’s been a big one, trying to take that as a life lesson from her. I guess we met in Ontario for the first time at a mogul competition. She was shredding, as usual. I knew who she was long before she knew who I was, that’s for sure. I remember being intimidated by Sarah. ’Cause she was so sick. So hot. The girl you really like… everyone gets intimidated.
These are words of a husband who misses his wife, one who loved passionately and cries for her depart.
He added:
Losing her has affected my views of skiing in a few ways. I’m a super avid pusher of female sport now. I always loved it for Sarah, but now even more. That was her passion. She wanted to build a sport, wanted other girls to rip, too. She never had a competitor really. The other girls were just her friends. And Sarah would be just as happy when they did good as when she did.
I love skiing just as much as I always did— love skiing. For a while there, it was so hard for me ’cause it’s like skiing’s what took Sarah from me and from the world. But at the same time, she died doing exactly what she wanted to be doing. She wanted nothing else but to shred halfpipe and be exactly where she was. She was happy. And just to know that and know that it wasn’t something stupid… the fact she was stoked to the last minute doing what she loved helps me.
I’m so, so happy that I got to get married to Sarah, I got to spend that year and a half married. I was really stoked that day, and I knew she was genuinely so happy.
Fully still, in the back of my mind, I don’t really believe that the accident happened. I haven’t really moved past that. The whole time in Salt Lake was the same thing. It was just too much to fathom, the fact of what actually happened. I know that Sarah wouldn’t want us to be super upset. I kept that in my mind and tried to stay as positive as I could. I did what Sarah would do in the opposite situation; that’s basically how I made all my decisions. It was hard just seeing the pain in Sarah’s mom and dad’s eyes, but they were amazing. I love them. We knew we weren’t leaving the hospital with Sarah. The fact that we were married, all of a sudden gave me all this—I had to make decisions. It was really hard.
She was so good at speaking without words. I can pick so many things that she would do, I didn’t even understand at the time. Now as I grow and learn, I start to understand things. She had such a good outlook on life. What would she say to us now? She’d say not to be sad and to celebrate her life and not to let fear get in the way of your dreams. Get as bad as you can while you’re here. That’s what she’d say, I think. That’s what she said to me.
UPDATE!! Rory Bushfield has a new girlfriend!!! her name is Macarena!!
You can visit Rory Bushfield’s FB here.
