Skydiving & Becoming a Paralympic Snowboard Champion with Tyler Turner

Wild Ideas Worth Living

REI Co-op

Rei, Writing, Trailrunning, Mountaineering, Author, Sailing, Girlboss, Sports, Environmentalism, Lifestyle, Health, Entrepreneurship, Snowboarding, Paddle, Activelifestyle, Outdoorsports, Rockclimbing, Health & Fitness, Running, Surfing, Inspiration, Athlete, Skiing, Nutrition, Vegan, Alternativelifestyle, Watersports, Podcast, Camping, Climbing, Yoga, Travel, Society & Culture, Snowsports, Places & Travel, Cycling, Backpacking, Fitness, Adventure, Wilderness, Endurancesports, Wildideas, Outdoors, Sup, Womensadventure

4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tyler Turner has always been a bit of a daredevil. He grew up skiing, snowboarding, and eventually became a skydiving instructor. After a 2015 accident resulted in the amputation of both legs, he rebuilt his life around the sports he loves. Today, he’s a three-time Para Snowboard Cross World Champion, a Paralympic gold medalist, and the first bilateral amputee to fly in a wingsuit.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Tyler Turner has always been a bit of a daredevil and all-around adventure athlete.
0:06.8	He grew up skiing and snowboarding and eventually made a career as a skydiving instructor.
0:13.2	But in 2015, Tyler had an accident that resulted in the amputation of both of his legs.
0:19.5	It was unclear if he'd ever be able to return to the sports he loved, especially
0:23.9	snowboarding.
0:25.6	I didn't want to ride because I was about to find out maybe that I can't snowboard again.
0:32.0	And then, like, I'd only gone, like, 30 feet.
0:35.2	But in that 30 feet, I went, yep, this is snowboarding. I was just like
0:39.0	giggling and screaming in pain, but like screaming in joy and like it was, it was just a really
0:44.5	cool moment. And then we pulled over the side of the run and I took the prosthetics off and then
0:50.4	that season I just spent trying to figure out how to ride more. That first ride was the beginning of an important journey for Tyler.
0:59.0	Since then, he's become a three-time para-snowboard cross-world champion
1:03.0	and even won gold at the 2022 Paralympic Games.
1:08.0	Outside of snowboarding, Tyler has also made a return to surfing and skydiving,
1:13.0	and in 2017, he became the first bilateral amputee to fly in a wingsuit. I'm Shelby Stanger,
1:20.8	and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-Op Studios production presented by Capital One
1:27.2	and the REI Co-Op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-Op MasterCard.
1:33.1	Tyler Turner, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
1:36.6	I'm really excited to speak to you, and you're fresh off a plane from Chile.
1:39.8	Like literally, you just walked in the door.
1:41.3	What were you doing there?
1:43.3	I was down filming some content
	...

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