Nixen Osborne took one of the worst slams of his life last Monday. He 50-50ed Coolangatta’s famous 13-stair handrail, landed on a sheet of plywood, then hit the grass with speed and got flung headfirst into a telegraph pole. You’ve probably seen the footage – it’s been doing the rounds on Instagram. We caught up with Nixen to make sure he was OK and to find out about the knockout and the seizure he had afterwards. It sounded like a rough day, but at least he got a few followers out of it.

Interview by Nat Kassel. Photos by Wade McLaughlin.

You can view the footage HERE.

Hey Nix, tell me about how your day started last Monday.

I was with Boyd Young, Wade McLaughlin, Kale Neville, Tora, Nico and Chase Jaeger. I wanted to get everyone together to go and jump on some rails. So we went to the Church rail in Coolangatta – it’s a pretty classic Gold Coast spot. I wanted to try a back tail or back Smith, so I was only warming up with a back 50-50. I ollied over the rail, landed in the grass hill and had a fucking hilarious fall. I slid down the grass hill on my face and was like, “This is going to be a really fun day.” Then I jumped on the rail, grinded it, landed on the ply and straight onto the grass. I knew the grass was soft, but I didn’t think it was going to pitch me into the pole for a Mike Tyson knockout. For some reason, I thought that I was going to roll through the grass. But that pole happened to be lined up perfectly with my head and my neck and my shoulder and my back [laughs].

Was that your first try?

Nah, it was second try. On the first try, I landed it nearly perfectly, but I was leaning back a bit too much.

When you hit your head, was it lights out straight away? 

Yeah, it was lights out straight away and then apparently I had a pretty bad seizure. I got knocked the fuck out and I didn’t recall anything. Apparently, I was dribbling out of my mouth and shaking. Then when I came back into consciousness, I didn’t believe that I got knocked out. I was like, “Nah, I didn’t.” I got my vision back, and everyone was telling me that everything was OK. Wade was like, “We called you an ambulance,” but I genuinely thought I was fine. They were like, “No, bro. You’re not fine. You just got knocked out and had a seizure.” I was like, “What? I had a seizure?” I put my hand on my ear and it was pissing out with blood. I split the inside of my ear open. But it wasn’t internal bleeding from my brain. It was just an external cut.

How long were you out for?

Apparently, I was out for one-and-a-half or two minutes. I remember going for the 50-50 and then landing it and then the next thing I remember is laying in Wade’s arms and he’s telling me that an ambulance is on the way and that my ear’s bleeding. I was like, “What the fuck, I swear I just landed that shit.”

And then when I’d just gotten my consciousness back, they were like, “Do you want to see the video?” because I didn’t believe that I’d hit the post. So Chase AirDropped it to me and I’m just laying on the ground cracking up at the video. I put it straight onto Instagram, before I was even back to my normal state.

Then the ambulance came and you went to a hospital? 

Yeah, the paramedic was a family friend – his name’s Morris. That was good. Then at the hospital, they put me in a neck brace and told me I couldn’t move. I had a pretty bad concussion, so I was pretty content with just laying still. It was typical hospital vibes: bright lights, white walls, old people coughing. Then I got pulled into my room and my mum and my girlfriend rocked up. All the doctors and nurses watched the footage and they were like, “Oh, that’s really bad!” They made me wait five hours to get my scans. I don’t take pain killers either. I deal with it myself. I’m not the biggest fan of taking any drugs, apart from the green ones.

What was the damage overall? 

I got a bad concussion, some bleeding from the ear and a bit of a sprain in my neck. My shoulder and back are really sore too. But I’m like a cat with nine lives. I’m surprised that I only walked away with that. I’m so grateful and lucky. Considering what happened, I’m pretty fine. My brain’s still working really good [laughs]. Recovery should be two to three weeks.

The footage has been shared all over the Internet by accounts like Brown Cardigan and Hall of Meat. How many followers have you gained? 

I think I’ve gotten like 2000 followers on Instagram from it so far. I’m not much of a social media guy, but I was actually quite impressed with that. I’d like to say thanks to the crew who was there looking after me. I really appreciate it. They know I appreciate it, but I want that to be recognised.

Are you going to drag them all back there to watch you try to back tail it? 

Yeah, definitely.