OK, these videos don’t often come with a health warning, but those of a fragile disposition might want to avert their eyes around the 1:20 mark of Lone Wolf Productions’ film The Animal, featuring famed downhill freerider Ace Hayden. There’s a clue at the outset when we see Ace sporting crutches, then a handy warning in the form of an Accident and Emergency sign. We won’t go into the gory details too much, let’s just say the poor chap’s knee ends up looking a bit like something from a horror film following a particularly nasty incident during the shooting of this video in late summer 2014. It was a fitting end to a tricky season for Ace, which included a concussion, a torn AC joint, and a rotator cuff injury.

But Ace isn’t one to let unfortunate mishaps like these spoil the fun. Of course he somehow managed to complete this fantastic footage, and earlier in his difficult season he was able to battle through adversity to compete in a number of Fest Series events. Here he’s tearing up the trails like a demon at the Sun Peaks Resort, BC, Canada, before moving on to the rougher terrain of nearby Kamloops. You would be hard-pressed to guess there had been any issues whatsoever, a sure sign that he truly deserves to be known as ‘The Animal’.

Ace has never been one to let a few minor set-backs stand in the way of progress, and with the release of this film he announced that he was moving on from COMMENCAL and beginning a new phase of his career. Judging from this footage the guy is unstoppable, so whatever he does from here is bound to be incredible.