It’s only been eight months since Jerry Robin’s fateful crash in New Jersey in which he sustained a spinal injury that put him in a wheelchair, but you wouldn’t know it if you met him today. Since the incident Robin has been busy working on getting back to a regular, day-to-day life, and he’s come a long way. He also recently started a new job working for FXR, which prompted us to pick up the phone and check in with one of the sport’s fan favorites.
Racer X: Jerry, it’s been eight months since New Jersey. It seems like lifetimes ago, and yesterday, all at the same time. How’s it been for you?
Robin: It’s weird when I sit down and think about it. Time flew man, it’s already been eight months, it went by quick! But it also feels like it’s kind of been forever. It depends on the day, really. It’s been a while, but it also hasn’t. Everybody I’m around says I got back to normal life so fast. It’s weird. A lot of chapters of my life have changed since the injury, but a lot has stayed the same too. I’m still in the industry and I’m enjoying my new job.
When people say you got back to “normal” life quickly do you want to punch them in the face?
No, I don’t get offended or worked up or anything like that over it. For the situation I got back to being at home and out of the hospital fast. I didn’t realize how long people stay in rehab facilities! Some people are there for six months. It’s crazy.
Dirt bike riders are different too though, right?
Yeah. And I think it’s a mindset thing too. Once I got to rehab I was there for two weeks and I was dealing with a lot and was in a lot of pain, but I was itching to get home. Not even to just be home and be around my wife and dogs and stuff, but to also learn my environment and figure out how I’m going to lead my new life. I wanted to get home to that.
I can imagine it’s been quite a learning experience. From learning how to drive a car to getting out of bed, everything you do is different.
That was another thing that surprised me, how long people take to learn how to drive a car with hand controls. I was right around two-and-a-half months after my injury and I was driving again. A lot of other paraplegic people were like, ‘How the hell are you driving already? That’s crazy.’ I don’t know, I was just itching to get started on everything, I guess. I like being home, and I love going out and hanging out with my buddies and doing that stuff.
People like me who have no experience with spinal injuries, I don’t think we realize the sheer number of people who are affected by this. Was it surprising for you when you became aware of it?
Yes, and the number of people within our sport. It was pretty concerning, I didn’t realize it was this common.
There are whole industries that exist because of it.
Yeah, it’s definitely a bigger community that I expected. There are a lot of really awesome people in this space, who’ve done a lot of great things and have shared their journeys and how life is. I definitely want to be one of those people who can share a more in-depth side of it. It’s an eye opener and it caught me off guard.
Well speaking of sharing what things are like, and forgive me if this next question is ignorant, but what is physical therapy like for you? Is it about learning to live your day-to-day stuff, or are you doing it in the hopes of maybe someday regaining movement?
For me it’s the hope that movement will come back. I’ve regained some core function. Not full function, but I’ve regained a little bit in my obliques, which for me is huge. I had the worst level of spinal injury, besides severing it. Originally they said it was fully severed, and I actually never got another diagnosis, but when I got to my rehab facility they did some imaging and it’s definitely damaged, there are bone fragments in there, but it’s not severed. I have muscle spasms and I’ve gained some function below my injury and stuff like that. So that part’s good.
That’s really good! I didn’t realize you’d gotten some feeling back.
It’s not really feeling, I’m still nipple line down, but muscle function-wise, I can contract some muscles on the side of my core around the hip area. I’m way more stable now. That’s mainly what we work on in physical therapy. The little things that start working, we really focus on those and get them to try to work better.
Were you surprised at the response when you got hurt? It seemed as though there was an outpouring of support. It had to be a devastating time for you, but did the support help get you through it?
It definitely helped, getting through it, having the support of the fans, and my friends and family. The industry really did come together for me in a lot of ways. It was pretty cool to see the sport I pretty much gave my whole life to, give back to me. It was a good feeling.
To support Jerry in his recovery please go to his Road 2 Recovery athlete page.
And you’re still in the industry now with your new role with FXR. How’d that come about?
Andy White from FXR reached out to me about it. They didn’t really have someone in that position, to be the face of the amateur side of their company. I’m learning that role now and it’s cool to still be in the industry. It’s cool to be back in the amateur side of the sport too, it’s been so long. I’m excited.
What do you do in that role? What’s a regular day for you?
Right now I’m still in meetings and getting taught software systems and learning how to run their Shopify, their orders, order forms, etc. Eventually when I progress and learn all the systems that are in place I’ll be managing full accounts and stuff like that. But for now it’s just getting trained in.
You’re a former pro, of course, will you someday have input on product design?
[Laughs] My first day I was in design meetings. The owner really wanted me to be a part of that. It’s actually really cool to see that side. We’re already working on the 2027 gear and getting a lot of things in place for that. They really care about the consumer, and that’s what’s cool about seeing this side. I’ve never seen it before, I always just showed up to race and my gear was there. It’s cool to see the back end of it. It’s a lot of work to make things work smoothly.
Oh yeah. I think most people would be surprised at the infrastructure it requires to keep all aspects of this sport moving forward.
They have thousands of supported accounts. There are a lot of moving parts! They also have FXR outlet stores across the country, and they want to open more. They really care about the consumer, and it’s been cool to see the ins and outs, and get look at how they run things.
