In a recent interview Travis Pastrana said that during his NASCAR testing he was asked how many concussions he has had over his career. His answer was that he didn’t know but he’s had 2-3 major concussions every year since he was nine years old. He was then asked if they were medically diagnosed and in classic Travis fashion he answered that he’s been knocked out on video at least 30 times.

Travis turns 37 years old in a couple months. I was never good at math so let’s make it easy and say two concussions a year for 28 years. So Travis Pastrana has had upwards of 56 concussions in his life. Holy shit.

The reason this came up is because Travis and a couple of his Nitro friends are doing a series of health and wellness tests through BootCampaign. Travis, Jim DeChamp and James Foster are the first non-military people to have research done. Below is episode 1-of-3.

There’s a phenomenon in action sports where an athlete gets “shit whipped”. Getting shit whipped is when your body hits the ground and your neck muscles aren’t strong enough to stop your head from acting as a whip and bouncing off the ground like a basketball.

I’d bet nobody has been shit whipped more than Travis Pastrana.

I’m a huge fan of TP and have followed his career all the way back to his 125cc National Championship in 2000. He’s a lanky-ass white dude that’s just out to have fun. I kinda soured on him when he went to freestyle fulltime. Didn’t feel like he fit in at all. But that was just it. In a world of neck tattoos, tongue piercings and the ‘Metal Mulisha’, clean cut Travis was still the baddest dude going. When he stomped the double back flip in 2006 to win ‘Best Trick’, he won me back. .

It’s not surprising that Travis would jump at the opportunity to do this BootCampaign testing. His dad is a marine so there are family ties to the military. His dad, Robert Pastrana, is pretty metal himself. In one episode of Nitro Circus he jumped out of a raceboat at speed and shattered his pelvis on impact. He required three surgeries in a Panamanian hospital to save his life. Metal.

If you’ve got a couple hours to kill, and I know you do right now, watch 199 Lives.