Trent Milton runs on the notion of a second chance.
It's a proverb almost completely debased by cliche in today's world.
Apply it to Milton, though, and it fails to comprehend the enormity of the trauma that didn't quite kill him, but very nearly stole the two things that made him feel most alive - snowboarding and surfing.
When the 41-year-old contests his first Winter Paralympics in Sochi - on a snowboard - it will be three years to the day since his lower right leg was torn off in a road accident near his NSW home of Port Macquarie.
Both arms hung by a thread, as did his life.
Milton is a perennial optimist. Articulate by anyone's standards - never mind that he needed speech therapy for the brain injury he acquired.
That particular problem, he says, was convenient.
"The brain is a beautiful thing, it doesn't allow me to remember anything of the accident," Milton told AAP.
"I didn't have much memory at all until four months afterwards."
It's markedly more difficult for Milton's family and friends who can recall the details all too closely.
It was the afternoon of March 14, 2011. A Monday. Milton was riding his motorbike home from work.
The lifelong surfer had finished his shift at Bunnings and was itching to get in the water.
A good swell was running 700 metres from his house, and his girlfriend and a mate were waiting there for him.
With two cars directly in front of him and two behind, Milton was doing the speed limit of 90km/h.
The out-of-control car coming the other way wasn't.
Police estimated it was spinning at 130km/h when its boot slammed into Milton, giving him a brutal blow to his head and swatting him and his bike 30 metres through the air.
By the time he landed, the bottom half of his right leg was several metres away off the side of the road.
His right femur was smashed to pieces and his femoral artery severed, causing heavy bleeding.
Both his arms were also badly damaged.
By pure chance, two emergency doctors from the local hospital were in the car behind him, and probably saved his life.
They rushed to his aid, trying to keep him calm and stop the bleeding.
"I was apparently very distressed," Milton said.
"I was trying to take my helmet off with both my arms, and there were bones hanging out of the back of my arms."
The public took over the scene, directing traffic before ambulances arrived.
"When the ambulance came, the officer didn't think I would survive with the injuries he saw and the blood I had lost."
Milton isn't a spiritual man. But the thought that he may have "passed on" for a few moments still gets to him.
"Pretty hard. Yeah, quite teary," he said.
"I'm not religious, but I'm a very strong-willed person. I do believe my will held onto my body.
"The pulse probably stopped a couple of times."
It took doctors 18 hours to stabilise Milton before they could fly him to Newcastle.
They strongly considered amputating both arms - the radial nerve in his right arm had been severed and the limb hung limp.
Milton spent the next six months in hospitals and rehab centres relearning to walk and use his arms, which were fastened back together with metal rods and plates.
Feeding himself, shaving or writing would be unattainable luxuries for a while.
The following six months were spent at home in bed.
But the gravity of his injuries wouldn't properly hit home until after that.
Doctors had Milton taking methadone for the pain, with the side effect that it dulled his senses.
"People don't believe this, but I didn't truly know my leg was amputated until I came off the methadone," he said.
"When they took me off it to change my drugs, I cried for a week, because I truly accepted I was an amputee.
"There were definitely dark days where I couldn't get out of bed."
There would be more setbacks, including re-snapping his radial bone the first time he got back in the surf.
But before long, and with lots of help, Milton would be back surfing, swimming and riding his bike.
And for the former professional snowboarder, instructor and coach, the pull towards the sanctuary of the slopes was inexorable.
Australia's para-snowboarding coach Peter Higgins called.
The event was going to make its debut at the Paralympic Games, and would he be interested in joining the team?
For Milton, it posed a chance to redevelop the old relationship he had with his body.
He joined Sochi's other squad members, 14-year-old Ben Tudhope and Joany Badenhorst, 19.
It's not lost on Milton that he's older than both combined, and says he often plays the mentor role.
He also drew motivation back from them, along with the late Matt Robinson, Australia's top para-snowboarder and world No.1, who would help him come to terms with his new disability.
His death last week after a serious crash in the IPC World Cup Finals would knock the team off its hinges, but has now only galvanised their determination to ride well in his honour.
Robinson will be at the front of Milton's mind when he achieves his biggest personal achievement in March.
"For me, the Paralympics are my personal rehabilitation," he said.
"I've been able to get back to the highest level of sport in 14 months.
"If you'd seen me 12 months ago, I was lucky to be breathing; now I'm strong and healthy.
"This was my second chance."
