Monster Energy Cares: Paul Thacker Interview

Paul Thacker is a Monster athlete who was paralyzed during a snow mobile accident in 2010. After living through this tragedy, Paul started the Paul Dean Thacker Spinal Cord Recovery Foundation to help those with spinal cord injuries similar to the one he suffered. 

The Paul Dean Thacker Spinal Cord Recovery Foundation provides financial support to research cures for spinal cord injuries. He also runs a veteran program that takes our heroes to snowmobiling and fishing events to aid in their battle-field recovery. We continue to provide financial donations to the Paul Dean Thacker Spinal Cord Recovery Foundation each year and are proud to work with someone as resilient as Paul.

We recently caught up with Paul Thacker on everything from his continued fishing obsession to the lastest updates about his work with  veterans. 

Monster Energy: Can you provide some background for our readers who may not know you?

Paul Thacker: 2006 was my first year with Monster. I started racing Snow Cross, back in the day, and then I kind of did X Games, world record distance jumping. I got hurt, broke my back in 2010 training for X Games and continued to compete after I was injured. I have more medals after breaking my back than before.

Right about the time or just after I got hurt, I established a small nonprofit that was originally aimed at just helping injured action sports athletes get back up on their feet or if they needed equipment and whatnot.

Anyway, I was part of Monster Energy’s program where they did a series of videos for Veteran rehab centers. I was tasked to tell my story and how I was able to rehab and get back to a high quality of life.

Monster Energy: You said you've been involved with Monster since 2006. How has that been? How's that partnership?

Paul Thacker: It's been great. It’s been a family, that’s what I would call it. I’ve gotten to know Rodney (Sacks) well over the years.

I've had an awesome experience with pretty much everybody at Monster from day one. It's obviously changed a lot in the nearly 20 years that I've been a part of it. It's been cool to watch. What started out as kind of a guerilla marketing company is [now] a multibillion-dollar global conglomerate.

Monster Energy: Looking at your videos and Instagram, we can see how much you love the brand. And we love the photos of your newborn baby with the Monster beanie! Congratulations! How's parenthood treating you?

Paul Thacker: It's been great. A lot of people told us “Oh, your life is going to change a lot,” “you're not going to sleep,” and all that. I'm just like, well, we'll just see how it goes. And it's been awesome. My wife is awesome. My son, Jack, is not even four months yet. And the whole thing is just a miracle.

It's wild. First, I can't believe they let me take him home from the hospital. He's a happy little guy. Pretty smiley, and good disposition most of the days. That's made it a lot easier, especially this time of year, I travel quite a bit during events and such.

My wife does the bulk of the work, obviously feeding him and stuff. So, I kind of just do what I can, when I can and kind of make it as easy on her as possible.

Monster Energy: We'd love to hear more about the nonprofit that you run for Veterans.

Paul Thacker: I had started one very early after I got hurt, that was going to cater to people in situations, such as my own. Such as action sports athletes that had been injured or were in rehab, trying to get back on their feet. If they needed the equipment, that was the goal if I could raise money for them.

I mentioned before that Monster had asked if I'd be willing to tell my story for the military side of things, because I believe at the time, there was an issue with people wanting to try and ban energy drinks on base.

Monster went to Congress, I believe, and spoke. They wanted to help with figuring out why guys are having a hard time recovering from PTSD that were coming back from active combat.

Myself, TJ Lavin, and I believe Kurt Busch, some athletes that had been through traumatic experiences. They asked if we'd be willing to share our stories.

Monster flew a film crew up and basically interviewed me and asked, what happened, how it happened, how I've gotten through and how I'm coping, all the things that were working for me. So, they could show our soldiers in rehab centers that it was possible to have some super gnarly things happen and come out of it on the other side.

But while I was doing that interview, it kind of dawned on me that I had an opportunity to relate to our soldiers or combat Veterans on a level that maybe some people didn't.

I ended up in a wheelchair in a very different way than a lot of our Veterans, obviously, but the feeling is the same, the emotions are the same.

Anyways, kind of from that point forward, I was like, I think I'm going to morph this foundation into doing things for Veterans. Let's get them out and show them that you can still ride sleds and basically all the things that I'm passionate about.

We do snowmobiling, side-by-sides, fly fishing, I even rent the RC track a couple times a year, and we bring guys out, they get to drive RC cars, and they enjoy backing into each other with the cars.

It was an opportunity for me to give back and continue to do the things that I love to do.

Hoping to spark some of our guys that are coming back that might be struggling to integrate into society, this would help them find some sort of passion. Whether it's the things that I like to do or not, it gives them an idea that there are lots of things out there that can help get you through the rough days.

The first year I was able to raise, like $25,000. I think Monster gave me $20,000 of it.

For the first two years, I did one event. Now, I'm contractually obligated to do six sledding, three side-by-side and five fishing trips for the money that Monster gives, and I do about 20 of those events.

I just finished my third and fourth snowmobile retreats this past week and weekend, and I have two more next month. Then I'll do four or five side-by-side trips, and then we'll do as many fishing trips as I can. I have guide buddies that donate trips, and I have my own boats, and I take guys out.

It's turned into quite a thing that, I mean... I never really expected it to carry the weight than it seems to have. To have guys pull you aside and basically just straight up saying that if it wasn't for the events, they wouldn't be here anymore. Things like that. It's pretty powerful stuff.

Now I've got such a great group of guys that have been through the program that now come back and volunteer and help. One of the lodges that we use in Colorado is owned by one of the Veterans that came on a trip six years ago. It's all just crazy cyclical.

I see a lot of programs have steps to sign up, write an essay and tell us why you deserve this trip…things like that. And I never really was a big fan of that. I started with some good friends that were Veterans, and I tasked them with getting me the first group of guys that needed some sort of activities and people that needed to know that there was somebody out there that gave a shit about them. That's kind of how the first groups came about.

Since then, everybody that's been through the program knows someone who has either been before or been invited by someone who's coming or for the last 13, 14 years. You could go back and trace everybody back to the first event.

Monster Energy: That’s cool. Yeah, we love that you mentioned it's very cyclical. It seems there are many full circle moments that you've experienced through all this.

Paul Thacker: Yeah. 100%. It's super motivating for me. These people come to these events, and they're excited to be a part of it and they get out and do stuff and get out of their comfort zone. It allows me to be motivated to continue to do the same thing.

It helps me at first, as much as it helps them. It's hard to completely describe or put into words without you being there and seeing how it is. It's a cool thing.

Monster Energy: You mentioned your fishing trips; what sort of an outlet that is for you and how have you incorporated it into your different foundations? You have such passion providing these trips for others.

Paul Thacker: Growing up in Alaska, obviously, we have some of the best fishing on the planet. I was quite an avid fisherman when I was a kid. I fished a lot, pretty much my whole life until I got hurt.

I stopped fishing because it was difficult. I couldn't go by myself. I hadn't had lots of help to go, and I just quit going altogether. And then I met my wife, and she's an avid fly fisher, she was going fishing, and she's out with a brother, friends or whatnot. And I just was staying at home and I'm like, “Okay, well, this isn't going to work.” At the time, I just started working with Action Trackchair, you probably been on the internet, you've probably seen some of the videos of the chair with tracks.

Monster Energy: It’s cool that you're able to figure out how to do all the things that you still love in life and modify it to your current situation. Often when you have a big trauma or a big accident, you start subtracting the things that you used to love because they don't fit. Instead of just changing the circumstances or changing the routines of how you live to fit the new circumstance. It’s inspiring what you have accomplished.

Paul Thacker: You must modify. Yeah, I'm like, “Okay, let's go fish.”

And we started figuring out ways for her and me to get out, with the track chair and find spots that we could go. Then that turned into me just going by myself and I figured out how to load this chair and unload the chair.

I just go off and go by myself and that's kind of just snowballed into now where I have a jet boat. I can launch it by myself, but I can't put it on a trailer by myself. It's got a modified seat to run the boat, we have a drip boat now that it's wheelchair accessible. Then I have a couple guide buddies that go out with me. We go fly fishing on the river.

It's just an incredible thing that I've lived my whole life and it's, I guess, kind of the, talking about passion, it's all the things that I enjoy, you must be present doing them.

Whether it's snowmobiling in the backcountry or we're out to the glacier, like side-by-side or fly fishing, you must be always paying attention to know what you're doing. It allows you to kind of forget about all the BS that's outside of what's happening at that moment. Basically, it allows kind of a reset when you get to do it, to put everything in perspective and like this is what it's all about and the rest of this stuff just isn't that important.

Monster Energy: Yeah, that's a good perspective.

Paul Thacker: When we're talking about the Veteran community, the struggles that all the guys have to go through, this helps to kind of manage it energy and I guess it's a good way to, if you're having a shitty day and you've got 20 things that you love to do, hopefully you can find a couple moments, get out and just reset.

Monster Energy: We loved your Instagram, and how much you highlight your snowmobiles with Polaris. How closely do you work with them to modify the snowmobiles for your disability?

Paul Thacker: Well, they've been a part of my program pretty much my entire career. I've rode Polaris snowmobiles since I was a little kid. They contribute to the sled side of the program as well as a bit of donation to the help of the Veteran’s side, as well.

When I was racing in X Games, each year, or every other year, we would build a modified seat through their engineering program. Since we don't have snowmobiles at X Games anymore, we haven't done that lately.

The seats that you see most recently, I've basically built with a machine shop and upholstery shop here myself. I still have a couple of bracing seats that are impressive technology, who knows if we end up racing again at X Games, maybe I'll get to use it.

I think Polaris is awesome, they contribute and help a lot. If it wasn't for them, I would not be able to do quite as much as we've been doing.

Monster Energy: Awesome. That’s cool to hear. Is there anything else that you want readers to know about? Or how they can contribute to your foundation?

Paul Thacker: There's a lot of people out there that have friends, relatives, spouses that have been in the military that might benefit from something like that. I am super easy to get a hold of, through email or social media. I'm always looking to expand the peer group base. If there’s someone or if they have somebody that's struggling, that is a Veteran, they should get in touch with me, and we will help them out.

Monster Energy: We are very grateful for the people out there that dedicate their lives to helping Veterans.

Paul Thacker: I mean, it’s an incredible community of human beings. They're some of the most impressive people I've ever met in my life. We like to keep around.