http://espn.go.com/oly/news/2004/0205/1728304.htmlDakides listed in stable condition after fall
NEW YORK -- A champion snowboarder performing a routine stunt for David Letterman\'s late-night TV show veered off a ramp outside the show\'s theater and fell 25 feet to the ground Thursday.
Snowboarder Tara Dakides, 28, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was taken to a hospital and was listed in stable condition after receiving stitches -- and a visit from Letterman.
"The only thing I am upset about is that the French judge only gave me a 5.6," Dakides quipped from her hospital bed, according to her spokesman.
Witnesses said Dakides, nicknamed the Terrorizer, made two successful jumps on the U-shaped ramp, set up on 53rd Street in Manhattan outside the Ed Sullivan Theater, and then fell off the ramp on her third attempt.
"She came down at an angle and she just went off the side of the ramp and landed on her back," said Dave Riddle, of Orlando, Fla., a tour bus driver for the punk band The Dropkick Murphys, which was performing across the street at Roseland Ballroom. "It was chaos. They just all ran to her, took her snowboard off. She hit hard, bless her heart."
Dakides, a snowboard competitor since 1993, was in New York to showcase her talents on the Letterman show and discuss the silver medal she just earned at the 2004 X Games, spokesman Steve Astephen said in a statement.
She is "ready to get back on the slopes," he said Thursday night.
Dakides has finished first in several X Games events, dominating slopestyle, according to the EXPN.com site.
Letterman\'s executive producer, Rob Burnett, said he hoped that Dakides "makes a full and complete recovery and that she\'ll be back on the \'Late Show\' soon."
The CBS show regularly tapes stunts on the streets outside the studio.
Because of the accident, the "Late Show" stopped taping Thursday and planned to air a repeat episode Thursday night.
The scheduled guests for the show were actress Drew Barrymore and pop band Fountains of Wayne.
Top Ten things that prolly caused this accident:
10) Halfway down, she realized she wasn\'t on the Tonight Show
9) The snow was shipped in from Canada
Fred Durst was waiting at the bottom for some nookie
7) Someone posted Janet\'s nipple shot on the big screen
6) MTV already released a statement claiming they had no idea she was going to slip and fall
5) Dave\'s mom was waiting at the bottom for some nookie
4) Paul Schaffer blinded her with that bald-arce head of his
3) Her nipple sun star got caught on her jacket zipper
2) Did I mention she was gonna be on Letterman?
and the #1 reason this accident happened: Drew Barrymore flashed her on the way down!
