Tara Dakides

Inadvertently Performing An Even RARER Stunt
Getting The Network To Shelve A Talk Show Post Taping!
Way To Go Girl!

Tara The Terrorizer Takes Tumble
More Alliteration...I Know

The Story From When It Happened

A top-ranked snowboarder performing a stunt for "The Late Show with David Letterman" went off course on a custom-made ramp Thursday night and flew 25 feet in the air before landing on the pavement, witnesses said.

Tara Dakides, 28, who has competed nationally and internationally, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan where she was admitted in stable condition, a Fire Department spokesman said. She is expected to be released today, according to her spokeswoman, Jamie Messler.

Dakides had already taken two runs down the custom-made ramp on West 53rd Street before veering off the side on an angle, jolting audience members and witnesses who were unsure at first if her ill-fated landing was part of a stunt.

"I was so stunned when I saw it, because she swore loudly as she was coming down the ramp, probably knowing she wasn't going to make it, but I didn't know if it was supposed to happen," witness David Riddle, 38, said. "And then everyone started to go crazy because she wasn't moving."

Witnesses said Letterman promptly ran out of the Ed Sullivan Theater and stood over her as emergency workers loaded Dakides into an ambulance.

"We hope Tara makes a full and complete recovery and that she'll be back on 'The Late Show' soon," show executive producer Rob Burnett said. A repeat episode was shown Thursday night.

Workers who were removing the fake snow from the U-shaped ramp Thursday night said they were astounded to see Dakides land on her back on the ground.

"Another guy went before her and he did like six runs and was fine," worker David Gogg, 45, said. "It was scary."

Dakides, who has been competing for about 10 years, has earned top scores in several major snowboarding events.

"She's ready to get back out on the slopes," Messler said. She said Dakides had joked after the accident, "The only thing I'm upset about is that the French judge only gave me a 5.6

She's Out of The Hospital...

Champion snowboarder Tara Dakides, who fell 25 feet off a ramp while performing a stunt for "The Late Show with David Letterman," was released from the hospital yesterday, vowing to return to the slopes "very soon."

"This is not going to stop me at all," Dakides told The Post. "I am going to take a few weeks off."

Dakides, an X Games gold medalist, walked out of Bellevue Hospital a day after she slipped off a snow-covered ramp set up outside the Ed Sullivan Theater on West 53rd Street. The daredevil veered out of control while trying a 360-degree midair twist and slammed to the ground.

"This was a different kind of fall. I don't usually fall off scaffolding jumps," she said. "When I hit the concrete I got a little nervous. Things got gray there for 10 seconds."

The 28-year-old snowboarding babe - who performed the stunt without a helmet - received four stitches to close a cut to the back of her head.

Dakides, nicknamed the "Terrorizer," has been competing on the snowboarding circuit since 1993. She was in the city to showcase her talents on the CBS show and to discuss the silver medal she recently won at the X Games in Aspen, Colo.

Letterman, who visited the athlete in the hospital after canceling Thursday's show, said on last night's show that Dakides will appear on the show Monday.

"She's fine and she's going back to her career, and so what looked like just a horrific, miserable tragedy . . . in fact had a happy ending," he said.

In his opening monologue, Letterman joked, "There hasn't been a jump that ill-advised since I moved from NBC to CBS."

Tara Facties

Born August 20, 1975 - Born in Mission Viejo, California
Started Snowboarding at 13
Snowboard competitively since 1993
X Games Gold in Slope Style (1999, 2000, 2002)
X Games Gold in Big Air (2000, 2001)
Three time Snowboarder of the Year
Seen on the Mack Dawg Video series

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