NEW YORK -- A snowboarder performing a stunt for David Letterman's late-night TV talk show veered off a ramp outside the show's theater and fell 25 feet to the ground Thursday.

 

The woman, snowboarding champion Tara Dakides, 30, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was taken to a hospital and was listed in stable condition, said "Late Night with David Letterman" executive producer Rob Burnett.

 

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, who were 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, has finished first in several X Games events, dominating slopestyle, according to the EXPN.com site.

 

Burnett, the producer, 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.

espn.com

I just saw it on the news. Man that had got to hurt......OUCH.

Letterman was really concerned about the girl and followed her to the hospital. They said on the news that she knew she was gonna have a bad landing.

Didn't she have a photo shoot for ESPN the Magazine like 2 weeks ago?

yes