This time, he flew over the handlebars and crashed to earth with a sickening crunch that crushed two vertebrae in his neck.

He lost sensation in his legs, and searing pain tore through his body. He couldn't move.

A multi-agency effort through the evening of March 7 helped extricate him from the bush, an operation led by riding teammate, paramedic Dave Kay.

"I knew straight away I was in big trouble. I knew these injuries can happen, but that I couldn't feel anything below the waist was terrifying," Mr Leslie said.

"It was like somebody came up behind me and hit me with a sledgehammer."

After the accident, doctors told him he faced a year of painful recovery before he would walk again.

On Tuesday, Mr Leslie was reunited with the ambulance, Fire Rescue NSW and State Emergency Service crews who pulled him from the bush - and he walked in to meet them.

"It means the world to me that I can thank them," he said. "Not everyone gets the outcome I did. It's a pretty humbling experience."

Ambulance NSW Inspector Norm Rees, on the scene on the night of the accident, praised the co-operation between agencies.

"Co-ordination between the services, and bystanders, is very important.

"This outcome wouldn't have been possible without first aid efforts on the scene," Insp Rees said.

"[His injuries] could have put him as a quadriplegic, but the training and foresight of everyone on scene helped get the outcome he has, which is him walking."

Mr Leslie has given up biking but has other pursuits in mind.

"What got me through rehab is the surgeon saying he could get me back on the snowboard," Mr Leslie said.

"I resigned myself to life in a wheelchair, but look what I can do now - I went walking with my wife on the beach the other day."