Article ES9 Disabled V


Brent Teaching a vet with a missing lower leg	Mike on a Bi-ski used by paraplegics'	BJ taking a load off his leg before skiing

There comes a time when you realize that terrible things happen and they can happen to the best of people. Loss of arms, legs, or the full function of the mind. Or losing the feeling and muscle control from the waist down - or even worse - from the neck down. These are some of the disabled veterans recently injured from duties in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places in our world where conflicts exist.

In December 2008 they were honored at the “Salute Our American Heroes, Road to Recovery” conference in Orlando, Florida at the Disney World Resort. I was privileged to be part of Mark Wellman’s Adventure Sports Expo where we worked with the veterans at the conference to introduce them to outdoor sports such as skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing and bicycling.

Many of them I learned had enjoyed these sports before their injuries and now had no idea that they could perform them again. In fact, most perform them better than before and more competitively. With the use of modified equipments, refined specific techniques and the aid of experienced instructors they learned to overcome their doubts.

They experienced the feel of skiing and snow-boarding on the Endless Slope, the scaling of a rock face on a climbing wall and maneuvering through an obstacle course pedaling a futuristic looking Tri-bike powered by a hand pedal and steered by a chest sensitive control. By accomplishing a sport they thought was beyond their reach they discovered a renewed hope for success.

With life made more difficult by their injuries, this new found ability to perform at sports not only gave them hope and desire, but started the cascade to succeed in other aspects of their life, broadening their capabilities take full advantage of more opportunities.

Achieving just one physically and skillfully demanding activity at the conference gave the veterans the confidence, motivation, attitude and view that most things in life are not beyond one’s efforts.

By assisting the veterans by just demonstrating appropriate techniques that are specific for their condition, helping them develop specialized skill and to use adaptive equipment to enhance their ability to perform the sport they discovered that they could excel to one day compete at special Olympic events.

They discovered that they were not limited by their disabilities, but only by how much they want to train and dedicate themselves to a sport. So with the aid of ingenious equipments, appropriate skill developments, proper training specific relative to their conditions and their capabilities for accomplishing the sport they found the possibilities to reach endless heights.

With skiing and snow-boarding, we first showed them how they could achieve the ride. They were then properly fitted with boots, if required, and the board or skis, or sitting bi-skis. Then they were harnessed either into a sitting bi-ski for the paraplegics or in a standing body harness for those who have enough motor skills to walk. The harnessing provided them with safety and security resulting in limited falling.

Because the surface of the Endless Slope moved under the skier or boarder, harnessing the rider was possible as they remained skiing or boarding pretty much in a transverse line riding back and forth. As a note, just because the rider rode and turned back and forth along a lateral line it doesn’t mean that they did not feel the pull of gravity down a slope. The rider is pulled down the moving slope and to maintain the lateral riding they have to edge and carve the ski and snowboard to maintain sliding down the slope. So in essence and from a physics stand point they were actually skiing and snowboarding.

The advantage of the Endless Slope as a training tool is that it allowed us to harness the rider as well as allowing them to hold onto a safety bar in front for added stability so they could develop the proper skills and technique to ride hands free. It also allowed the instructors to easily aid the rider being either in front of them or behind them.

The person in front could stand in front helping point out or guide the rider and the instructor behind typically skied behind on the Endless Slope along with the rider assisting when necessary from the back.

The bottom line for the rider is that they were actually skiing or boarding, experiencing the same sensations, thrills and excitement as on the mountain. Once they were shown and felt their capability to control the ride we allowed them to go solo with us being right there to aid them if they developed any difficulties.

Using their capabilities to optimize their ride along with their specialized equipment, they discovered the enhanced possibilities to maneuver on skis and snowboard. The outcome was the ability to soar once again on skis and snowboards - feeling the stable balance, speed and turning. They became an athlete in control of their destiny. On the Endless Slope they not only experienced the ride but received instant feedback of their development to control the skis or board or bi-ski. They became confident in themselves that such sport endeavors are not beyond their reach.

For many of us who are able-bodied, such sports as skiing and snowboarding can be daunting, but for the recently disabled veterans these activities may seem impossible. They feel they are playing in a completely different ball park from the rest of the world - both physically and mentally. They have an acute sensitivity to limitations, making things seem impossible with the disappointing fear of failing becoming a disgusting cloud that relentlessly hangs over them. Because of this, they approach sports with a greater fearful doubt, deeper than we have. As if they feel they already have two or maybe three strikes against them from the start.

Working alongside with some of the best instructors, coaches, special Olympians and athletes, I saw the smiles of our veterans as they discovered and grasped the ability to accomplish these sports. They performed slightly differently making up for lost limbs and other debilitating aspects of their injuries, modifying movements that help create or maintain control and using specialized equipment and technology to further their comfort, position, stability and steering.

Skiing and snowboard lessons performed at Orlando’s Walt Disney World, as I mentioned earlier, was done on my Endless Slope a mechanical moving mountain-like machine that has an inclined revolving carpeted surface that one can ski and snowboard on continuously. This particular device was once used by the Rossingol ski team for training and demonstration purposes.

Mark Wellman drove the Endless Slope on a 19-foot trailer from California as I rode shotgun. For those who do not know Mark, he is an accomplished wheel chair athlete who was the first paraplegic to have scaled El Captain in Yosemite. He has also crossed the Sierra Nevada on a sit ski, was a two-time Para Olympian, and has accomplished many other of his outdoors passions. Mark drove all the way, not trusting me to drive his prized diesel truck that he purchased when he was a Para Olympian.

The advantage of the Endless Slope, besides allowing us to ski and snowboard in Orlando, Florida, where snow has as much of a chance to exist as your money does with Maddoff investment firm, is that we could safely train and develop the veteran’s ability to perform the sport with their capabilities.

For those of us who are able bodied, to ski and snowboard becomes a special thrill. For someone who has lost something of themselves, it is more like a miracle. For these young veterans it is a healing process to help them come a little bit closer towards enjoying a life that has been turned upside down. It provides not only a personal best, but rewards one with something only a sports achievement can give, which is controlling our bodies at an athletic level.

Paraplegic veterans skied in a specially designed seated bi-ski which was invented by Mike Miltner, who I was fortunate to assist on the endless slope. It was simply amazing to see how the riders developed their balance and controlled their steering through subtle weight shift.

Single and double leg amputees were taught to snowboard and ski under the guidance of Coach Brent Kuemmerle. Brent, a one-leg amputee, is one of the top snowboard instructors in the country. Brent mentions to his leg amputee students that snowboard boots are not necessary for the prosthetic foot telling them that frostbite is not an option for the false foot. Brent uses towels, cardboard and any other materials to secure the prosthetic foot, with a regular walking or running shoe on it, into the snowboard binding.

I discovered quickly that working with such individuals you are not only dealing with the obvious physical disabilities, but also the hidden and not so obvious injuries of mental challenges brought upon them from brain injuries, mental stress, problems of family, etc., brought on by their handicapped, dysfunctional, damaged conditions and appearances. Working with traumatic injured persons is not simply dealing with their physical injuries, but with sudden outburst from depression, sadness to aggressive stubbornness and anger. We were fortunate that what we experienced from them were the joys and thrills brought on by the accomplishment of them skiing and snowboarding. Maybe, because they are recent veterans that they still carried fresh deep inside them the military discipline and they were very controlled in their actions and responses.

You not only saw in them, but felt in them the pride and strength of themselves and the courteousness they gave to others. As I worked with them they always acknowledge me, calling me “sir,” something I am not use to hearing, but made me very humble and proud to be there.

Even with the youthful strength of these young veterans you can still feel the tensions in them that they bear their injuries not only on the outside, but within. They must live with such disabilities for the rest of their lives as they go forth to make the best for themselves and their family. It is the participation in such sports that give hope that limitation of oneself is only in the not trying.

Many of the veterans left with the belief that life can still be enjoyed fully even with disabilities. Sometimes the real disabilities are not seeing the value of things we should do and being afraid and not try something we want to do.

(RJ disabled vet on snowboard, now a TV actor on "All My Children" having a go on the Endless Slope)

As an instructor, it was a learning experience of a lifetime. Working outside the box, examining new ways to teach individuals to accomplish controlling a pair of skis or a snowboard with a severe injury or disability. This has given me a greater understanding of skiing and snowboarding which I would not have realized by conventional teaching methods.

For me personally, I realize how fortunate I am to have what I have. As I further develop myself as a skier, a snowboarder and as an instructor I have a stronger appreciation of the gift that these sports offer not only to me but to others. The recently injured veterans are overcoming not only physical limitations but mental stress of adjusting to their changed life. This affects not only themselves, but wife and children, relatives, friends, community and society. They shoulder the burden of sacrifice for our freedom to enjoy our way of life in the United States so that we may pursue happiness.

So if you see one on the slopes, give them the right of way so they may enjoy the ride.

Sam Morishima is a Contributing Editor for Sierra Ski News and Director of the SnoZone Ski & Snowboard School. Sam can be reached at snozone@pacbell.net or visit www.endlesslope.com.