While visiting New York City this past winter I realized that Manhattan is a perfect urban environment for wheelchair exercise, and I video taped a couple miles of terrain from my TiLite TR’s perspective.
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Two friends and I just got back from skiing in Whistler, BC. I’ve never sit-skied a bigger mountain ever. It took a gondola ride and 4 separate chairlifts to get to where we wanted to ski. It had dumped snow (around 2 meters) a few days prior to our arrival, therefore the snow was plentiful to say the least. The best part of the entire ski trip was purchasing a single 2010 Volkl Mantra from a ski shop who had broke the other. The owner sold me the single Mantra for $50… sweeeeeet deal! And, if that wasn’t good enough, he switched my binding to the ski for no extra charge. In my world, we’d most definitely call that an “8 meatball special”.
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I suggest practicing in the grass for 2 reasons. 1) When you lean back your wheels are less likely to roll around. 2) It will hurt less if/when you bust your ass. Also, I suggest having someone stand behind you until the comfort level increases. Chances are good your wheelchair has anti-tip bars if a) you are green (new) to a wheelchair, or b) you decided to stay inexperienced. Either way, if you have them, leave them on! The tip bars will eventually start touching as you become more comfortable tipping your weight backwards. Once this begins to happen, yes, it’s time to take them off…. FOREVER. Put them in the garbage, I promise they get in the way.
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Some people may think that a person disabled in a wheelchair is just as disabled as all others in wheelchairs, no more no less. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, they’re both in wheelchairs, there’s no getting around that fact. But, the levels of functional independence can be far different. For someone confined to a wheelchair, disability and independence work as opposites. The less functional independence, the more disabled they are. The more independent the person, the less disabled they are, regardless of the fact that they are both in wheelchairs.
