Athletes with disabilities have found success in many winter sports, including downhill skiing, nordic skiing and hockey. Now, kids and adults with disabilities are also experiencing the joys of snowboarding. Lucas Grossi, who directs an adaptive snowboarding summer camp on Mt. Hood, believes that "snowboarding is easier to pick up [than skiing] for disabled people. Snowboarding feeds the soul true freedom."
What is adaptive snowboarding?
Participants include riders with spinal cord injuries, amputations, visual impairments, head injuries, multiple sclerosis and other conditions.
“People with various types of disabilities will be able to make snowboarding work for them. Above knee amputees will ride with a little rigging to their prosthetic and possibly using outriggers. People with partial paralysis can use restrictive knee braces and outriggers to shred down the hill. Paraplegics will have a ride that is kind of like a mono ski. ... It just takes the right attitude and a little trial and error.”
Lucas has been perfecting his own prosthesis with the help of three companies in particular: Northern Care O and P, Springlite, and Alps Liners. He likes to put his snowboarding to the test with fat powder turns, riding in the trees and dropping huge cliffs.
Talk-show host Montel Williams took up snowboarding last year as therapy for his multiple sclerosis. He has since gotten hooked on the sport and has worked to raise a lot of awareness about both MS and adaptive snowboarding:
“I was told I'd never be able to do something like this, and now I'm riding, having fun, and it's making me feel better. Other MS sufferers and people who have chronic illnesses have been told not to do things. I think if they tried this they may find out why so many people are going nuts over the sport.”
Montel credits snowboarding with putting his brain back in touch with his feet. This unique form of therapy has also offered him the exhilaration of being on the mountain and learning a new sport. Now, he's addicted. "[Snowboarding] has changed my life."
Other winter sports have a relatively long and successful history of adaptive techniques and instruction. By comparison, adaptive snowboarding is still in a grassroots phase. With plenty of inspiration from riders who are making snowboarding work for them, it is likely that adaptive snowboarding will soon find itself alongside other winter activities in both availability and popularity.
For more information check out the National Sports Center for the Disabled at www.nscd.org
