My name is Chris, I’m 21 and I’m from Northern Ireland. Firstly, I think what the iDID Adventure team is doing is both brilliant and long-overdue. I have Cerebral Palsy, so although I am quite active & sporty, I had never really considered trying skiing or adventure sports until i started seeing what iDID were doing. Regular readers will know Jennie, she is part of the iDID team. She invited me to go skiing with her at DSUK and since it's the 'Year of No Fear' and all that, I could hardly say no!
The staff were extremely helpful, talking me through different options for going down the slope such as ordinary skis with or without outriggers, a sit ski, or a “mountain man” toboggan. Jennie went with the mountain man but I decided to give the upright skiing with outriggers a go. Because of this I’d to swap my trainers for a pair of ski boots, which are completely rigid and effectively immobilise the ankle. Getting used to walking in them was a slightly unusual experience, my physiotherapist would be so proud – I was finally having to put my heels down instead of walking on the front of my feet!
The outriggers are basically crutches with skis on the end instead of ferrules. The ones I was using had a nifty little mechanism to allow the user to choose between having the skins down flat, or up on their tips, used in this mode they could act as crutches and give me extra balance, always useful on a slope!
As it was my very first skiing lesson, a fair bit of time was spent getting used to the equipment & manoeuvring on a fat surface, before beginning to move up the slope. This was the most difficult part personally, as due to the physics involved, it’s almost impossible to walk up a slope with skis on, one must stand perpendicular to the slope and side-step their way up. It required a lot of effort to move & concentration to try to keep my feet in a straight line; my feet often turn in or out slightly, which isn’t usually a big deal, but it becomes much more noticeable when I have about 2 foot of fibreglass on! I asked about using the ski-lifts but was told no, beginners must side step, as they’re only going few hundred metres up the slope. The effort that was exerted getting up the slope was well rewarded by the exhilaration and adrenalin pumping through my system as I went speeding back down!
All too soon, my 90 minute session was over and I was heading back indoors, though not before stopping to watch Jennie have one last run down the slope in the mountain man, it looked thrilling, and judging by the video I took, she was certainly going at some speed, which she was obviously enjoying! Skiing is something I never saw myself doing before, but because I had so much fun this time, I’ll definitely be doing it again.
I'm really looking forwared to the event iDID are working on with DSUK and will be definately going on iDID's snowsports weekends as well... hurry up iDID!!
Chris Murray is 21 and from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has Cerebral Palsy and is actively into sports. Chris is working with Ulster University to research sustainable disability sports and will be working with iDID on its University Project.
iDID Adventure are working hard to get their services out, you can help them by visiting www.ididadventure.co.uk and completing the appropriate survey.
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