Before losing my mobility, I enjoyed snowboarding in the winter with friends. I did it as a seasonal hobby, not something I excelled in, but as a fun way to be outdoors. The 1st year in my wheelchair I tried many parasports, including wheelchair basketball, surfing, golf, and para-athletics (javelin, shotput, discus), but I did not return to snow sports. All the sports I tried had 1 thing in common: I had not done them when I was able bodied. In that 1st year I was experiencing feelings of loss everyday as I struggled to do basic tasks like cooking and showering. I was not going to put myself in the position to experience even more loss through sports.
The next winter, I had moved into a different stage of recovery where I didn’t want to let my disability decide my future. Part of that stage included returning to activities I once enjoyed; snowboarding was on that list. But I didn’t know where to start. My 1st step was reaching out via email to Parasport Nova Scotia where I connected with CADS (Canadian Adaptive Snowsport) Nova Scotia and my soon to be ski instructor, Zach. Through that connection I learned that there were many ways to adapt snowboarding and skiing based on physical, visual, and neurodiverse disabilities.
Within the following weeks, I had my 1st lesson through CADS with Zach as my instructor. It felt important to me that I return to snowboarding. In my everyday life I could stand on my own and used forearm crutches and ankle braces for balance. The ankle braces were easy to mimic using snowboard boots because of their stiffness. To mimic the forearm crutches I was introduced to outriggers which look like forearm crutches with mini skis on the end. In that 1st lesson I was able to stand up on the board and learn where to safely hold the outriggers for balance. Luckily, I only needed to learn the adaptation to snowboarding not the sport itself so after the 1st lesson I was able to go up the chairlift for a full run. Going down the hill was both freeing and very hard. One challenge we could not account for was the spasticity in my legs, where if I bent my knees, my legs would shake. It helped to give more weight into the outriggers but I’d still fall at weird times. At the end of that day, I was happy I gave the sport a new try, but I still felt very limited. I was exhausted after 1 run and only able to do very beginner snowboarding.
The next year, with the spasticity in my legs having worsened, I knew returning to adaptive snowboarding would be more challenging than rewarding. That is when Zach introduced me to sit ski, a form of adaptive skiing where you are seated on top of 1 or 2 skis using outriggers to balance and steer. At the same time the movie Full Circle came out and changed how I viewed adaptive snow sports. Seeing Trevor Kennison on screen pushing the limits of sit skiing by throwing jumps, hitting rails, and landing a double back flip showed me the limitlessness of the sport. It was the 1st time I realized that adaptive snow sports didn’t have to be about regaining an old experience but could be where you find new ones.
That season I transitioned to sit ski, learning on a bi-ski which is a sit ski with 2 skis underneath. On the bi-ski my instructor Zach would ski behind me with tethers to assist my turns, control my speed, and lessen falls. After a couple lessons I was off tethers on the bunny hill, falling a lot but making improvements each week. That season I started and ended on the bunny hill but knew I was close to experiencing the big hill.
One year later, I am currently in my 3rd season of adaptive snow sports. This season started off with a 12-hour road trip to Stowe Mountain in Vermont, where Green Mountain Adaptive held the largest sit ski camp in North America with 31 sit skiers. At this camp, I started monoskiing ,which is similar to the bi-ski but you now only have 1 ski underneath you. The layout of this camp allowed me to gain foundational monoski skills through 1-1 instruction and learning from experienced monoskiers. The social part of this camp meant the world to me, spending time in spaces where I was not different for being in a wheelchair but just the same as everyone else.
A few days after returning from the camp, our CADS program got a monoski. This was very exciting as I could continue the progress I had made in Vermont. For a 3rd season in a row, I joined Zach on the bunny hill now to learn monoskiing. We started with practicing turns and gaining speed control. In stand-up skiing you can “pizza” your skis to slow down, but that is not an option in sit skiing, so turning becomes your main speed control. For this reason, I have truly learned to love the bunny hill. While new skiers can spend a morning on the bunny hill, I spent 4 days (which is still short for adaptive skiers learning to be independent). After those 4 days, I was up on the big hill for a full run. With some good turns, many falls, and a lot of fear, I made it down the hill in half-an-hour.
The next day, I returned to the bunny hill knowing specific skills to practice and where to focus my energy. Throughout this process, my partner Lucas has been on each bunny hill and big hill run with me. He has seen every up and every down, helping me get up after many falls, and putting my ski back on while mid-way down the steepest pitch. My friend Anneka who is an amazing sit skier and new CADS instructor has been teaching me on the hill. Having instruction from a stand-up skier and sit skier drastically accelerated my learning. Seeing Anneka demonstrate skills allowed me to see it and then try it in the same minute. I remember one of the best early on pieces of advice Anneka gave me was to keep my palms up and outriggers pointing out. This helped me stop catching the edge of my outrigger and prepared me to start the next turn.
This last weekend was day 9 on a monoski and after 3 seasons, 1 ski camp, and many hours of instruction, Anneka, Zach, Lucas, and I completed a top-to-bottom ski hill run together. I could feel the progress made in this sport alongside the people who made it possible. Going down each run still takes a lot of mental and physical energy. I am looking forward to the day where monoskiing feels as easy as snowboarding once did.