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A while back I was contacted by Bev Baxter of 'Uphill Ski', which is a club set up to enable disabled people to enjoy the sport of skiing. Bev invited our local NABD members to join them for a try-out day at a dry slope, and after much deliberation we set on a date in mid July. We all met up at the dry ski slope in Sidcup, on what must have been one of the hottest days of the summer.
The Uphill ski club have some pretty cool equipment to help people with disabilities to ski, the most interesting of which is a thing called a 'sit ski' which is like an enclosed bucket seat fitted to a pair of skis on a suspension linkage.
It is primarily designed for people with paraplegia or people with lower limb disabilities, and is towed to the top of the slope before skiing down with the aid of someone steering and braking it from the rear.
We took it in turns to be strapped into the pair of sit skis, and had several runs on the slope. We had to wear helmets, gloves, and sweat shirts to avoid burns from the plastic slope if the ski tipped over, so we baked in the 80 degree heat. I felt sorry for the guys 'n' gals pulling us up and down the slope, it was very hard and thirsty work.
Unfortunately I had a bit of a mishap on one of my runs when the ski tipped over. I forgot to keep my hands inside and ended up breaking the little finger on my right hand. (oops!) Still I managed to ride the bike home ok, and after a visit to the local A&E for strapping and X-rays it's well on the mend now.
Other options for disabled skiing are....
Solo in a sit ski - using short hand poles with ski's on the bottom as outriggers. I think this needs a lot more practice than we had time for on the day to be honest.
The Quad ski - is using normal skis in conjunction with a pair of outrigger skis on longer hand poles. Again a bit difficult to master in a day, especially if you've never been on ski's before.
The Tri-ski - is an option for amputees where you ski 'one-legged' using the long outrigger poles for stability. Needless to say I passed on the offer of a Tri ski session after my little prang in the sit ski. (Maybe another time?)
Uphill Ski run sessions at several dry slopes, and also organise trips abroad so disabled skiers can sample real snow. They are also in need more of able bodied helpers with a bare minimum of skiing experience, as extra training is provided. So if you fancy having a go, or helping out, give them a call on 01322 223641
You can check out their web site is at www.uphill-skiing.org.uk
I would like to thank Bev, Andrew and the gang at Uphill Ski for our taster session, I think you can see from the photos we all had a lot of fun.
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