October 2002
Well, what can we do for fun. You have to be accommodating with the type of disability you have of course. But, you can still have a lot of fun.
You need to learn about the activity or sport that you are interested in and see how you can participate safely for you and the others around you.
These are some things that I have done in my power chair and my manual chair are: Roller Blade with friends, in college we would go play Roller Blade tag on our college campus at night.
Hiking with friends. There are slowly becoming available around the country. It is still hard to find where they are, but you can contact the US Forest Service, your State Government Park Service to find accessible trails in your area.
I have a friend who is a runner, so I go with her driving along side of her while she runs down the local running and bike trails in town.
I go with my brother on 4 X 4 trips. We went to the Chile Challenge in Las Cruces, New Mexico for several days. I was the only disabled individual there. We hear of a gentleman that has a 4 X 4 with hand controls and he has his manual wheelchair. I have yet to meet him though. But it is a lot of fun being in the back country.
I also go target shooting with friend and family at a local shooting range. They even have a handicapped accessible lane that I can reach the switch to bring the paper target up close to see how I did. Right now I am target shooting with hand guns. One day I would like to find a rifle that I could be able to shoot and go hunting with my family.
Fishing can be an exciting sport once you learn how. At many lakes now are accessible spots where you can safely fish from your chair that are well stocked. I love going with my nieces and nephew even at the fish farms. That way you are guaranteed to catch something. My nephew and I caught the two largest fish that day at the fish farm. He beat me by a half inch and is only 4 years old. We had fun catching those 18" and 18.5" fish.
In junior college I use to lift weights and I had a friend that helped me. I felt great after a getting use to it. I would transfer into my manual wheelchair for cardiovascular exercise I would push my manual wheelchair around a full sized basket ball court for close to 4 laps. Then we would go to the weight room and lift some weight making sure by not over exercising and with too much weight. Then I would do a few more laps around the basketball court again and transfer back into the power chair.
I really enjoy going with friends and family to go bowling. Usually you need to call your local bowling alley a head of time and ask if they have a bowling frame which allows you to place the ball on and then simply push it of down into the lane. Some alleys will have a step up to the lanes, but usually the will have a ramp at one end or another. Or, I take my own that I have in the back of the van to help me get up a 3" to 4" step.
How about some other competitive sports. One that I learned to do in college was to play pool. All my friends think I cheat, because I am at eye level and can see all the angles. There are assisted devices available for this sport as well to hold the cue stick.
Another one that is fun that I admit I am not very good at but energetic at is table tennis. It is fun to play with a partner, so you don't have to try to move your wheelchair and hit the ball. My fiends can also help by picking up the ball that I missed and the ball is on the floor.
I even have a friend that goes skiing with the snow about fall.
I really enjoy games. Weather they are board games, card games, and computer games. You can always use your imagination and make your own entertainment.
Do you want to be in a professional and/or competitive sports. Well those are available as well. I hear of wheelchair basketball and soccer popping up all over the country. And of course many people participate in the Paralympic Games
So, go out and enjoy life there are so many things that we all can do.
Good Luck! Stay posted for November Newsletter! If you have any suggestions or ideas send them to Newsletter@HandicappedVans.com
Have a Happy Halloween!
Sincerely,
Curtiss
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