Careening.
That’s the word that describes a downhill ride in a sit ski.
Buckles clasped, hips wedged, wrist cuffs locked. I was immobilized from the waist down, relying on my arms to support me.
Behind me a red-jacketed ski instructor coached.
“Look right, turn right, not too much,” he called from one, maybe two, metres back – the length of tethers connecting him to my sled.
It felt like skiing, but it also brought that sort of terror that comes from your first toboggan run of the season.
I tried the adaptive sport at Craigleith Ski Club yesterday (Feb. 13), where Spinal Cord Injury Ontario was hosting its annual ski day fundraiser.
In addition to raising funds for the charity, it’s a chance for people with spinal cord injuries to try downhill skiing.
For Scott Smith, it meant he could return to the sport he built a life around.
Smith was a level three ski instructor and level two coach for 20 years, working at Searchmont Ski Resort (near Sault Ste. Marie) and Whistler Mountain Ski Club.
On Oct. 20, 2018, he broke two vertebrae (T11 and T12) when he fell from a loft at his hunt camp. There was no electricity, and he woke up at 5 a.m. when “nature called.” He missed the ladder down from the loft and fell.
He can no longer use his legs, and has been living his life in a wheelchair since he left his 80-days in rehabilitation at home in Blind River, Ontario.
On the anniversary of his fall, Oct. 20, 2019, Smith wheeled the 5-km portion of the Scotiabank marathon in Toronto with his wife by his side. They raised $2,200 for Spinal Cord Injury Ontario (SCIO).
Yesterday, one year and four months after suffering a burst fracture and 80 per cent sever in his spine, he returned to the ski hill.
Smith tried sit-skiing using an adaptive device at the SCIO adaptive ski day. He finished five runs on the hill at Craigleith Ski Club.
“It was exhilarating,” said Smith. “It brought back a lot of great feelings I haven’t been able to feel in a long time.”
For Smith, the sit-ski experience felt close to his days on the hills at Searchmont and Whistler.
“It’s very similar,” he said. “The speed factor, the visual of going down the hill - it’s all the same.”
Though he didn’t get the ski-feeling he was used to in his feet, he said the vibrations in the chair gave the same feeling as being on skis.
“It means the world,” he said. “It’s something I used to do as an able-bodied person, and can still get satisfaction out of it even though I’m sitting in a chair.”
Smith connected with SCIO soon after his accident. While in rehabilitation at the Lyndhurst Centre he met Ivan.
“[Ivan] talked openly about what it means to be in a chair, and how life is different,” said Smith. “He told me to remain positive in my thinking and not to let the wheels deter me from everything I want to do.”
Smith said he could remember lying on the floor after his fall and thinking he had a choice to sink or swim.
“This isn’t my demise. I like to think it’s a bump in the road,” said Smith. “I don’t feel it’s brought me down in any way.”
He said other than the marathon, this is his first time trying something as extreme as downhill skiing since his injury.
“I feel healed,” he said.
For Bob Pesant, adaptive skiing is all about freedom.
Yesterday was his fourth time at the SCIO event and on the hill.
Pesant has been in a wheelchair since 1973. He was a high school student at the time and was injured while wrestling. He fractured his C4, C5, and C6 vertebrae.
He’s been an SCIO client since his one-year hospital stay post-injury.
Last year he did 12 runs at adaptive ski day, a personal best.
“I enjoy the freedom,” he said. “I’m somewhat skiing like everybody else would ski. It’s using adaptive equipment, but the crux of it is still going downhill in some fashion.”
He likes to challenge himself to beat his previous year record.
Pesent tried wheelchair curling in November, and is also a member of Able Sail Toronto, and has raced on Lake Ontario, in Hamilton and on the Ottawa River.
For Pesant, another valuable aspect of an event like yesterday’s ski day is social. He’s glad to
get together with others he sees once or twice per year.
Ari Wahl, director of development for SCIO, said the organization is intentional about the social side of its operations.
“This event highlights one of our foundational activities, which is connecting volunteers and our clients in a peer-to-peer way,” said Wahl. “It’s connecting people with lived experience to those newly injured. You see that here, those returning and people who are trying it for the first time.”
Adaptive ski day also draws on the help of volunteers from Track 3 and Canadian Adaptive Snowsports who work with the SCIO clients to take them sit skiing for the day.
Many of the coaches also help facilitate local adaptive ski programs at Blue Mountain and Craigleith Ski Club on the weekend.
“I thank everyone involved - sponsors, volunteers, participants - for really making it a great day for us,” said Wahl. “There’s not a lot of opportunity for our community to be active. For some, this is a highlight.”
This was the 20th anniversary of the SCIO adaptive ski day, and the largest turnout for the event (around 300 people). Over the years, the event has helped raise about $1 million for SCIO initiatives.
Spinal Cord Injury Ontario was founded in 1945 by a group of Second World War veterans with spinal cord injuries. Those veterans began the charity as a way to advocate for improved services and assistive devices for those living with spinal cord injuries.
According to the CEO, Stuart Howe, there are 30,000 people in Ontario living with a spinal cord injury, and there’s an average one injury per day occurring.
“We work with them from the time of the injury, through rehab, and back to independence,” said Howe in an interview with CollingwoodToday at last year’s event.
“Many of them come back and engage in advocacy or peer support work.”
For more on Spinal Cord Injury Ontario, click here.
