Shaw sets sail for Paralympics
Stephanie Burr
Staff writer
October 15, 2007
Stephanie Burr
Lookout
Communication technician Marc Shaw at work in his Fleet Maintenance Facility shop in dockyard.
The medal podium will be on Marc Shaw’s mind as he heads south to St. Petersburg, Florida, this November.
Shaw, a Fleet Maintenance Facility communication technician, and his team are competing in the America’s Disabled Open Regatta. If they do well in this regatta and another qualifying regatta in Miami, Florida, in January 2008, they’ll qualify for the Beijing 2008 Paralympics.
“Going to the Paralympics would confirm everything I have worked for, and would be an incredible experience; one that ironically enough I wouldn’t have a chance at if I hadn’t been injured,” says Shaw.
Fourteen years ago, while working in the oil patches in Northern B.C., Shaw lost his leg in a workplace accident.
“A drilling exploration charge blew up right in front of me,” he says. “After two years of recovery and fighting to try and keep my leg, I had to have it amputated from below the knee.”
A decade and a half later, he’s turned that devastating accident into a positive challenge: sailing.
Shaw is part of a three-person team; together, they sail a 23-foot Sonar sailboat. He met his teammates Don Terlson and Ken Kelly two years ago at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club on a private boat he crewed.
“Ken asked me if I was interested in joining their team, and I knew right away that I was. After that followed a lot of long hours of training,” says Shaw.
He trains harder than most because his sailing experience is not as extensive as some of his paralympic competitors. “I sailed a bit as a kid on a reservoir in Calgary, but didn’t get back to it until I moved to Victoria. I’ve had to cram the usual seven years of training into two,” he says.
Plus, he adds, he’s had to re-learn how to sail without a prosthesis.
“I remember one time I lost my prosthesis over the side of the boat during a race. We were winning and I knew if we turned around it was all over. So we finished the race, went back to where I lost it and there it was floating along. Today, I’m much more balanced on it, and haven’t had another issue like that one.”
Because Terlson and Kelly had their sights set on the Paralympics, Shaw had to get fit fast. As jib sail trimmer, he needed to be strong and agile.
“I cleaned up my eating habits, starting exercising a lot more and made a conscious decision to live cleaner,” he says. “My efforts paid off. In 10 months I lost 60 lbs.”
As the most physically able-bodied member of the crew, he’s also responsible for any emergencies that might come up.
“Ken, our skipper, is a paraplegic and Don’s left arm is crippled. I’m the only one with two able arms, and sometimes I’m the only one who can complete certain tasks, like tying down a line in the middle of severe winds,” says Shaw.
“We have to do reasonably well in both regattas, but we’re confident that we will pull together and make it,” he says. “We just got back from a race in Rochester, New York, where we learnt what we need to do to guarantee our success is communicate more on the water, especially since we are all limited in our movements,” says Shaw.
