Disabled members take to the slopes
Capt Jeff Manney
19 Wing Public Affairs Officer
January 21, 2008
Cpl Drew Deics
DND
MCpl Paul Franklin snowboards on Mount Washington during Disabled Skier week. Paul is a bilateral amp (double leg above the knee amputee).
Here he tries his hand at snowboarding with Instructor Capt Nathan Carreiro, 407 Squadron who volunteered his time during the week to help Paul.
The last time Master Seaman Eric Payne felt speed like this he’d been on his motorcycle, riding the backstreets around Greenwood, Nova Scotia. They were days of freedom, days of unappreciated ease, days before a head-on collision with a truck cost him a leg and changed his life forever.
Fourteen operations and three years of painful recovery later, Eric Payne is rocketing down the slopes of Vancouver Island’s Mount Washington Ski Resort, with a tiny outrigger ski in each hand and a normal ski on his remaining leg. Close behind, his ski instructor is wishing he would slow up a little, but Payne doesn’t stop until he runs out of hill.
“It’s all about quality of life,” Payne says afterwards, a huge grin splitting his ruddy cheeks. “You don’t want to be in a chair in the corner, sleeping. Before the accident I had skied all around the world. I want to be as active now as I was then. Being active, building endurance, it makes your life so much easier.”
Payne was one of three CF amputees to attend Snowsport Festival 2008, a week of activities for disabled skiers held Jan. 7-10 at the ski resort. Accompanied by their spouses, the three were there thanks to the Canadian Forces’ new Soldier On program. A joint initiative between the Canadian Paralympic Committee and Department of National Defence, Soldier On aims to speed rehabilitation and improve the quality of life of disabled current and former CF members.
Their host on the hill was the Vancouver Island Society for Adaptive Snowsports. A 79-strong cadre of volunteer ski instructors, the Society includes a remarkable 20 retired military personnel — no doubt thanks to the nearby presence of 19 Wing Comox. Together, the volunteers hope to not only get disabled people active on the snow, but skiing with their family members.
Instructor and retired Airborne Electronic Sensor Operator, Glen Hooge says the experience of mobility on the snow can be life-changing for the disabled. “This is hugely therapeutic,” he says. “It shows people what they can do physically.”
This is the second year disabled military have participated in the event. And though organizers desperately want to see more than a handful of soldiers show up, it’s already being viewed as a success by amputees like Payne, who says he gets as much from networking as he does from carving through a fresh layer of powder.
“You don’t find things out sitting at home,” he says. “Here there’s a whole community of people just like you, a community of people with similar challenges. It helps you deal with your disability.”
Resting against the wall beside Payne sits a unique set of prosthetic legs, each wearing a snowboarding boot. They belong to MCpl Paul Franklin, who became a double above-the-knee amputee after a suicide bomber targeted his vehicle in Kandahar in January 2006.
Traditionally, double amputees use the sit-ski, a narrow sled guided by an instructor holding a rear handle. But Franklin wanted a little more involvement, so he took up snowboarding. Thanks to a strong core, he’s already able to turn by himself, letting go of the instructor who carefully snowboards opposite him.
Without knees, Franklin feels every bump and jolt directly against his femur. But he refuses to let the pain hinder his progress. “I don’t want a sedentary lifestyle, I don’t want to be stuck in a chair,” he says. “I want to live my life like I did before. This gives you a sense of ability instead of a sense of disability.”
There’s another reason Franklin has come to Mount Washington. Before his accident he could often be found skateboarding through his neighbourhood with his son Simon. Now he hopes to someday snowboard with him.
“He’s my biggest motivator, he’s always been my focus,” Franklin says of his son. “I never thought I’d be back on a mountain, doing things that are highly physical. But that’s the true essence of rehabilitation. I have choices now.”
For more information on the Vancouver Island Society for Adaptive Snowsports, visit them on the web at www.visaweb.ca
