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Non-Profit Organizations Help Train Disabled To Snowboard

Non-profit organizations are helping to disprove the common
notion that disabled people cannot participate in sports.
They are actively training disabled people to develop skiing
and snowboarding skills and to compete in competitions.

For those that still believe that the loss of a limb makes
someone unable to play sports, I strongly recommend that
they see the film "Murder Ball", a little seen 2005
documentary about wheel chair rugby, where athletes missing
one or more limbs go all out in full contact mode to win a
championship. I guarantee that anyone after seeing this
movie will have a lot more respect for those with
disabilities among us.

Snowboarding is widely considered an "extreme sport." It
gained mass exposure and popularity in the U.S. during the
2002 Winter Olympics held in Park City, Utah. Snowboarding
can be a difficult sport to master as it combines elements
of surfing, skateboarding and skiing. Yet, these days, we're
finding more and more people with disabilities on the
snowboarding slopes.

A prime example of organizations working with disabled
persons to help them achieve their full potential is
Challenge Alaska which has worked with disabled athletes in
Alaska for over twenty years. They are a non-profit
organization that provides sports and therapeutic recreation
opportunities for those with disabilities. This past winter,
they worked with developmentally disabled students of all
ages, instructing more than one thousand lessons, to teach
them skiing and snowboarding skills.

A type of snowboarding that is becoming more popular for
those with physical disabilities is Adaptive Snowboarding.
Similar to the rugby sport mentioned above, adaptive
snowboarding allows partially disabled sportsmen and women
to participate in their sport. Although Adaptive Skiing has
been around for a while, many people are just starting to
become aware of Adaptive Snowboarding.

The sport is relatively new but manufacturers are already
beginning to develop specialized snowboards and equipment
built around the sport. Counts vary as to how many adaptive
riders there are in the country with no one having a hard
number, but everyone agrees that it's popularity is growing
rapidly. The short term goal is to eventually have Adaptive
Snowboarding included as an athletic competition in the
Winter Paralympic Games, possibly as soon as the 2010
Paralympic Winter Games in Whistler.

One organization at the forefront of teaching the sport of
Adaptive Snowboarding is the non profit U.S. Adaptive
Recreation Center at the Bear Mountain Ski Resort in
California. They have a full staff of recreational
therapists on board to lead and monitor the training. They
accept people with disabilities of all types including
blindness, autism, spinal cord injuries, missing limbs,
partial paralysis, and many others. Adaptive Snowboard
Training, consisting of one-on-one sessions, costs less than
%100 a day which includes the cost of lift tickets and
equipment.

Organizations like the Adaptive Recreation Center and
Challenge Alaska are true to the idea that we can do
anything if we put our minds to it and that our capabilities
are more than our physical limitations. They have proven
that snowboarding and other extreme sports can be enjoyed by
people with a wide variety of disabilities if they are
simply given the confidence to try and the equipment and
opportunity to shine.

Snowboarding is widely considered an "extreme sport."
Snowboarding can be a difficult sport to master as it
combines elements of surfing, skateboarding and skiing. Yet,
these days, we're finding more and more people with
disabilities on the snowboarding slopes.

Technorati Tags : snowboarding adaptive sport disabilities