#sit-ski

[lady-stormwind]

Spirit in motion

"The Olympics are the epitome of human excellence and the Paralympics are the epitome of human resilience." Tim Hodge

Barbie Para Alpine Skier

My Barbie here

[thegirlwhodidstuff]

What the fuck am i even doing?

I've lost all my confidence. I'm on a fucking bi-ski. Everyone says "yes, but you've a really high level injury and a really bad curved and twisted spine. I need to accept that it's part of me and part of my skiing. I just want to be able to ski independently because when i am and i'm in control and can do what i want then it feels amazing and it's llke being a kid riding my bike and i love it. But when i can't even turn...i just want to cry and i don't want to give up because it's my goal to learn how to sit-ski. I just need to sort my head out and believe in myself. I've spent so long putting myself down that i don't know how to get back up.

[coolthingsotherpeoplearedoing]

“When I was in the air, they were already calling the ski patrol.”

-- Josh Dueck. The Freedom Chair.

He came down from a hundred feet in the air after badly misjudging the speed needed for a jump. He hasn't walked since. 

My roommate and I have had many heated debates about what qualifies as an inspiring story of surmounting adversity. He has a hard time finding it astounding when a person's hurdle is the result of his own mistake. I argue from the point of view of someone who, himself, had enough time in the air before breaking both of his legs on a misjudged ski jump to look over at the people on the chair lift and hear them say, "oh fuck." 

It's a difficult mental battle dealing with the repercussions of your own stupidity and it haunts you endlessly.

I got to see this short film debut at the Banff Mountain Film Festival last week. Josh Dueck and veteran ski hero / director, Mike Douglas, gave a talk at the end. The torture in Josh's voice was palpable. But that's the difficulty that arises when life changing stupidity forces you to make so many decisions that, in Josh's case, have lead him to a myriad of opportunities in the Olympics, X Games and in sport development talks around the world--all of which would have been inapplicable and intangible without his injury.

No matter your stance, if you would like to be deeply affected by a tortured story of human triumph catch The Freedom Chair in person on its North American Tour.