Here’s another ski story from David Bennett (the world record guy – and not to mention a whole lot of other cool stuff that we hope to uncover).
‘The little girl skiing in this photo (above) is blind. The lady on ski’s towed by the boom is wheelchair bound’ – David taught them both how to ski.
In the words of David;
“For several years our ski club hosted days of water skiing for Camp Quality (kids with Cancer). The little blind girl (Emma) was a participant. She was about 10 at the time.
(She would be about 16 now.)
Later I was looking around on the internet to see if anyone else teaches blind people and found LOF Adaptive Skiers (lofadaptiveskiers.org) in the USA. They teach blind people and all sorts of people in wheelchairs (stroke victims, people with missing limbs etc) and I have visited the USA to volunteer on several occasions and on one trip I met Jamie Petrone (who is confined to a wheelchair because of her feet). They were setting her up for a Ski Biscuit and I suggested that the heavy bindings on jump skis should hold her feet sufficiently well to allow her to stand and actually ski.
We taught her to ski standing upright using a training boom and eventually she graduated to a long rope. Last time I was in the States she was crossing wakes and I taught her to dock start.
Jamie is an absolute star and teaches wheelchair dancing and runs an organisation which promotes “Inclusion” in artistic endeavours”. (http://www.thisabilityarts.org/index.php/jamie-petrone)
