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Check this: First ever adapted snowboard

Sep 22 01:07

We've all heard of adapted skiing - downhill and cross country - if there's two skis, they can be affixed underneath a seat and used by to people who can't walk and used until to kingdom come. But adapted snowboarding is something that has never been made truly accessible, simply too tricky, until now.

Like all cool things in this world, it took a company out of California to make the world's first adapted snowboard. Crankbrothers in Laguna Beach, California creates custom boards, and they teamed up with professional snowboarder Dave lee and Signal Snowboards to create an amazing snowboard/mountain bike hybrid for Tim Ostler, a top snowboarder in the 1990's who broke his neck in 2000 (while doing a trick on a half pipe).

I've seen a lot of cool adapted contraptions before, but this has got to be one of the coolest I've ever seen. What they've done is take two mountain bike wheels and fuse them to a snowboard using steel joints, and the seat for this contraption is also made out of a snowboard (which has been bent to mimic the shape of a seat). It took a lot of work creating this board. They had to take it to the slopes to see if the welds would hold up, and after fine-tuning their contraption, they were able to finally make it safe for Tim.

In this 7 minute video from the online video series "Every Third Thursday," where they showcase unconventional snowboards, you can watch the entire process of the board's creation and watch Tim take his first ride on this board. As any snowboarder will agree, skiing is no replacement for snowboarding and even though Tim was able to do was some adapted skiing after his accident, he says getting back on a snowboard is like nothing else.

There are a lot of guys and gals out there who would LOVE to try this. If you're a snowboarder, skiing just won't do, even the adapted kind, and this is why this contraption is such a big deal and the world of adapted sports.

If you'd like to learn more about the snowboard and possibly purchase one yourself, you'll have to contact the crew at Crankbrothers to see if they can make one for you (since they’re not been mass-produced yet).

Do you miss snowboarding? Would you use an adapted snowboard?

- Watch the video - Adaptive Snowboarding Reinvented: Every Third Thursday

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By Tiffiny Carlson

Tiffiny Carlson Disability buzz, travel, fashion and dating — fun things to amp up everyday wheeling life.

Tiffiny Carlson is freelance writer and writes the “SCI Life” column for New Mobility. She's also a C6 quad from a diving accident that occurred when she was 14 years old. A lifelong resident of Minneapolis, Tiffiny has been a writer in the disability community for over 10 years and writes for several publications and blogs, as well as her personal blog BeautyAbility. Her work has also appeared in mainstream publications such as Nerve.com and Playgirl.