In my ‘survey of one,’ innovations in adaptive sports equipment are perhaps the next best thing to an outright SCI cure.

When I was injured (T10 complete para), never being able to ski again was a worse blow than never being able to walk again — this was 1985, two years before mono-skiing made the adaptive scene. When mono-skiing hit the adaptive world, I tried it and loved it!  Mono-skiing isn’t “like” skiing, it IS skiing.

From mono-skis to hand-peddle mountain bikes, adaptive equipment is constantly evolving and leveling the playing field of sport.

We can now chalk up Adaptive Kite Surfing to the list of adaptive sports. Here is a cool article and video showing a low level para learning to kite surf. The clip includes an ingeniously simple adaptation for riding the board, a wheelchair frame, some duct tape, and a roll of foam to gently hold the feet in place.

Here is a short clip of a person learning to kitesurf in a more advanced rig — a mono-skiing type bucket seat mounted on the kite surfboard:

Another instructional video can be found at Mpower, and here is a link of a paraplegic (I think — anybody read French?) totally shredding, catching air, doing 360 spins, and carving high speed turns.

Does Kite Surfing interest you?