The History of Skiing and Me

My first attempt at skiing was when I was around 6 on holiday with my family. I wasn’t particularly good at it (something I was oblivious to at the time) but I think I enjoyed it.

On this holiday I was taught to ski by a French instructor, all I can remember about this is that I could not understand a word she was saying! (In the video below it is clear that I had misinterpreted at least some of what I was taught.)

I was then taken on a few other ski holidays over a number of years which involved largely the same things as the first, and I can’t really distinguish what I remember from one to another, although I do know that my skiing improved quite a lot over this time.

The next lot of skiing that I can clearly remember was when my legs were just beginning to fail me, I walked high on my toes and I was starting to lose strength in my legs, but my balance was still pretty decent, so I managed to keep up. This was in December 2012, and at this point the rigidity of ski boots was enough to allow me to ski without issue, in fact, it was only when I took my boots off that it could be seen that my legs functioned differently to other people’s in any way.

Around the Easter of 2013, I went on a school ski trip, during this week it became apparent that although I could still ski well (at this point I didn’t consider the problem with my legs a disability - I was still hopeful that it would be something curable), I did fall down a lot more than everyone else. The instructor for my group did repeatedly try to tell me to move more from my knees, as I was using my hips instead, which retrospectively suggests that my knees were weakening, and that I was already compensating for my lack of strength without me realising it. By the end of the week, my falls were increasing in number and I was very tired, and when I got home, my legs felt dead. Despite this I did actually really enjoy this trip, and I am still teased about one of the crashes I had that involved me single-handedly knocking down an entire ski class (my own - not some strange children).

Following that trip I did take part in a ski club on weekends, but it was not long before my legs deteriorated quite quickly, and it became impossible to ski standing up.

I had given up on the idea of skiing, until a Google search led me to Disability Snowsports UK, and I discovered that legs are not needed to ski. I had my first lesson in the monoski around the end of January 2014; I spent most of this time face first in the snow, it was hard work. It was a pure coincidence that just over a week later the 2014 Winter Paralympics began, watching this made me want to work harder at my skiing, and since then, I have not stopped.