Adaptive Skating and Overcoming Obstacles

Back in April, I attended the WCMX World Championships and Adaptive Skate Competition in Grand Prairie, Texas. It was a two days event I believe (I could be wrong), where athletes from all over the world came to compete. It was a really cool event because I was watching things I had never seen before. These athletes were dropping into the quarter pipes, transitions and grinding rails while in wheelchairs. It blew my mind and with my job as a Physical Therapist, I was all for it!

 

Lucky me, I had a friend who drove into town to compete in the adaptive skate competition. It was good to see Matthew Hawkins and hang out with him. I hadn't seen Matt skate in person before, just some videos here and there. Well he was super nice enough to introduce me to the rest of the skate team. All 8 of them were apart of the Adaptive Action Sports skate team and were friends who love to shred together. They come from all over the country and get together a few times a year for competitions or skate clinics.

Above: skaters from left to right: Jesse Swalley, Matthew Hawkins, Greg Shaw, Justin Beauchesne, Joel Goltry, Andrew Hale, Oscar Loreto Jr, Jon Comer.

The two days of hanging out with them was a hoot! These guys were so funny and had a story for just about everything! I was sad they had to leave so soon, because I was hoping to learn some shortboard from them while they were in town. I had Matt and Andrew skating longboards down the hill of the hotel on the first night, it was pretty fun.

If you want to read more about Adaptive Action Sports and my experience at the WCMX World Championships, click on the links below for AAS and SheShreds website where my write up can be located.

Click Here for Adaptive Action Sports Website

Click Here for SheShreds Post on WCMX

Thank you for reading, this topic is near and dear to me. Hope you enjoyed it.

Valentine's Day- the best day!

My Valentine's day was different than most girls. I told my boyfriend specifically that I did NOT want flowers, chocolate or dinner out somewhere. I said I wanted to spend the night in with you, eating whatever can be delivered and watching a movie. Turns out we ate at my parents house- hey free food and dont have to cook it, HECK YES!

During the day, Stephen took me skating out at my favorite spot in DFW- the bird! I felt bad because I knew he couldn't skate due to his broken collar bone but he offered to drive the tow car. It was awesome because we both were determined for me to learn how to pre-drift. We started with heel sides and he would take film and give feedback on how to make little adjustments to my slide to make it even better. Not long after, I was feeling confident in throwing heel side drifts and wanted to go faster and faster.

The next thing was toe side drifts... Those are the scariest things ever! The first 3 times I went to kick the board out, I fell flat on my face. It was all about trusting myself and having the confidence in the slide. Started out slow but with enough speed to slide, I started to get small slides. I knew I needed to go faster and that's exactly what I did. I walked up the hill further and threw a toe side drift, it went off without a hitch! I came to a stop shortly after and started to jump in the air, shouting I did it! I was so happy for myself that I finally did it. I asked for some feedback but he didn't have any to give and said it looked pretty good. 

You can do anything if you put your mind to it!

It was the best Valentine's Day I had ever had! Thank you Stephen for your support and feedback, I couldn't of done it without you. (:

In the end, I got all dirty from falling and ripped through my shoe laces. I had gform knee pads under my pants, don't worry. 

Dallas,Tx

Been spending a lot of time in Dallas lately, with being home for the holidays and all. After spending a lot of family time, I finally went out to skate. Learning pre-drifts on a straight street was difficult haha especially when theres raised up tar on the road. The tar kept taking my hands out from underneath me.

Skating downtown Dallas is always fun times! We even had a birthday sash for Greenbaker in Fort Worth one night. A church sesh was actually fun and wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but I still hate pushing so much through downtown.

I really enjoy coming up to Dallas and will be moving back soon enough.

Take care until next time!