Videos
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Amazing paralyzed crotch rocket rider
It’s true, Brian Kinney, a T1 paraplegic from Ohio, broke his back riding his motorcycle. Call it sad, tragic, no question it was all of those things. But Brian still loved to ride. So after coming home from the hospital, he decided to get back on the road – out on the same bike (a Kawasaki Ninja 650R) – only with few modifications this time around. And he recorded it for your viewing pleasure. I was pretty amazed when I first saw his video. I honestly never thought it was possible for someone paralyzed to ride a motorcycle with only two wheels. Never, never, never (does that make me naive?…
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SCI Superstar: Tim Strachan
“Go Stags!” is a chant Tim Strachan, 34, heard all the time as the starting quarterback for DeMatha Catholic High School (a premier boys high school in Maryland). And no wonder, at 6’3, 215 lbs, with a “spectacular arm,” Tim was a beast (and the ’beast’ Joe Paterno wanted as Penn State’s next quarterback). Then everything changed right before his senior year. A day at Bethany Beach landed Tim with a broken C5 vertebrae. He underwent a massive 19 hour neck surgery and had to spend the next several months in rehab. That was over 18 years, and a lifetime ago. Broken neck? Don’t take Tim down for the count.…
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Wheelchairs and tent camping can co-exist | SPINALpedia
Tofu burgers on the campfire; my very first and very weird camping memory (hey, I can’t help it if my best friend’s parents who took us camping growing up were old hippies that also went to Woodstock). Camping is in my blood and the videos below prove that you can still camp even if you can’t walk. Sure…it requires extra planning – you need to find a campground that has accessible sites, accessible trails AND accessible bathrooms – but if you ask me? Totally still worth it. Before heading out, you’ll need an accessible tent. And yup, they really can be accessible (you just need to think about your specific…
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SCI Superstar: Teal Sherer
Teal Sherer (yup like the color), whose an actress and paraplegic, has come a long way from the log house she grew up in in rural Tennessee. After breaking her back while riding in a car to Labor Day fireworks show when she was just 14, she found a new passion post-injury – acting – hasn’t looked back since. After college, Teal decided to make the big move out to LA to pursue her dreams of acting. Her first break came in 2004, when she was cast in HBO’s Warm Springs (a film about the life of FDR starring Kenneth Branagh. She played a young woman with Polio. Loved this…
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Wheelchair fashion tips: In your face, and a ladylike runway show
If Bjork can be deemed fashionable, if we can make kitchen appliances fashionable, why can’t we be rolling thrones of haute couture too? Srsly… If you watch the above video by Tiffany Giddes, a T10 paraplegic and member of The Ability 411 crew (a collaboration of five paralyzed vloggers who answer questions about life with paralysis), she shares all the best fashion tips she’s discovered since her injury. They are awesome. Tiffany is one tough chick so you know her fashion tips will be good. Her ability to be turn a project into a reality is crazy. Take her new movie Collision about a female wheelchair assassin—she stars in it…
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SCI Superstar: Jesse Billauer
The ocean can be a dangerous place. Sharks, big waves with multiple personalities, fugly Man o’ Wars, but you don’t have to tell Jesse Billauer this. He’s a born and bred Cali boy who came out of the womb with a surfboard attached to the hip. Jesse, at 17, was living the semi-charmed life of a California teenager – young, athletic, gorgeous (still is) and staged to be one of the next big surfers; it was an idyllic life. But his world turned upside down in 1996 when the crest of a wave threw him off his surfboard. Jesse hit his head on a sandbar and became a C5-6 quadriplegic…
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A spoon, a girl and a cell phone
Long ago when I was a newbie in rehab, they sent me home with a reacher as my designated method for picking up stuff on the floor, and then life happened. Sans-reacher, you have to use a lot of crazy stuff – a broom, a stick, a grocery bag, even a big saggy purse – to pick up stuff from the floor (people with disabilities are ninjas of creative solutions when they have to be). And in this video by Annemarie Hopkins, a wonderful woman who founded 3eLove.com (and sadly passed away in ’09), proved you can do a lot more with a kitchen spoon than just stir tomato soup.…
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Quadriplegic moves robotic arm via thought, touches girlfriend’s hand
This has got me so excited I don’t know where to even begin. Researchers have finally figured out how to hook up our minds to robotics after successfully implanting electrodes into the sexy red-headed brain of Tim Hemmes (a C2 quadriplegic injured in a motorcycle wreck 7 years ago). Will this be the eventual spinal cord injury cure? Read this entry
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SCI Superstar of the Week: Mark Zupan
The original tattooed hardcore wheelchair athlete, Mark Zupan is the King of “Muderball,” aka quad rugby, the crazy wheelchair flipping sport (you only wish you were as cool as this Austin, Texas dude). He has the sexiest tattoos ever, more confidence than any guy should legally have….what’s not to love about this guy? Love him! Read this entry
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Service dog surfs with owner, another reins in a horse
Why did I say no to getting a service dog again? Check out this post I wrote for SPINALpedia, where I share two videos of insanely original service dogs (or “canine partners”) who are learning new tricks that were definitely not learned in service school. Read this entry
