by Tiff -

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? me?)

But apparently there are kits out there that not only put hand controls on your bike, but also install what‘s called “landing gear.” This is the key component to being able to ride independently if you can’t move your legs. Read this entry

by Tiff -

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. What he has been able to do since his injury, while sure it’s not the NFL record he had dreamed of, has been just as victorious.

Why he’s fearless

Right away Tim decided to use his injury as a catalyst to keep going full blast. After high school, he went on to graduate from the University of Maryland. And after receiving his undergraduate degree, he was accepted to Georgetown University Law School in 2001 and graduated from there a few years later.

After graduation, he entered the real world and got right into the swing of things right away (like a rock star). He landed a job with the FCC in their Office of Legislative Affairs and works as an attorney adviser, where it’s his job to be the liaison between the FCC and Capitol Hill (I bring donuts! Now please hear me out!) Read this entry

by Tiff -

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 needs). If you’re unable to transfer onto the ground from your chair independently, you’re going to want to get a tent you can roll into; literally. And yes this type of tent exists too.

Eureka’s Freedom tent is the one and only wheelchair accessible tent that’s been mass-produced.  Read this entry

by Tiff -

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 movie).

She’s also been in several national commercials, including one for Liberty Mutual insurance and another that I remember from awhile ago to get people to get out and vote.

And the past couple of years, she’s developed a huge online following for the character ‘Venom’ she plays (a member of the “Axis of Anarchy”) in the web series hit, The Guild. She is mean and wears a lot of black eyeliner. Watch out. Read this entry

by Tiff -

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 and helped produced it! It’s inspiring to anyone with a disability who thinks a project they’re getting intro might be too much to take on. Read this entry

by Tiff -

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 on impact. Despite a severed spinal cord, which can be a tough SCI blow to receive, Jesse wasn’t about to say adios to a rock star life. If anything, his energy for life has only become more pronounced. Read the rest of this entry

by Tiff -

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. Read this entry

by Tiff -

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