by Tiff -

Push Girls Episode 12 Review: Moving On

In episode 12, Mia and Tiphany go accessible apartment hunting so little miss Mia can get out of her grungy apartment and into a sexy “grown up” apartment she can be proud of. Not easy in LA, but is it anywhere really?

Watch the girls visit the Rose Bowl farmer’s market to find Mia some stylish new things for her place. Also, Chelsie’s back story with her dad gets spotlighted, with her beginning to feel some reluctance in doing her “don’t do what I did” speeches at high schools.

SPOILERS AHEAD ***

This episode begins with Mia in her apartment feeding her parakeet Chirpy.  We get the back story on Mia’s apartment. It’s “grungy;” has stained carpets from living there for five years and she can’t shut the bathroom door when she goes to the bathroom. “It doesn’t feel very inviting.  I don’t even like to be there,” she says.

Tiphany arrives to see Mia’s apartment for the first time.  You get to tour Mia’s apartment as Tiph rolls through, and if you ask me it’s really not that bad (except for the Persian rug over the carpet of course).

Mia tells the camera she’s not had people over because her place, “it’s not something I want to share with people.”

by Tiff -

Breaking barriers with wheelchair breakdance

Back in the year 2000, all you’d see online about wheelchair dance was wheelchair ballroom dance videos or maybe something on wheelchair ballet, but not anymore. Oh no.

Wheelchair dance has come a long way in the last decade, and Auti Angel of Push Girls, one of the best paralyzed hip-hop dancers in the world, has definitely helped make it more popular than ever. So we’ve uncovered a few others.

Mobile phone technology is the reason so much more wc-dance info is online, including the dozens of adapted dance videos that are available.

I’m always searching for videos that prove you can still be a dancer to be reckoned with even if you use a wheelchair, and these following videos do just that.

The first video profiles a young man from France paralyzed in a car accident.  He was a self proclaimed “b-boy” before his injury, so figuring out how to adjust his moves to his body wasn’t something he even needed to think about.

He has invented this leg-crossing method to get into some very cool moves. Watch him perform to Michael Jackson’s “Beat it” and do one of his coolest moves – a wheelchair somersault. Read this entry

by Tiff -

Self-defense, wheelchair style

Have you seen the episode of Celebrity Death match with the tough (and heavily tattooed) quad rugby player, Mark Zupan? He pretty much kicked Chris Pontius’ butt, and it was awesome.

It’s about time the world saw that wheelchair-users can have mad self defense skills. There are a ton of us out there, and you’ll find us at every level of ability (I still have a ways to go).

We can have great upper-body strength, so hey, shouldn’t be all that surprising right? And the following two videos you’re about to see are the BEST of the best when it comes to wheelchair self-defense.

This first video comes from the enlightened self-defense school in San Diego, Jing Chen Koushu. The founder Greg, may be able-bodied, but holy cow is he one of the best self-defense trainers I’ve ever seen for wc-users.

He’s trained Therese Riedel, (a very buff) C5 quad, some of the most intense wheelchair self-defense moves I’ve ever seen anyone her level of spinal cord injury do. Read this entry

by Tiff -

My first putt in 18 years

Check out what I did earlier this week. Oh…I just stood up and took my first putt on the green since 1993 (no big).

So how do I look standing up? (not bad for being paralyzed for 18 years). If you have never seen or heard of the Paramovile before, you can learn all about it in my post on how the day went down (loved it, but my short game needs a lot of work). Read this entry

by Tiff -

SCI Superstar: Ricky James

One word has been driving Ricky James since he broke his back – perseverance (and he has the entire thing tattooed up his left leg in huge cursive font).

If you know motocross, you probably know who Ricky James is (and maybe knew about him before injury).

He was a rising 15 year old star in the motocross world who started racing at the age of 2 (they called him a “prodigy on two wheels”). He was even home-schooled so he could keep up with his crazy schedule.

Motocross is in Ricky’s blood and always will be. That is why after his accident (he hit a dirt embankment racing Amateurs Nationals in Lake Whitney, Texas), he was the last guy to ever think of wiping his hands clean of the sport he grew up sleeping and breathing.

Are you kidding? “Motocrossers are a different breed,” says Ricky. Read this entry

by Tiff -

Could Tiger Woods play like these guys?

By using either good old-fashioned American ingenuity or the very cool stand-up personal mobility device, the Paragolfer (also known as the Paramobile), the only handicap you have to worry about when you’re out on the links is your number of swings, not your paralysis. See with golf, creativity is key.

It’s funny…so many people think golf is off-limits to people in chairs. But as long as you have the right equipment (and an open-minded golf course that doesn’t think wheelchair-users are the equivalent of lawn-wrecking gophers), you can golf. Really!

All you need is some upper-body movement and determination to get out there.

In this first video, Tim, a paraplegic from Illinois, shows how he’s perfected his golf swing from his manual wheelchair (he doesn’t use any fancy mobility devices either).

By simply twisting his torso to his right (and keeping his legs in their usual position), Tim can swing his club quite impressively (it’s no monster drive, but it flies). And he uses a reacher to set his ball on the tee. Genius! Read this (awesome) entry

by Tiff -

SCI Superstar: Sabrina Cohen

Sabrina Cohen, a C3-5 quad, saw her whole life change on Halloween in 1992 after she left a party with friends. All it took was being a passenger in a car (that decided to suddenly join in on a drag race) for her life to be completely altered.

The car hit a tree, with Sabrina breaking her C3 through C5 vertebrae. But even though she was only 14, she started honing her advocacy skills from the get-go.

In this video you can see one of the first speeches she gave after injury, where she speaks to fellow high school students on the power they have to say ‘no’ to bad decisions.

Despite always holding out hope she’ll get better one day, Sabrina wasn’t about to let her life go on without her. After high school, she went on to graduate with a degree in Communications from the University of Miami and received a masters in Copywriting from the Miami Ad School.

She also started her own ad agency SabCo Productions in 2003. But despite all of her academic and professional success, something was still missing from Sabrina’s life – advocacy. Read this entry

by Tiff -

Push Girls Episode 8 review: Living In The Fast Lane

In this episode, Tiphany returns to her hometown for her 10 year high school reunion, Mia finds a swimming coach that tries to whip her into shape and Auti gives her dog a bathtub scrub-down.

SPOILERS AHEAD ****

Episode 8 begins with Tiphany and Mia dressed to the nines (at a bar) and pulling up to a white linen table to have a chat.  They get bright pink martinis and Tiphany shares that her 10 year high school reunion is coming up (and that it is on the same day as her injury anniversary. Bad timing!).  Mia tells her she now has to go, if only not to let it be something that holds her back.

But Tiphany is having some doubts because she got injured her senior year of high school, and really doesn’t like how it feels when you come back around past classmates.

Mia also doesn’t like it, saying what they must think when they see her, “Oooh yeah looks like she still isn’t walking.” Mia and Tiphany toast to “full circles.” I love how these women have other women in wheelchairs to push them.

In the next scene, we’re brought to Angela and Tiphany’s house where Tiphany is busy packing for her trip back to Lodi, California for her reunion. 

by Tiff -

Push Girls Episode 7 review: This Is How You Get Through

In this episode, Chelsie and the girls dish on men (sex in the chair revealed!), three of them perform hip-hop at the Abilities Expo (and overcome a move gone wrong) and Angela finally finds a casting agent who thinks she has a real shot in the modeling industry. This is my favorite episode yet (by far).

SPOILERS AHEAD ****

Episodes 7 begins with the utterly adorable (and god damn is she in good shape) Chelsie rolling up to Auti’s house for a dance practice session with Auti and Mia (for an upcoming performance at the Abilities Expo in San Jose), for their wheelchair hip-pop wheelchair dance group, Colours ‘n Motion (“Auti’s Wheelchair Dance School.” Why doesn’t this exist yet?)

I like how Chelsie admits that after injury she wasn’t interested in wheelchair dance. “I thought it looked weird.” “But then I met Auti and it all clicked.” If anyone can prove that it’s not stupid, it’s Auti.

While they’re practicing, can I just say that Mia looks overwhelmingly cute in her uber-long braided pigtails?  I don’t care if she’s 33.  She can pull them off like nobody’s business.

After practice, they nom on some store bought sushi as they discuss their big performance (this will be the first time many of Chelsie’s friends and family see her dance in her wheelchair). “It’ll be the first time, like, you know, instead of like on videos and stuff,” she says.