Hey, I'm a C 5-6 quad and was wondering if there are any people out there with that level who is chair skating. I used to skate before the injury and I miss it. My neighborhood has a concrete park with some great bowls and I would really be interestin trying it out, but I would like to know if anyonone at that level of injury (with that kind of balance) has actually ever tried to chair skate. Thanks

Just get out there and try it out. I'm not sure if there are quads who do it but if you give it a shot, and it works for you, who knows, you may be the first quad who starts chairskating!

hey irish85, I use to skatebored pre injury too, and miss it like CRAZY.

I havn't tried chairskating yet, but I deffinitally want to... I'd say give it a shot, just... you might wanna take it slow, go down a few
roll in's if there not to steep. And make sure theres enough room for you to slow down in time.

Balence is one thing I am curious about too, me being a T-5 complete, I have no ab's so might be a little bit of an issue.

But yeah, if you decide to give it a try, let us know how it went!

agreed get out there and show us what you can do... inspire others!

A little side note -- my boyfriend and I were just talking about this the other day. We were kids how we used to love to roller skate (showing my age?? LOL) anyway I thought it would be really cool to get a bunch of friends together and go rollerskating. I would just take off my foot rest, put on skates, and have someone push me and away I go... nothing extreme but hey for my level of injury it is EXTREME

Yeah I'm for winging it, but do I need anything special besides a helmet and some pads (i.e a certain chair, straps or chair modifications). I would be very hesitant to drop in, in my everyday ti. If anybody has any idea as to what would be needed n general or for somone with my level of injury let me know. Thanks

Interesting that you are contemplating this as it's something I've given great thought to and have even drawn out designs for something that I think might work for myself (C 4-5 quadriplegic). I used to skate as well and do miss the vert stuff. That said, I ski a lot now and any design that has to do with extreme angles (and no trunk muscles) would require some sort of secure five-point harness and tip prevention. Oh, and of course a helmet! Very cool you're thinking about this... that's where it all starts.

Incidentally, there's a cat in on this site who is a para and who does exactly this sort of thing. His name is Christian Bailey and you can check him out here: look under the surfing link in this extreme sports category.

Good luck. Peace.