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[Speed]

My Story
It was a cold Saturday evening in October of 2006 when my life changed. I had just dropped my then girlfriend off at work and was headed home in rush hour traffic. The sun was setting behind me as I rode my Suzuki motorcycle down the road. After a few miles I began following behind a big white box truck in heavy traffic. As we came out of a bend in the road I noticed an SUV sitting in oncoming traffic waiting its turn to dart across the road and into its neighborhood. Almost as soon as I saw the SUV, it began to make its turn. I don’t believe the driver even noticed me behind the box truck and before I had time to react it was too late.
Weeks later, I opened my eyes and at the base of the bed I was lying in I could make out one of my ex-girlfriends and a few friends standing over me. “Weird” I said to myself, “What is this girl doing here? And where am I?” I looked around and noticed the all too familiar signs of sterilization and annoying beeping of heart monitors. I had just come to and had just realized I was now in a hospital bed, but yet seconds ago I was riding my motorcycle home. I started to move my mouth to ask my friends what was going on when I noticed large metal objects holding my jaw from moving. “What? What is this?” I thought to myself. I began to get agitated and I my friends were noticing. They must have known what I was thinking and so they spoke up. “Will! Chill out! You’re in a hospital. Your mouth is wired shut. You were involved in an accident!” said one of them. I thought to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding!” but it was true.
I had survived a horrible motorcycle accident that left me paralyzed from mid chest down. The doctors called it a SCI, which is short for Spinal Cord Injury. Apparently, when I impacted the SUV, I went head first into the most structural part of the vehicle and the force caused a compression on my spinal cord. This lead to destroying the 5th vertebrae in the Thoracic region of my spine, along with damaging the 4th and the 6th. Not only had I broke my back but the force was so great that it split my full face helmet in two pieces and thus resulting in a broken jaw. I had also broken a few ribs which punctured a lung and was making breathing very difficult. To top that off I had broken my right forearm in two places and my wrist was shattered.
The doctors came in and explained everything they had done to save my life and the steps that would need to be taken to heal and recover from such trauma. They said that I would need to stay in bed for a few more weeks before I could start rehabilitation. And so for weeks I lay there, dwelling in my own depression. “What am I to do now? How can life go on? Why? Why does my life have to be this way?” I thought to myself. I was starting to get really down and out about what had happened and then my mother came to visit me like she did everyday around the same time. She had been seeing my mood get worse and worse and so she decided it was time to do something about it. She said “Will! You better listen up because I’m only going to say this once! You’re my son, and I love you very much but you better suck it up and learn how to deal with this because there is no way I am going to take care of you! I took care of your father when this happened to him and I am not going through it again!” I looked back at her and realized that she was right and that it was time to work.
The next day I was introduced to my team of therapists. The first one to arrive was an occupational therapist. Her job was to show me how to take care of things independently from a wheelchair. I got to see her every day from about 6 AM until 10AM. After occupational therapy I was off to the gym for physical therapy. This is where they pushed me to my limits and then more. I had lost over 50 pounds since my accident and so I had to build all my muscle back up. Except this time I could only build my upper body since I couldn’t use the other half. I would be in the gym for a couple hours then lunch and then it was right back to the gym some more. I spent probably 4 to 5 hours in the gym every day working on different muscles and techniques.
I was released from the hospital a few days before Christmas of 2006. I spent an entire year just trying to get readjusted to life as a crippled. Going through more rehabilitation and changing medication to find the right combinations to work for me. It was the beginning of 2008 when I looked in the mirror at myself and saw someone I didn’t know. I thought to myself, “Who is this guy in the mirror? And what have you done with Will Speed?” This was the moment in my new life that I decided to change the perception of disabled to the world. It was that day that I flushed every pain medication I had down the toilet. As I watched those pills wash down the drain I thought about my new plan for life.
The year was new, I was new and it was time for resolutions. I made a promise to myself that I would never stop, never slow down and never let my disability deter me from my dreams and aspirations. I had remembered about a side of therapy I didn’t dabble in at the hospital, Recreational Therapy. So I made some phone calls, got some information and made an appointment with one of the recreational therapist. When meeting with her she informed me of all these fun activities. I decided I would try some out and see how I liked it. The first one I tried out was Wheelchair Rugby, made more famous by a movie called Murderball. While this was fun I quickly realized it was a bit too rough for what I was looking for. The next activity I tried was hand cycling. Now this was great exercise but wasn’t a good fit for what I was looking for. So 2008 had gone by and I had gotten out and enjoyed a lot of activities. I had started being more social and going out and enjoying life again.
In 2009 I got an email from the recreational therapy department called Adaptive Sports And Adventures Program(ASAP) that said they will be offering adaptive waterskiing lessons over the summer and that I should look into it. After waiting for what seemed like forever, summer had finally arrived and with that came the new activity. I went out to the first adaptive waterskiing lesson of the summer and it was amazing. I was hooked instantly! I started off in a long and fat adapted water-ski with outriggers added for extra stability. Outriggers are like training wheels, they just keep you upright while in motion. After the first lesson was done they decided that I didn’t need the outriggers anymore and so I was off to ski with my own balance. At first the skiing was a bit tricky but after a few lessons I became more and more advanced. The summer lessons had ended but I was hooked! Realizing that waterskiing was what I wanted to do, I bought a ski setup and decided to go full blown! I had already purchased a boat earlier in the summer and now with the new setup I took to practicing out on my own. I spent the rest of 2009 practicing how to water-ski.
As the 2010 season rolled around I began to get excited again. I thought to myself, “Will, what if you put this setup on a wakeboard? How cool would that be? And how much harder could it be?” So, without hesitation I bought a cheap GatorBoards wakeboard off eBay and adapted it to my ski setup. It was definitely a different ride then just being on a water-ski but it was way cooler on the board than on the ski. So I spent 2010 relearning how to get up out of the water and staying upright. By the end of the season I had it down and I had just learned a few surface tricks. I ended the season on a high note and was already starting to plan my next season.
Over the winter I spent some time at local board shops and boat dealers talking to people who were in the wakeboarding scene. I found tons of great knowledge and met some really cool people in the area. One of these guys I met was a local marine audio dealer who had been planning on having a contest for local riders and wanted to donate proceeds to charity. After talking with this guy we had decided it would be awesome to have a competition where some of the local disabled water-skiers could come out and compete with the local able bodied riders. And then all the proceeds we could donate to The Victory Junction Gang. So we worked over the offseason and finalized all the plans for the event. At the same time we started talking with The World Wakeboarding Association about adding an adaptive division to their events. Surprisingly the guys at The WWA were ready, willing and excited about adding adaptive divisions to their events. So with this information, we knew that the event my buddy was putting on would be the first event to ever have adaptive divisions competing with able bodied riders.
The event date came and everybody showed up. We had six disabled riders come out and compete that day. This was my first competition ever and to my surprise I placed 3rd! I thought to myself “Holy smokes Will! You did it! You set your mind to a goal and you achieved it! What else can you do?” After the event I was talking with some of the vendors there and they started telling me about more local events sponsored by The INT League. Not knowing much about this league I looked them up online. To my disbelief they were actually affiliated with The WWA. This meant that the new adaptive division would be allowed at any INT event. “Perfect!” I said to myself, “Now I can start showing more people that life doesn’t stop because of a disability.”
After the event put on by my buddy we got to talking about these other events and how it would be cool to attend them and be the first to compete in a division that was just created that year. My buddy decided that he even wanted to help me down the road to success and so his company sponsored me in this journey. So Wavenoize would now sponsor me and thus pay my entry fee to all the events. “WOW” I thought, “He must believe in me and this is going to push me to be the best!” I spent an enormous amount of time on the lake just practicing tricks, learning new ones and mastering old ones. The first event date rolled around and so we headed off to the event.
The announcer called my name, “Up next is something new this year! The INT has added a new division this year and for the first time we will witness what this 26 year old man can do!” he said over the loud PA system, “This guy doesn’t let anything stop him, he lives by the motto, Where there’s a Will there’s a way, so let’s watch as he rides!” I had achieved a milestone that day, not only had I placed 1st but I had shown a new crowd of people that disabilities cannot stop you from fulfilling dreams. I went on to compete at all The INT League events in 2011 and became the first ever INT League U.S. Champion. The road was hard but it was worth travelling and I wouldn’t change anything that has happened. The season has ended and so now I look toward the future and what it has in store for me…

[Wicky]

What you have wrote is very inspiring to me, i really wish that i could get into something like that i have been in a wheelchair far to long and have not done much of anything exciting, Im so glad you did not let your disability defeat you, You are Awesome

[goose]

Thanks for sharing your story! It's always an inspiration to hear of anyone with a SCI to over come their loss by replacing it with something that will encourage even ABs to get out there and try . I grew up on Lake Martin (AL) and loved skiing. I still enjoy boat riding and the lake but WOW, you took it to another level.

Bet you're ready for spring to get here. Good luck this up coming season. Keep us posted.

[megatrig]

A good read. Great to hear you "became yourself" again as it were!

Keep going! Happy Days!!