On Saturday 16th August 2008, Darol Kubacz achieved his dream of becoming the first paraplegic to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro purely under his own power. Reaching 18,400ft, Darol completed the grueling climb in 10 days and sat higher than any other paraplegic has climbed without help.
Hilary Lister, the female sailor attempting to conduct the first solo circumnavigation of the UK by a quadriplegic, has been forced to cancel the challenge after 53 days at sea. Plagued by horrendous weather, problems with her boat's keel and water damage to her specialist control equipment, Hilary is determined to complete the challenge and has vowed to return next year.
Darol Kubacz is back on Kilimanjaro with his Freedom For Life team having launched another attempt to become the first paraplegic to make it to the summit of Africa's highest mountain. 2 years ago, during his first summit bid, Darol was forced to turn back with 'just' 3,000ft to go when he developed pulmanory edema (altitude sickness) and came close to death, he's spent these last two years training and preparing for another attempt and started out from the base on 7th August.
You may of noticed the little Flickr RSS feed in the sidebar, well this displays random photo's from our group on Flickr and we want you to join us in showing how you push the limits in a wheelchair.
"Former" quadriplegic Aaron Baker is hitting the road, in style. The world youth motocross champion and professional biker who broke his neck to join the quad club in 1999 has gone on to defy the odds and make a remarkable recovery. Able to walk with a cane, the paralysis still affects him physically (technically he is still a quadriplegic, with severe muscle weakness) but not to the extent that he had feared when lying in the dirt after a crash, with no feeling below his neck. Or indeed to the extent that his doctors told him, their diagnosis was that the quadriplegia and paralysis would be irreversible.
Hilary has been a quadriplegic for the last 7 years thanks to a progressive degenerative disease called reflex sympathetic dystrophy and has no movement below her neck, but she's already set sailing records. She became the first quadriplegic sailor to cross the English Channel to France in 2005, and then last year she completed a solo circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight.
The character evolved after it's creator John Lytle spent time as an assistant at an adaptive weight training class and obviously got to know some pretty badass dudes in wheelchairs.
On May 10 and 11, 2008 nine competitors from the West Coast of the USA and Hawaii, with disabilities that include amputees, quadriplegia, paraplegia, and muscular dystrophy will compete in the Western Surfing Association's (WSA) West Coast Championship at Churches Beach in San Onofre, Calif.
It seems that Chris has some competition in his quest to become the first paraplegic to successfully summit Kili. This June a group from Idaho State University, including two guys in wheelchairs, will be heading off to Africa and setting their sites on the summit of Kili.
SCUBA diving is one of out favorite sports here at pushingthelimits and we love it, but we bet that some guy called Mark Chenoweth from the UK loves it even more.
Mark’s been in a wheelchair for the last 10 years due to spina bifida and was unable to walk, but following a holiday SCUBA dive he’s [...]
Thursday, September 4, 2008
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