Paragliding is an amazing sport, jumping off mountains and enjoying a feeling of complete freedom in the air. Its also very easy to learn and perfect for people in wheelchairs as you dont need your legs when you are flying! Read more...

Sit-Skiing is one of the most accessible ways for someone in a wheelchair to get back amongst the mountains. The freedom and speed is a perfect way to escape the confines of concrete roads.
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With a special off-road handcycle you can really take a ‘wheelchair’ places where you couldn't before. An awesome way to easily get into the mountains all year-round.
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The latest thoughts and ramblings from adventures and exploits. Updated with pictures and details from ‘stuff’ every once in a while at least, maybe. Have a look and see what I’ve been up to.
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The freedom offered by diving is an obvious draw for anyone, for someone otherwise confined to a wheelchair that draw is immense.

I figured that it would be crazy to spend time in Australia with diving the reefs, and decided to use the opportunity to get some diving qualifications at the same time.

Whilst in Australia for Ski Training, I took advantage of the exceptionally mild winter, which brought skiing to an early close, and spent a month at Cairns, diving on The Great Barrier Reef.

After a month of diving pretty much every day, I passed my PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course and feel comfortable in most dive situations. Obviously only being able to swim with my arms makes things a little more complicated than normal, but with a little adaption every task required for the qualifications can easily be passed. The only real difficulty I found with using my arms to swim, was the fact that I used my air supply quicker than other divers using their legs and fins to propel themselves.

The Reef’s were truly amazing, and something that pictures will never do justice.

But for every problem there is a solution, enter the SeaDoo, a cool little electric underwater scooter. Propelling you along at a decent speed, and great for chasing reef sharks. Plus you tend to look like some sort of James Bond type character, prompting other divers to get jealous and ask if they can have a go.

After Australia, I was headed back to the UK via South Africa, and decided to stop off in Cape Town to do some diving, and to do the famous Cage Dive with Great White Sharks near Seal Island.

The water around Cape Town certainly wasnt as warm as the Coral Sea around the Great barrier Reef, especially on the Atlantic side of Cape Town. But the diving was still incredible, with some amazing wrecks lying in good clear water, lots of sea-life including playful seals and sharks

The Great White Sharks that gather around Seal Island to hunt and feed on the seal colony are the most awe inspiring creatures I have ever seen. Being in the sea, in a cage , with a hungry Great White Shark on the other side is a pretty good way to realise how much you like metal cage’s, and see one of the most misunderstood animals in the world at the same time.

SCUBA Diving is a perfect sport for disabled people. No specialist training, other than the normal qualifications, are needed. Any dive school can teach you and I joined a normal Open Water course regulated by PADI.

The only ‘specialist’ equipment I use are webbed gloves which make it a little easier to swim with just your arms, I also sometimes use an underwater scooter, which is like a personal torpedo to pull you through the water.

The biggest obstacle I found when trying to learn to dive was finding a school actually willing to let me join a course. The majority of dive schools haven't dealt with paralysed people wanting to dive, or people with disabilities at all. So they are under the false impression that they need a specialist instructional qualification to teach you, or need to supervise you with two or more instructors.

For this reason a lot of centers will say that they cant teach you, but as long as you are comfortable in the water, and can swim independently then there is nothing to stop you joining a basic course. You might have to convince the dive school, but its easily possible to fulfill all the requirements without any help or assistance.

If you can ‘tread’ water and keep you head above the water unassisted for a relatively short period of time, roughly 5 minutes then you are capable enough to pass the Open Water qualification.