When 20-year-old Joe Ray broke his back in an automobile accident, he never dreamed it would become the best thing that ever happened to him.But four years later when he attended the Alabama Special Camp for Children and Adults (ASCCA) as a T9 paraplegic, he got the chance to do something that would light up and change the course of his life.
Since then, he’s been a three-time world champion slalom waterski racer, started his own adaptive water ski program, and become executive director of Adaptive Aquatics, teaching the sport that showed him he could do and be anything he wanted.
Ray’s first reaction to the sport that would become his life’s passion was not enthusiasm, however, but doubt.
Getting on a Sit Ski for the First Time
“I couldn’t even swim,” Ray recalls thinking when Phil Martin, then head of Adaptive Aquatics, suggested he try water skiing. With Martin’s encouragement, Ray donned a life jacket and got into the water on a wooden sit-ski board. Just before giving the “hit it” command to the driver, he experienced everything from fear and anxiety to concern over remembering all the instructions. Then, within seconds, his grimace turned into a smile as he felt the rush of water skiing.
“Skiing was this wild incredible activity,” Ray says. “Nothing I tried at camp that summer grabbed me quite as much.”
Heading Up Adaptive Aquatics
After his first experience, Ray couldn’t wait to get back up on the water ski. He returned to camp each year, and then became an instructor so that he could ski more. Eventually he started his own program, patterned after Adaptive Aquatics, then became head of the very same organization that taught him to ski after Martin developed MS.
Similar adaptive water ski programs around the world teach people with a wide range of disabilities to ski. Arm and leg amputees, vision-impaired—both blind and partially sighted—people and some skiers with arm and leg disabilities from such causes as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, polio and brain injuries use the same type of equipment as able-bodied skiers. Paraplegics and quadriplegics use a sit ski—a wide water ski with a seat attached.
Building Confidence
Besides providing the excitement and thrill of water sports that many people with disabilities may not think is possible for them, water skiing also builds self-confidence, promotes independence, and helps people adjust to their disability and be accepted by their peers.
“I see people with disabilities develop self-esteem and start doing other things they didn’t think were possible,” Ray says, adding that he also sees parents realize that their child is no less fragile than any other child.
While Ray admits that he loves participating in his favorite activity, he says his greatest joy comes from passing the gift of water skiing on to others.
“It’s a domino effect,” says Ray. “Phil Martin taught me to ski, which led me to be an instructor, which led me to start an adaptive ski program, which led me to become executive director of Adaptive Aquatics. Every time I teach someone to water ski, it changes their life in some small or large way and makes them realize that they, too, can do anything they want. For me, teaching is really what it’s all about.”
Resources
Adaptive Adventures
Adaptive Aquatics
