Adapting adventure to disability

GO ADVENTURE:From mountain biking to adaptive skiing, Edel Reck has taken part in more adventure sports than most, despite being a wheelchair user. She tells ROSITA BOLANDhow her childhood dreams of travelling became a reality.

EDEL RECK has been mountain-biking, skydiving, ice-climbing, whitewater rafting, hot-air ballooning, wild camping, on safari and skiing.

Reck has participated in more adventure sports than most, and the remarkable thing – although it shouldn’t be remarkable – is that she has achieved all of this despite being a wheelchair user since a teenager.

Reck (43), who is from Wexford, was born with spina bifida. As a child, she longed to travel. “I dreamed of travelling, of going different places. My parents had never travelled, but I wanted to.”

In 1987, she went to New York with a group of people, and since then, she has not stopped. What may surprise many people is that Reck often travels alone, and frequently travels to engage in adventure sports, thus upending many abstract stereotypes about people with disabilities.

Reck comes from a sports-mad family. Her first long-haul trip was to Toyko in 1991 for the World Athletics Championships. However, despite the fact that the Greek Olympics, to which she also went, took place more than a decade later, facilities were worse.

“They didn’t have any seating for people with disabilities,” Reck reports grimly. “Nothing was ready. I came home a week early. I had several unused tickets, including one for the closing ceremony.”

THIS SUMMER, Reck featured in the RTÉ series Two For the Road. Made by Yellow Asylum films, a number of people with disabilities were paired with well-known able-bodied people on adventure holidays to see what each could learn from the other. Among the participants were Áine Lawlor, Morning Ireland presenter, musician Sharon Shannon and Kamal Ibrahim, Mr World 2010.

Ibrahim was Reck’s buddy for their challenge: mountain biking in Colorado, US. So that he could understand the physical limitations that Reck had, Ibrahim was fitted with heavy leg braces and also used a wheelchair.

The obvious question is: how can you mountain bike when you usually use a wheelchair? “It’s adaptive biking,” Reck explains. “There are three types of adaptive biking – downhill, off-road and hand-cycling – where you propel the bike, and gravity does all the work. Off-road is the most difficult.”

Reck’s favourite kind of adventure sport is adaptive skiing, which she has done several times. “It’s a bi-ski,” she says. “A bit like a wheelchair minus the wheels; a kind of a bucket seat. There are two skis under the chair and you use poles.”

Like everyone else, she started on the nursery slopes and progressed to more difficult runs. “You can do black runs too, exactly the same as an able-bodied person can.”

One thing that has made her travels easier since her first visit to New York is the internet. “All my research these days comes from the internet, and from word of mouth. I wouldn’t have been able to go to half the places I’ve been to without it,” she says.

“Finding out about facilities the other side of the world would have been a lot harder, and a lot more expensive. If you were calling Australia, you’d be up half the night with the time difference, and the phone calls would cost as much as the trip.”

Her worst travel experiences are always based on access for her wheelchair and dependency on others. “Most airlines have an aisle chair , but once when I was flying from Singapore to Sydney, they didn’t have an aisle chair, so I couldn’t use the bathroom and had to sit there for hours.” The airline was Singapore Airlines. “They upgraded me on the way home to try and make up for it.”

Although Reck tries to get her wheelchair tagged for gate delivery every time she travels, sometimes things go wrong. On a recent trip to Oslo, she had to change flights at Copenhagen, where there was a wait of several hours. Her chair had been checked through to Oslo.

“I had to sit in the airport for hours, and couldn’t do anything. I even had to ask someone to bring me to the toilet, which is not a nice thing to have to ask.”

Adaptive adventure sports holidays don’t cost any more than the usual kinds of adventure holidays, says Reck. In addition, there are a number of non-profit organisations who cater for people with disabilities, and sometimes also offer financial assistance. In her experienced opinion, the countries that cater best for holidays if you have a disability and want to try sports, are the US and Australia. “They have a real can-do attitude. They’re particularly good at ski resorts. But I’ve also done mountain biking, abseiling, canoeing, kayaking and ice-climbing.”

Unfortunately, Ireland is not yet a country Reck considers adept at offering adventure sports to people with disabilities. “I prefer to go abroad. A while ago, I tried to go horse- riding in Ireland. It was impossible once I told them I had spina bifida. People say they won’t take you because of insurance, but I consider this to be a cop-out. Some people might be genuinely legally concerned about being sued, but mostly I think it’s because they just don’t want to engage with people with disabilities.

“There are people with spina bifida who don’t use wheelchairs, for example. But people make assumptions that it’ll be too much hassle for them once you say you have a disability.”

She’s in the process of planning her next trip – to Borneo. “I want to go white water rafting, and trekking in the jungle,” she declares with excitement.

- Two for the Road: Six Life-changing Journeysby Donal O'Donoghue, with introduction by Edel Reck, is published by Ashfield Press. An extensive appendix lists Reck's guide to the top adaptive sports companies

Edel Reck's travel tips

- If you can propel your own wheelchair, do not give it up if at all possible

Make sure that your wheelchair is properly serviced before leaving home. Airports have many wheelchairs, but they are generally insufficient for a regular chair rider. Some have small wheels that you cannot push yourself. None have heel loops to help your feet stay in place.

Airport chairs are generally in poor repair. Their design assumes you will be assisted. This means you are totally dependent on others even to use the loo.

Even if airline personnel suggest surrendering your chair well before the flight, you are not required to do so. Such personnel are acting for their convenience, not yours.

Instead, your chair should be a “gate checked.” A tag is put on your chair.

You get onto the plane from your own chair, and it is brought back to the door of the plane when you get off – even between connecting flights.

Make certain that someone on the crew knows your chair is gate checked and ask them to confirm it to the ground crew at your destination.

Stay in your own chair until you get to the aircraft and then transfer to the aircraft chair. I love travelling but this is the only time I feel anxious. My chair is my best friend because its my legs and I hate to be parted from it.

Plan ahead

Plan your trip well. Don’t take people’s word that a hotel is accessible. Just because you can get in the front door doesn’t mean the rest of the building is accessible. You need to check the width of doorframes into the bedrooms, into the bathroom, whether there is a wheel-in shower or not.

Think about your airport transfer in advance

Always ask if the hotel will pick you up from the airport. They often do.

If stuck, ask someone for help

Never be too proud to ask for assistance.