As I'm on leave this week, I booked another skiing lesson, but this time at Xscape, Castleford. My teacher is a chap called Adam and today we had the added benefit of a helper (one of the other teachers) called Tom. I get the feeling Tom fancies becoming an adaptive ski teacher too.
Before my lesson started, just after I'd got changed, a lady in a wheelchair came up to me and was asking about my Loopwheels. Turns out she also uses a freewheel, like me. Anyway, she started talking about sit-skiing and I told her I was about to have a lesson. Her name is Jo and she was a Paralympic skier, though she's retired now and coaches other skiers. She said to let her know next time I have a lesson and she'll come and ski too and give me some help and tips.
So, onto the lesson... I was skiing in this thing - a bi-unique sit-ski.
To start with, we did two or three runs, mostly from the top, with Adam holding onto the bar at the back. That was pretty much like what I did during that first lesson a couple of months ago.
Then he taught me how to hold and use outriggers. They are like crutches with little skis on the end. They help me to balance and turn, only turning was quite tricky. I dug the wrong side into the snow and fell over. That was quite good though. I was really frightened of falling over and hurting myself but falling didn't hurt because every part of me was strapped in and safe. At first, I wondered how I would get back up again but with Adam and/or Tom's help, it was easy enough.
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