Disabled Skiers Leave The Lake For Snowy Slopes

By Kendra Bobowick

Trading Lake Zoar for Mount Southington are as many as 12 participants in the Leaps of Faith Disabled Waterski Club who want to test their balance in the snow.

Scheduled for February 10, between 9 am and 3 pm, a snow ski clinic will be conducted in conjunction with the New Hampshire-based New England Handicapped Sports Association (NEHSA) and adaptive ski instructor John Montovano.

“I haven’t done this before, but in a way, it’s our thing,” said Leaps of Faith President Joel Zeisler. “I look at it as a nice growth period for our club and a nice opportunity for local skiers to experiment and try a new sport.” A chance to crisscross down a mountain “fills a niche,” he said. “I am not much of a snow skier, but a lot of our skiers showed an interest.” NEHSA will provide the instructors and Leaps of Faith volunteers will assist.

Mr Montovano, who had been part of the Wounded Warriors program conducted in part by Leaps of Faith during the summer, welcomes the visually and physically impaired skiers. “The goal: for each person to be able to be independent of their instructor.” While a blind skier will always have a buddy, the skiers all will enjoy a new physical activity. “Maybe they won’t overcome [afflictions] but they can put afflictions aside or work with it and improve [their] life skills,” he said. The clinic is about achievement and also about enjoyment. “To have fun and learn a new activity is optimum,” Mr Montovano said. Skiers can meet others that may have similar disabilities, make friends, he noted.

With the activity also comes a “boost.” “As with anything, to be able to participate in life on your own, meet new people,” is part of the draw for the clinic, he said. A wounded veteran himself, Mr Montovano talks about his more than 20 years of adaptive skiing. “I have taught a lot of veterans and their goal to overcome their injury, loss of limb, effects of war, brain trauma, and to meet other soldiers and say, ‘If you can do it, why can’t I?’” Repeating a common phrase, he stressed, “If I can do this, I can do anything. A lot of them have that attitude.”

He takes a lot of joy from the experience. “We all go through things. I have met phenomenal people and they thank us, but if you look at it, we’re given so much more … the joy is far greater than what we give the students. We hope to improve their life, but they have improved mine far more. That’s how it has worked for me.”

He has been instructing for “a lot of years, but that doesn’t mean I don’t learn something from each person.” His advice? “Have fun.”

NEHSA Executive Director Tom Kersey has been collaborating with Mr Zeisler for several years and recently felt it made sense for his organization to travel to Connecticut for a snow ski course. Outside of participants’ satisfaction, Mr Kersey said, “Our hope is to bring the adaptive sport to you and show you that it can be done safely in your own back yard.” It is a matter of exposure, he said. “People think, ‘Oh, he’s in a wheelchair, he can’t ski’” His organization completed roughly 5,000 snow sport hours last year, however. “It’s not nontraditional to us.” He added, “We take them out of their wheelchairs and make them soar.”