Sailing for the Diasabled I did it yesterday with a dislocated shoulder...

[Guest guest]

Yes I went for my FIRST EVER sail yesterday (Sunday) and I LOVED it.

It only cost me $6 for the 4 hours of sailing and by the end I was

ready to sail solo (except my pain levels were a bit high (with my

shoulder being out and I forgot my breakthrough med's and my

sunglasses and had a sun glare headache (I had my good Bolle Glasses

with me but was scared about wrecking or losing them (my partner

bought them for me last Christmas 2002)).

The reason I was able to do this was that I went sailing with a group

called " Sailability " they are an access sailing group (i.e. sailing

for the disabled) and anyone can sail them with ANY disability, they

even have fully electric boats that you sail with something like a

powerchair joystick. This group is all over the world (including

Canada, UK, USA etc) and you can even get to travel and race if you

decide you would like to, or just sail for fun. I am amazed that I

have found a sport that I can do even with my EDS and RSD... and I

LOVE it (I have always loved the water) and sailing is fun and

exhilarating and quite too.

Sailability can be found at

http://tidewaysailability.com/location.htm for London

http://www.sailability.org.au/clubs.cfm#United%20States for a list of

some around the world,

http://www.accessdinghy.org/where/australia.htm for Australia

http://www.accessdinghy.org/where/canada.htm For Canada

http://www.accessdinghy.org/where/usa.htm for the US

http://www.rya.org.uk/sailability/ for the UK

I can really recommend this for ANY age and for EDS'ers, you can

either sail an access dingy (the name of the little boats that are so

stable)by using a rope to control the sail and a " joystick " to

control the rudder that sits in front of you " between you legs " or

beside them, or using the full electric one with just a joystick

thing like a powerchair, so even if you don't have the arm strength

you can still sail and sail ALONE. You must wear a life jacket no

matter what as a safety feature and they also have powerboats out and

about to rescue you and help to get you unstuck etc if you manage to

get stuck on the sand (like we did ).

I just wanted to let others know about this and HOW much fun it is,

it is a great outlet and something even EDS kids could do without any

real risk of injury (and you can take out a double and have one do

the rope and one the joystick or have mum and child along together.

The family and non disabled member can go and sail too (a great

outing that even the EDS members can enjoy and have fun with able

bodied siblings and friends. I mean if they can cater for ventilated

high level quadriplegics then us EDS'er shouldn't be to much of a

problem.

I just wanted to let others know about this WONDERFUL organisation

and that there are opportunities out there for us to participate in

things, even with EDS.

Sharon