At the Winter Sports Games, veterans are paired up with two professional volunteers to assist in the training of one first-time skier. I, David King am here to share my experience. I was in the middle while the professionals, one on each side of me, assisted my safety by directing me on how to perform some basic techniques.
1. Slide freely by bringing your skis a few inches apart. Make a parallel stance , which gives me the ability to ski forward down a hill or slope freely. Keeping the body slightly forward helps in order to freestyle ski.
2. Learning to stop the ski by bringing the front part of the ski in an “A” or to a close steeple position allowing me to stop skiing.
Once these two important techniques have been established, I am just about ready to go solo however, you still need to learn how to go left and right so…
3. For training only , a bamboo pole is used to help you to turn. They place the veteran in the middle and have him hold the pole in the middle, while each volunteer instructor then stands one on both sides of me to hold the ends of the pole. they begin to ski while I am holding on and learning. As they Push, you ski in the direction of the turns.
Basically, once I learn these 3 steps, I should be ready to ski independent of the instructors, right? Honestly? Well not me, once these guys let me go independent, I fall down 1, 2, 3, ok 4 times lol. Lucky I never was hurt just embarrassed because all those witnesses young and old saw me but no one laughed because as you look at the picture carefully you will see on the front and back of my coat was a sign saying “ Blind Skier” while the professional volunteer instructors had these ski numbers on the ski jackets. So, with that being said no one laugh but each one rushed those 4 times to get me up.
Oh yeah do you know how hard it is to get up from a fall with the ski on your foot? Impossible for a beginner like me, how did I do it? By releasing the ski from the boot then stand a slide those ski booths back onto the ski.
I had a ball trying to learn for the first time and look forward to returning back next year to pick up where I left off this year.
If you are visually impaired or blind Veterans, you’ll want to register in September for the Winter Sport Games taking place next year in Snowmass , Colorado. It’s the experience of a lifetime! For the 1st time skier, the experience can’t be beat, along with snowboarding and other winter sport activities. Contact me right here on the NBVO Webpage for time and dates of registering for the fun.
David King is a Navy Veteran who served honorably. He served on the USS Austin LPD-4, while onboard the ship he served as a Boatswain Mate responsible for the launching and anchoring of ship in addition to piloting and security. Two mediterranean and 2 Caribbean cruises allowing him to travel foreign Countries in Europe. His experience in the military has led him various trades but his most impressive one was becoming a professional Photographer and the owning of his business “David King’s Photography” specializing in Portraits and Weddings. After 27 years of his profession and raising 4 biological and 10 adopted children, he spends his retirement enjoying and spending quality time with 23 grand and 14 great grandchildren.
David is currently Mentoring young boys and preparing them for manhood and nationally advocating for Blind and Low Visioned Veterans. Founder of the National Blinded Veterans Organization (NBVO), predicated on assisting and supporting blind and low vision Veterans.