Never let him down

My life as a single parent dad with a Spinal Cord Injury

 

Our life of  adventure skiing started at Mad River Ski Area in Ohio in 1989

 

Lets drive to the real north pole with God Father... 1989 The top of the Big Lake...

 

 

Our first summit of Mt Hood 1990

 

 

Picture from the start of Mt Hood Climb

 

 

Our Second Summit of Mt Hood 1991

 

Winter Hood with God Father

 

 

Our 5 month Summer on Mt Hood skiing, fishing, playing Little League and climbing in 1994

 

 

Picture from the very top of Mt Hood

 

 

Checking out PCH for my 30th Birthday

 

 

A Bason Summer ski 1995

 

 

The top of A Bason in July

 

 

In 1997 I was paralyzed in a motor cross accident in Northern Michigan.

 

 

I came up with the idea of putting together a disabled ski race team to race in Canonsburg’s Wednesday night adult race. It was my first ski season after my accident and it meant the world to me to get back on snow. We started the season by bringing Para Olympic Gold Medalist Muffy Davis in to race in our first race. She told me of her adventures ski racing all over the world and her experiences at the Para Olympics in Japan.

The next day we made a stop at Mary Free Bed Hospital and a local ski shop to promote the race that night. Having only been in a wheelchair a short time it was my first exsposer to Para Olympic sports and she was very impressive.

 

 

 

She was also a big hit when she spoke at the ski area after the race about disabled sports, racing at a world cup level and what it meant to her to be able to return to that level of competition after her accident. She then showed her silver metal to everyone and they were stoked.

We finished the season in 18th place out of 25 teams. Not to bad for my first year racing.

 

After that success and from what I learned from Muffy, I got the goal of competing in the Para Olympics in Salt Lake in 2002. Muffy told me there were only a few disabled race programs were you have a real chance of making it two the Para-Olympic team. So I decided to move out to Park city to train full time at the National Ability Center. Right after I left I had an article published in Ski Magazine and Mountain Zone about leaving GR to go out west to follow a dream.

 

Disabled Ski Racing

 

I left Michigan in 1999 and joined the Park City Disabled Ski Team. I began training on some of the most challenging ski hills in the world. We trained everyday on the Olympic GS run named CB’S, the steepest GS race course in the World. The first time I was at the top of CB’S with no other choice but ski down was November 17 1999. It was the first day of my first season out west and that was the only run open. Having learned to ski in Michigan I was terrified, it was steeper than I even though was possible to ski. I asked myself “how does snow even stick to the hill”. After training on CB’S everyday for a year, I could ski down it at full speed and even be looking for ways to go faster.

 

 

In 2001 I qualified for my first world cup race at Snow Basin. It was the test event for the Para-Olympics and it was very exciting. I finished in the middle of the pack that day but was just happy to make it down that hill alive. It was a real down hill race and they iced the course before we started so it was extra fast. (They clocked us at 75 mph) The temperature was well below zero and the faster you went the colder it got. By the time I got to the bottom I had frost bite on my face. But I was still smiling!

 

  

In 2001 I got to race in my first World Cup  Race, it was the Para Olympic test event on the Olympic course at Snow Bason in Utah. I did good for being my first world cup race and finished 15th out of 75 racers.

 

 During my career I developed two new disabled sports and helped a lot of young athletes develop their skills.. I also helped a lot of people get involved in disabled sports that would have never tried if they had not seen or read about my exploits. This is far more rewarding than competing in the Para-Olympics or any other event.

 

 

 

I qualified for 2 other world cup races in 2003 had my first top 20 finish at Kimberly British Columbia. That same year I had 4 top 5 finishes on the national race circuit and a third in GS at Nationals in Big Sky Montana. In 2004 I qualified for 2 world cup races and finished 16th and 18th. I raced 4 more race weeks in the states and finished up with Nationals. I had some good races and a lot of fun with my friends. I learned that racing is not all about winning, it’s about not giving up when you don’t win and supporting your teammates.

 

I loved training everyday and being part of a team. I had the pleasure of training with Chris Waddell, Muffy Davis and Monte Meier for 6 years. I also had more Olympic medalist as friends then I could count. I skied with the best skiers in the world both able-body and disabled everyday. The best memories I have are the ones of skiing with my son. I raised my son by myself and when he was 12 I suffered my accident. At the age of 13 he took his freshman year of high school off to travel with the team and help his dad follow his dream. He traveled to every race and helped me and all of my teammates with our gear and helped our coach with the task of managing six disabled athletes. He also raced in all of our races as a rabbet to lower the national point penalty. What a kid!!!

 The respect that the other athletes had for us was unbelievable, they treated us like real athletes and not people with disabilities. Even know I loved ski racing more than anything in the world I decided to retire after the 2004 season to devote my time to my sons ski jumping, race coaching and developing Adaptive Luge. 

 

I wish I had won a bunch of medals in my ski career but I won just one. So if you ask me what I got out of 6 years of racing, I would have to say I learned a lot about both skiing and life and that’s better than any medal. (Except maybe my bronze from Nationals) I now know how to coach both kids and adults, disabled or able-body. I also know how much damage a coach can do if they don’t look out for there athlete all of the time. Bad coaching can cost you a race or even a spot on the team. In all my years of ski racing I learned everything from tuning skis to gate setting. Not only did I travel all winter for 6 years racing in disabled races, I also traveled for 7 years before that with my son ski racing in Michigan, and Wisconsin. (13 Years racing and coaching)

 

Coaching 

I was also a coach for the Park City Ski Team and coached 13 and 14 year olds. The kids were awesome and listened to everything I told them. I had several kids go to Jr. Olympics and win metals and even saw two of the kids on TV in the Olypimics.

Coaching skiing is the same if you are disabled or not, you start at the same place and go around the same gates. The Park City Ski Team is the top ski program in the country and they gave me the opportunity to coach with the best coaches in the world. I felt it was quite an honor to be asked to coach there and what I learned their will stay with me for ever. http://www.ussa-imd.org/alpine/races02/n0598.txt

 

 

In 2001 I pushed the idea for the NAC to start a junior disabled ski race team. They decided it was a good way to get good racers for the adult program when they turn 18. With the help of the NAC, I started with 3 kids that had been taking lessons for years and were ready to race. We had 2 mono skiers (spinal bifida) and a kid that was blind and deaf. To get the program started I donated 6 pair of new junior race skis with bindings, so each kid had a training and racing ski. We raced in the able-body USSA kids races but had our own division. The thing that the kids liked best was racing with their friends from school. I became a featured athlete on NBC’S “Champions Creating Champions” for my work with the Junior Disabled Race Team.

 

 

After my retirement I kept working with my old teammates on the disabled team, supplying them with equipment and technical advice. In 2006 I fought for a teammate that had qualified for the games in Torero but was not selected. With my knowledge of the rules I forced the Para Olympic committee to name him to the team. It was one of the best feelings of my life. 

 

I also helped coach my son in freestyle and he made the US Development Team in 2001. In 2005 Thomas was ranked 14 in the country. He competed in both Junior Olympics and at US Nationals. His training program was on snow in the winter and in the summer they trained jumping into the swimming pool at The Utah Olympic Park.

http://espn.go.com/oly/news/2003/0322/1528104.html

 

In 2004 he started doing double and triple flips with a 360 or a 720 degree twist. The next year he suffered a injury and had to retire.

 

Pool Skiing

 

As I sat there everyday coaching him, I began to think about jumping off the aerial jumps on my mono ski. After several months of trying to convince the Olympic Committee that I could do it safely they finally let me try it. My first jumps were off a small jump and it went off with out a hitch.

In 2003 I was asked to ski off of one of the big jumps at the Sprint Ultimate Air Wave on ESPN. I talked a friend of mine in to doing it with me (Lacey Heward, US Ski Team) and even know the top jumpers in the world were there performing, we got the most applause from the crowd and were swamped for autographs afterwards.

 After seeing my success I was hired by The Flying Ace All Stars to perform every Saturday in a show that attracted 1000's of people every week. I was also hired as a park host to participate in a program that gives guests the opportunity to meet an athlete and learn about there sport

 

Joe Pack, Eric Burgee, and Speedy Peterson are three of the top jumpers in the world. Between the three of them they hold four gold, two silver and two bronze medals, in four Olympics. All three fought to get the IOC to let me jump and were my biggest supporters.

 

Luge

 

On Feb. 27 2003 I became the first American Paraplegic athlete to steer a luge sled down an Olympic luge course. Using an adapted luge sled developed by USA Luge regional development coach Jon Owen, I took four runs down the 1,316-meter 2002 Olympic track. http://www.usolympicteam.com/73_7873.htm

In 2004 I raced in my first official luge race sponsored by the Utah Winter Games and finished 4th out of a field of 25 racers. I competed in several other smaller races and won several cases of beer along with some bragging rights. I made about 250 runs hitting a top speed of 79 mph.

For the 5th streight year we are holding our "learn to luge" adaptive luge clinic at the Muskegon State Park. This year we are adding the worlds first adaptive luge team to race in the parks adult race league. Over the past 5 years we have helped several paraplegics, quadraplegics and even a blind athlete.

 I love racing at the track in Muskegon, we have some great people and a fun track.. I hope to get a young wheelchair athlete to the Olympics some day.

 

What I do is encourage a person with a disability to compete in the same events that able body athletes do. When I slide down the tack I am at no disadvantage to anyone and have a very good chance of winning. There is not a better feeling in the world.

 

 

Muskegon produces some of the top sliders in the country. If we had some young disabled athletes involved in luge they would not only have a shot at the Para-Olympics but the chance to make it to the regular US Olympic Team. What other sport gives disabled kids that kind of opportunity? Just think we could produce the first Olympic Gold Mentalist that’s in a wheelchair.

 

 

Back2Sports

 

In 2004 I started a company that manufactures wheelchairs and adaptive sports equipment… I got together with a group of disabled athletes that were all interested in developing new products and making disabled sports more affordable. (It’s also a very profitable investment)

 

 

I remember when they let me out of the hospital for a few hours to come visit Canonsburg one night. I saw a guy in a wheelchair and I asked him if he skied. He told me that he tried it once or twice but it was way too expensive to buy his own equipment so he quit.

 

 

 

I asked if he did any other sports and he told me no for the same reasons. I then asked if he worked and he told me he did not because no one would work around his limitations with SSDI and Medicare and with his disability he did not ever know what he could do. He said he was living on $550 dollars a month and rarely left the house. This sticks in my mind to this day because how can someone live on that? This is why I started a business that not only makes disabled sports affordable but provides jobs for the disabled.

 

We depend on our customers to give us ideas that will help develop new products that are more user friendly. We have an engineer on staff (Thomas) that is very good at turning ideas into products.

 

 

To be continued  

 

For more info visit www.back2sports.net

Thank You

 

Tom Hernon