Disabled Snowsports Of NZ Week At Cardrona

Disabled Snowsports Of New Zealand Week At Cardrona

Disabled skiers and snowboarders from throughout New Zealand gathered at Cardrona Alpine Resort this week for the Disabled Snowsports of New Zealand (DSNZ) Week.

“The week’s a great opportunity for all our branches to get together,” said Gerald Davies, national manager of DSNZ. “We’ve got about 40 people from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Wanaka and it’s always lots of fun with social events as well as providing a great race training facility.”

The week provides the perfect chance for absolute beginners to get on snow under the expert guidance of the volunteers, all of who are specially trained in adaptive skiing.

The week also acts as a competition week for the disabled race and development teams as part of training for possible New Zealand team selection to go to Torrino, Italy for the Winter Paralympics in 2006.

One such hopeful is Adam Hall (17) from Taieri who has been snowboarding since he was seven years old. Suffering from spina bifida, Adam has hung up his snowboard in favour of skis as snowboarding is not a sport at the Paralympics.

“He’s amazing!” said Gerald Davies. “When Adam was snowboarding he competed in able bodied events and did well. Now he’s skiing for the first time in 10 years and he’s even faster than he was on a board! He’s certainly not afraid of pushing the limits.”

Other Paralympic hopefuls are Barry Cardno from Wanaka, Alan Sloan from Auckland and John Marrable from Otago.

The DSNZ Week continues at Cardona until 26th August.

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24th August 2004

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