WCMX World Championship: Guest post by David!

Here is a guest post from my friend David from Germany. He flew to the US to take part in the competition and did very well! In this blog post, he tells us about his experience with Team Germany (my friends Lisa, Philipp and Anna are with him together with a couple other guys). If you understand German, you can follow their adventures on "The wheel rocking world of Lisa and David". Thanks David for sharing your post with me!

Team Germany
Ph. Anna Spindelndreier

The World Championship in Dallas is over and it was such a great weekend. I really can't thank the organizers from Rise Adaptive sports enough. After winning an international contest last year in Venice Beach, I was already being called a world champion. But in fact this was the first official world championship: a hard-earned name, with 18 riders from 8 countries.

On Saturday, during the qualifiers, I was very nervous, but apparently my run was very satisfying not only for me, but also for the jury, that rewarded it with the 2^nd place. The first 12 qualified for the final: alongside me there were Aaron Fotheringham, Blake Simpson, Katherine Beattie, Rico Reyes, Toni Quinoero Martin, Jake Harvey, Shaun Doss, Quinn Waitley, Pedro Henrique, Christiaan Bailey and Philipp Cierpka.

We have made a little edit of the runs of team Germany (Lisa, Philipp, Paul and I): https://www.dropbox.com/s/ucqmrdwab71fhh6/wcmx-wm_fb.avi

The kids of Team Box with Aaron Wheelz

On Sunday it was make-or-break. The scores from the qualifiers were invalid, only the two runs from Sunday determined the final ranking. Still, I was clearly not as nervous as I was on Saturday. It was different for Philipp. He was very nervous and worried he could break his wheel, which he had bent on Saturday, during his good qualification run. Even in his final runs, his excitement was noticeable, but he handled it very well and can now consider himself one of the 12 best WCMX riders in the world.

Though for Paul and Lisa the competition was over after the qualifiers, Lisa barely missed the finals with a 13^th place and Paul, after a long mandatory break and with an unfamiliar wheelchair (he got my old TNS with last-minute emergency adjustments) has done well and gained the 15^th place.

David can fly.

Ph. Anna Spindelndreier

So it was Philipp and I in the finals. Philipp was the first one to ride on Sunday, unfortunately he was so nervous he crashed several times: nothing bad, but points are taken away after each fall.

Besides crashes, creativity, style, use of skatepark (that is if you are using everything or just rolling in circles), tricks and lines or combos (the way you connect the different tricks and gaps in the skatepark) are evaluated. Once again, I decided to use my safe repertoire and preferably try not to fall and to make my tricks look as easy as possible, which I did. I was very happy with my runs and I managed to use everything, without crashing in the valid runs and with everything I could do at Alliance skatepark. Without crashing? Well, not really: during the very last trick of the very last run, I still managed to lay on the ground. I have tried to come down the handrail with a 50-50 and fell on my back. Anyway, I only did that because the first run was perfect and I thought: “If I make it, then it's good, but it's not a problem if I don't.” Only the best run was valid.

Aaron's handi-plant

Aaron crashed a few times, but compensated for them with his powerful tricks and managed to take home the title. Blake Simpson, the one I was betting on, who also was 1^st in the qualifiers, unfortunately didn't have luck on Sunday and placed 6^th . The 2^nd place, that went to Pedro Henrique from Brasil, was not surprising but well deserved. Until then, I only knew his breathtaking backflips out of the quarter, which he also showed his ability at during the weekend. He landed all of them except one, putting pressure on everyone. Even Aaron wasn't able to land backflips at such rate. However, in such a contest, a single backflip is not enough to obtain a good place. Pedro proved that he can do other things besides using the jumpramp. His grinds, together with his fakie firecracker down the stairs, were crucial for the ranking.

I followed in the 3^rd place: thereby the jury rewarded my clean runs and my use of the entire skatepark, as well as the fact that I always used each and every second of my 2 minutes. 

A video of Philipp's run, as well as mine, will follow; here are the general highlights: 

With 750 $ prize money and a bunch of new impressions and friends, the adventure continues. Because, as I am writing this text, I am already in Austin, very comfy at the breakfast table. What we experience here, you will find out soon. 

Greetings from Austin, Texas from Lisa, Anna and David

The winners: 1. Aaron Fotheringham 2. Pedro Henrique 3. David Lebuser 4. Rico Reyes 5. Jake Harvey
Ph. Anna Spindelndreier

#WCMXlove

Zac, Mike and I in 2010

As I am sitting here writing my essay for my English class, I can't help but think about my friends from the WCMX family. The WCMX World Championship is taking place this weekend in Dallas, Texas.

I am so happy for them because they get to spend some time all together and have fun shredding. A few days ago, when my WCMX friends from Germany left for Dallas I was so excited for them I even followed their plane on a website called flightradar24. I had a big smile on my face when the plane hit the ground. They were there, ready live their dream, that is my dream as well, and I felt like a little piece of me was there with them. I know they are having so much fun and I can't wait to see all the pictures and videos.

At the same time, I am very sad I have to be sitting at my computer getting schoolwork done while almost everyone from the WCMX family is having a blast in Texas. I can't wait to be done with my Bachelors this fall because I know I will most likely be able to travel to the US in summer 2016 and spend some time with the WCMX family before I start focusing on my Master's.

Now let me tell you what WCMX is and what it means to me:

Can you tell I love Philipp's Box chair?

WCMX is an awesome sport, it's similar to skateboarding or BMX, but instead of using boards or bikes we ride on our wheelchairs. The pioneer of this sport is Aaron Fotheringham, but we call him Wheelz. I have told you about the time I first met him here.

To me, WCMX means hope, it means happiness, love and fun. WCMX means dreams do come true. 

I love the WCMX family so much. As you know Aaron was the first one to make me feel good about my chair. After him, I have met other members of this awesome community: Linda and Zac, who is like a little brother to me; Mike Box, an awesome man who puts his heart and soul into building the best chairs for athletes to shred with and most importantly wants to make people happy; David and Lisa, the best friends and WCMX trainers I could ever ask for, who can always make me feel loved and accepted, even when I fall out of a train because I suck at wheelies; Philipp, who is so patient with me and lets me ride his WCMX chair just because it makes me very happy =P

I love this sport because it is full of love and fun, and we can all have fun together, no matter who we are or where we come from. Sometimes there are misunderstandings and different ideas, but I think we should all stick together and focus on our passion, on what we all love to do. It doesn't matter how you call the sport or who made the chair you ride on, the only thing that really matters is that we can shred together and learn from each other. What is important is that we can show the kids that they can have fun on their chairs and that their disability doesn't have to be a curse, it can be a blessing.

Many people don't understand my love for skating and WCMX, because they think it's stupid and dangerous, but I don't care. It is a passion I have always had and it won't go away. I am proud of it and I think the greatest risk in life is not taking any risk. Even though I am not a very good athlete, I love WCMX and I always will. No matter how many times I'll fall, I will try again.

Philipp, Wheelz and I

How it all started

I was about 15 years old and I spent my days on Youtube watching videos of Ryan Sheckler and skateboarding tutorials. I knew my dream of becoming a skateboarder would never come true: I have Cerebral Palsy. I can barely walk on crutches but I had always wanted to skate. I dragged myself around everyday with the help of my crutches or a walker, then I closed my eyes and imagined my life without a disability and with a board under my feet.

Around that time, I got my first wheelchair. I can't walk for a long distance and whenever we had a lot to walk I was pushed around in a baby buggy. I was 15 years old. I didn't like the fact that I couldn't decide where I wanted to go, but walking was so exhausting that I really needed to sit down every once in a while. One day my physical therapy asked me if I would like to get a wheelchair to replace the baby buggy, since I wasn't a baby anymore. I agreed, so she told my family about it. It was not easy for them, because they saw the wheelchair as something “very disabled” people use, and they didn't see me that way. That is why I didn't use the chair much in the first year. I did not insist on using the chair more often because I thought walking was tiring but still less limiting.

I was trying to learn German, so I started looking for German movies online and I decided to watch one. One of the main characters was a kid on a wheelchair. I always read the names of the actors after watching a movie. One of those names caught my eye: Aaron Fotheringham, wheelchair stuntman. I wondered what a wheelchair stuntman could do, so I googled his name. The first results were YouTube videos, the titles were something like “Wheelchair in a skateboard park”. Needless to say I immediately pressed play. That was the moment that changed the way I see my disability. I couldn't take my eyes off of this kid shredding the park on his chair, with a motocross helmet on his head. At the end of the video, I was so happy I almost cried. It was possible, I could be a skater. Wheelchairs can be cool. In that moment, I knew I needed to talk to that guy. I found a contact form on his website and sent him an email. I told him how his videos opened the door to a whole new world for me, a world where dreams do come true. He replied the next day, and seeing his name in my inbox made me the happiest girl on the planet. There was someone telling me it was ok to have a disability, he was telling me there was nothing wrong with me and that the wheelchair was something to play with, it was not a bad thing. I found out he was not the only one hitting the skatepark on his chair, there was a whole team, a big family. I started dreaming about becoming a member of that family.

A few weeks later, Aaron told me he would be coming to Italy for a TV show. They were filming in Rome, a 6 hour drive from my town. Not close, but not as far as his hometown, Las Vegas. I begged my parents to take me there, I knew I had to meet that kid. It took me a long time and a lot of effort to persuade them, but they eventually agreed to drive me to Rome.

When I met him, I was blown away by what he could do on his chair. Even my parents were pretty impressed. We talked, played and had fun, and when I left Rome I knew everything was going to be ok, my dreams could come true and I could become the person I had always wanted to be. That was only the beginning: I could be independent and happy. My wheelchair was my favorite thing to play with. My disability was a blessing.