Snowboarding up a storm
Page 18
By Rosalyn Macdonald
When winter arrives, Daniel Sharp loves to take the opportunity to hit the snow.
"Nothing beats being on the mountain; with a blue sky, shining sun, crisp clean air and the whole day ahead of me. It gives me a sense of freedom and excitement. I enjoy the sensation of my board flying down the mountain."
Daniel is 23 and has Stargardt's disease. He started snowboarding around 10 years ago when he first went to the snow on a family trip. Being partially sighted meant that he could participate in adaptive snow sports, which provide extra support, adaptive equipment and professional services to allow people to learn to ski and snowboard.
Daniel's eye condition means he only has peripheral vision and no central sight. This can make it difficult to snowboard on his own, particularly when it is overcast and the visibility conditions on the mountain are poor.
"When it's sunny, I can see the terrain clearly. However when the clouds come over, I lose all definition of the mountain. I normally wear a bright bib which says I'm visually impaired – but half the time this is more of a magnet than a deterrent! People wearing white at the snow are also really hard to see."
Never one to let his vision loss deter him, Daniel stuck at it and decided to attend a social competition at the Disabled Snowsports Festival at Cadrona in 2003, allowing him to really test his love of speed.
His visual acuity is 3/60 which makes him a B3 classification in blind sport. Daniel races with a buddy, usually another professional athlete, who has volunteered to help out for the adaptive programmes.
"My buddy will help me navigate the course – they board ahead of me and I copy their body movements and paths. It can be quite tricky – they have to look forward and backward while making sure they don't stuff up or fall over!"
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Loving the thrill and adrenaline of racing, Daniel has competed in several events, including Disabled Snowsports competitions and the World Adaptive Snowboarding Championships, held at Cardrona in 2009 where he placed fourth in the boardercross.
He takes part in boardercross tracks and slalom courses. "The boardercross course is basically a downhill BMX styled track – there's big corners and jumps that you've got to go down. The slalom is when you go through a series of gates that you have to navigate as fast as you can".
In addition to competing in these speed events, Daniel has given some jumps and 'park tricks' a go.
"I've hit a few boxes (long, oblong structures that you board over) and I've done a few reasonable sized jumps. I even tried a fairly big one last year at the Remarkables ski field but didn't land it. Then there's the half pipe, which is pretty hard."
Snowboarding is his hobby, but sportsman Daniel's focus is actually on competitive swimming. He's currently training for the Paralympics where he will compete in the 100 metre breaststroke, and 50 and 100 metre freestyle events.
"I would like to do more snowboarding – it's one of my hobbies," he says. "But swimming often gets in the way."
Photograph: Daniel and his buddy take the opportunity to hit the snow.