Blog: "Mountain biking gives me the adrenaline rush I crave"
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) website features a blog post every Friday through the year.
In 2016 we’ll be taking a look at an A-Z of accessible sporting and fitness opportunities available to disabled people. This week it’s M for mountain biking, and Phil Hall discusses rediscovering the thrill of hurtling downhill on a muddy trail.
Read more in the A-Z blogs series.
Phil’s blog:
I am 44 and have been riding and talking about four-wheeled accessible mountain biking for the last 10 years.
I am a paraplegic, a wheelchair-user, following a motorcycle accident I had while living in Tenerife back in 2003. Prior to that I had been enjoying downhill mountain biking for just over 12 months.
I loved my experiences of mountain biking before my accident, and I still wanted some excitement after recovering from my crash and returning home from hospital. However, all the sports I tried seemed to be missing that adrenaline rush.
But when I then discovered accessible mountain biking on a trip to America I absolutely loved it.
As the sport didn’t even exist in this country at the time, I returned home and in 2006 started the Rough Riderz club. The aim was to spread the word nationwide and encourage more disabled people to try and get involved in this amazing extreme sport.
We also wish to create an all-inclusive culture so that disabled and non-disabled riders, on two or four wheels, can meet and ride together.
The type of bikes we ride have been created and developed by keen amateur riders over the last 20 years. They feature ski-style bucket seats with straps across your lap, and they have no pedals so rely on gravity to propel the rider on downhill dirt trails.
The bikes also have shock absorbers, hydraulic disc brakes and specialist off-road bike wheels to create a four-wheeled mountain bike, suitable for participants with a variety of impairments.
It probably took me about six months to really get used to riding the bike, as it’s a strange combination of rallying and downhill mountain biking. However, I think it took me over a year to get really confident and start to test my own limits.
I simply love mountain biking because it gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning. It gives me the excitement and the adrenaline rush I crave, and it offers me a real physical and mental challenge. It also allows me to meet lots of great people.
I also love the fact that I can just forget about my disability when I'm in my bike, and I find myself riding in some of the most amazing and beautiful locations that I couldn't dream of getting to see or experience in my wheelchair.
At Rough Riderz we now run Rough Riderz Taster Dayz, designed for total beginners to the sport, concentrating on the technically correct way to perform the core skills required to become a competent and confident rider.
I get a lot of enjoyment from introducing newcomers to this fantastic extreme sport. It is a wonderful world of dirt, full of challenging terrain, that I hope to continue to enjoy participating it for a long time to come.
Read more in the A-Z blogs series.
