Since I last dropped in on ye old blog I’ve done some racing down in Colorado, a full overhaul on my sit ski, a handful of presentations, traveled to Revelstoke and Victoria, and got a few great days of skiing in my own backyard. My holidays were great but my time at home was brief.

Colorado in December is one of my most favourite places to be. The snow is usually good, and pretty much everyone is down there; from the Para Alpine racers to all the freestylers doing the Dew Tour — it’s like a big ol’ reunion.

It was a frantically busy trip to Colorado with a solid week of training prior to the races, followed by four straight races (2xGS and 2xSL). Our whole team did very well and I’m happy to say I won three gold and one bronze medal, a great start to the season.

I also had a chance to spend some time in the foam pits at Woodward at Copper and practice doing some flips in my sit ski! The foam pit is the first step of progression to bring that backflip onto the snow one day.

Even though I’m at the forefront of the progression of my sport, I always keep safety in mind. It’s important to recognize and follow a plan when developing new ideas and skills. The next phase of this chapter of training includes lots of practice on an airbag, and then if everything is aligned we’ll try a flip on the snow. Small steps and lots of training/practice are the keys to safe progression in any sport or job.

Returning home for the holidays was a treat, especially since I always put off Christmas shopping off until the last minute. I literally started my shopping at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve. I got lucky with my shopping, and enjoyed a most wonderful and relaxing Christmas with the family . . . it was nice.

The rest of my holidays were spent overhauling my sit ski to ensure it can handle the big jumps and high speeds in the months ahead. I also spent time working on my website, JoshDueck.com. I’m so damn excited for the season ahead and I’m really looking forward to being able to share it with you via my webpage. It’s gonna be rad.

Revelstoke was next on my list of places to be. I had a chance to go to a classic ski bar and do a presentation on behalf of my favourite foundation, Liveit! Loveit!. This organization is close to my heart, and to be able to share the love and promote empowerment through sport with my good friends is the best feeling. Thanks to Izzy and Zoya Lynch for making this happen, and to all the people for coming out and supporting the cause.

After Revelstoke, it was back to Vernon for a couple of days. I spent some time up at the “Star” riding with friends during the day, and spending my evenings downtown at the Best of Banff Film Festival. It’s always great to take in all of the spectacular films that are being showcased. If you love the outdoors and haven’t been to the festival it’s an absolute must. The “Freedom Chair” played both nights. To see the reaction of the home crowd was amazing — I’m honored and flattered by the support of the community.

Off to Victoria for New Year’s Eve with my lovely lady and some friends. We went to Atomic Vaudeville, the most eclectic production I’ve ever seen — it was a cross between Monty Python and SNL gone completely insane. Brilliant show and a completely ridiculous way to ring in the New Year. However, the purpose of going to Victoria was to meet with the folks at the McCoppin Institute of Learning, to discuss working together in the future. The meeting went so well that we started to design a forum that both Lacey and I can facilitate together — such an awesome concept considering she’s been an integral part to writing the story known as my life.

After Victoria I made it back home for a night to unpack and repack, and have a sit down for a community dinner with our neighbors. The following day I caught a flight to Montreal and drove down to New Hampshire for the U.S. Championships. I’m excited for an opportunity to ski fast and test my mettle against some of the top racers in the world.

Stay tuned for all the results, and stories from my upcoming adventures to Whistler and Aspen.

We focused the majority of our time testing and experimenting with some new ideas to make the sit ski perform even better than it already does. I’m not at liberty to divulge the details of what we were playing around with — but let me say that the changes we made will open up a new world of possibilities. In a sport where we measure in increments of time we noticed exponential gains.

We’re hoping to get this new prototype on the market fairly soon so that it can create new opportunities for aspiring world champions, freeskiers, and first-time skiers alike. Stay tuned. As an interesting side note, Nakiska is an international hub for early season training for some of the greatest able-bodied skiers in the world. I had the pleasure of training alongside one of the greatest of all time, Didier Cuche. I couldn’t resist introducing myself to him, and after chatting for a little bit he asked me if I could ski powder in my sit ski. I immediately showed him the Freedom Chair, and he was super impressed. He invited me for dinner and we spent most of the night talking about the future of both our sports. Didier’s an amazing athlete, a champion amongst champions.

After two weeks of solid training with the team I made my way back home for a week of rest and rejuvenation. Nothing beats hanging out with friends and family, and enjoying the simple pleasures in life like cooking, and taking my best bud Rome to the dog park.

Rome and I enjoy some time together before the first snowfall arrives.

I also had some great days in with m’lady at home, doing yoga, and riding up at my mountain. We lucked out and got an unusually good day for early season, which was a great way to start things off.

Living the dream with my girl.

Early season is a funny thing for me though. I usually have around 30 days of race training under my belt when the local hills are just opening, so when I get home all I want to do is shred so hard! But often, early season comes with plenty of hazards like exposed stumps, rocks, and terrain that haven’t filled in yet.

It’s so hard for me to gear down and ski smart, especially when I’m so amped for the winter ahead. I got caught being a little cheeky on opening day of the backside. I was running a bit too hard and landed on a stump, breaking my ski, and narrowly avoided disaster. Strong reminders that every run of every day is filled with challenges and hazards, and to properly assess the environment before dropping in. You simply have to respect the mountains no matter how many times you’ve ridden them.

Well it’s another week and another flight! I’m off to Colorado for some training and the first series of competitions for the season ahead. Always an exciting time of year — a great opportunity to put all the hard work and training to the test to see how you stack up against all the other skiers who live to ski fast!

jd

It’s been quite the week, month, and for that matter life has been hectic for me since last winter.  My summer was pretty full on with some intense projects to prepare my body and my equipment for the upcoming winter.  As well, I was both a student and teacher at a variety of health and well-being workshops.  I also had a chance to catch up with the Raise Your Hand team a few times as well this summer . . . a totally amazing crew spreading the good word on safe work.

Playing the Raise Your Hand game at a summertime event.

The balance of my summer was spent training with the Canadian Para Alpine Ski Team, and doing some fun stuff like wakeboarding and skydiving! Skydiving might have been the scariest and most exciting thing ever.  My friend Kristi Richards said it best: it’s the closest experience she’s ever had to being in the start gate at the Olympics. I agree.

Jogging at a fitness training camp in Hawaii.

Flashing forward to the past couple of weeks, life has been exceedingly amazing.  I’m back on snow training with the team, and am still on cloud 9 from the release of my latest project, The Freedom Chair. The film recently won the Best Film — Mountain Sports award at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, and the standing O from the 1,000 who saw the film really moved me.  I feel super fortunate to have been able to work with industry leader, Mike Douglas, on this film, and to be able to go get some deep powder turns at Chatter Creek with my buddy Abma.

Jamie Clarke from LiveOutThere.com presented me with the “Best Film — Mountain Sports” award at the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

So with all this great stuff happening, I’m actually starting to feel a little overwhelmed with things.  I’ve recently decided to cut back a little and centralize myself, rather than spend my winter travelling all over the world competing every week.  I’ll still train and compete this year, but focus my time and energy on the domestic circuit, and perhaps do some more filming and complete the X Games.

I’ll tell ya why: first of all it’s going to be so nice to slow things down and enjoy quality moments on the mountain rather than rushing all over the place.  Second, I can work on bettering my technique, and improving my equipment.  Third, and most importantly, I realize that when I get super busy sometimes I forget to pay attention to the details, and that’s when you get hurt.

Honestly, my decision to cut back this winter was inspired by the reoccurring dream that life was starting to look and feel a lot like it was just before I broke my back in 2004.  Too busy, always running around, and sometimes forgetting to pay attention to the details in my working environment — that’s when accidents happen.  Three young workers are permanently disabled on the job each week here in B.C.  So remember, if you have safety or health concerns, let your supervisor know.  It’s a big move for me to scale back when I’m at the height of my career, but to not learn from my past mistakes in life would be foolish.  I’m super lucky to be in the position in life that I’m in right now, and I want to continue moving forward, one step at a time.

Hope you enjoy the video, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please post your comments, as I’d love to hear them.

Ma halo,

Jd

At the end of April I took a good hard look at my competition schedule for the next year and made the difficult decision to continue with law school through the summer. Basketball’s international season is the summer so that would mean doing classes while traveling extensively and training intensely. I chose to do this, however, because the Para PanAm Games are being held in Mexico in November. That means I have to be away for three weeks of that month which is a brutal time to be away, school-wise. This summer I’ve missed 6 weeks of class, but most of it was in the beginning or middle of the semester. The huge plus with going straight through the summer is that I will finish my law degree in August! I absolutely cannot wait. It has been a long three years.

In May I played in the National Championships in Quebec with Team BC. It was a tough tournament because our players are spread throughout North America and we never play together. Thus, while a very talented team on paper, we struggled. It was quite frustrating for all of us to look at ourselves, know we were good, and yet get beaten by less talented teams. Let that be a lesson for all you athletes out there — it doesn’t matter how fantastic the individual athletes on your team are. If you don’t practise together, you won’t win. At the end of the day, we finished fourth (which is a brutal spot to be in). Like last year, I left directly from the National Championships to the BT Paralympic Cup in Manchester, England. This was another difficult tournament. We had the Canadian team together for the first time in a long time but we were missing one key player and had some injuries to contend with. As such, a lot of odd lineups were played. On the plus side, I played with a lot of combinations I don’t normally see and it forced me into roles I don’t normally play. This was really enjoyable. On the downside, we lost every game (one in double overtime). So even though it was a learning experience, it was really frustrating.

In June I traveled with the team to Germany for a friendly series against the Germans and an extended training camp. We also brought along the Under 25 girls who needed practice for their World Championships which are happening right now in Ontario. In Germany, things started catching up with me. I had been experiencing some elbow problems while training at home that I’d tried to ignore and it turns out I was on the verge of severe tendonitis. Bad news for a wheelchair basketball player. Like everyone, athletes need to know their limits and listen to their bodies. I got a stern talking-to from our team physiotherapist who reminded me that I’m not doing anyone a favour by ignoring pain and trying to act tough. If I ignore symptoms, they will flare up into worse conditions, or an injury, that may have lasting and permanent effects. So pay attention and, if something hurts, stop doing it!

In Germany with some ice, tape, and spare wheels

In Germany I picked up two things: a brand new custom-made basketball chair from the German company Meyra and a horrible cold. Here’s the thing about colds when you’re an international athlete in competition: you can’t take anything because of drug restrictions. Like, nothing. No NeoCitron®, no cough medicine, nada. Writing this, it doesn’t sound so bad, but it was awful. The scratchy throat turned into a sinus infection, which turned into a chest cold, and pretty soon I couldn’t breathe. By this time we were in England playing a test series against the Brits but I was only well enough to play one quarter the whole time we were there. Eventually I was sent to hospital to make sure I was able to fly home with my limited breathing capacity and there they gave me some blessed antibiotics. Luckily I started getting better immediately.

The coolest thing we did on that trip (and maybe in my whole career) was do a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in London on Canada Day. They have a huge party in London for all the Canadians in England and we came out to play by the iconic fountain. I met Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and a lot of fans who are looking forward to the Paralympics in 2012!

Playing hard on flagstones for onlooking Canadians in London

Team Canada in Trafalgar Square

Chatting with the High Commissioner, James R. Wright

It’s been far too long since I’ve dropped my pen onto paper, and thus have to retrace my calendar to bring you up to speed with my recent adventures.

The month of March ended with two great ski races, the Canadian Championships and the U.S. Championships.  To keep the story short and sweet, a couple of good buddies of mine from the U.S. Ski Team out skied me at the Canadian Championships and snatched the titles away from me, in my own backyard. It was a tough pill to swallow in front of all my friends and family.  On the flip side, up in Alaska for the U.S. Champs I was able to beat them on their turf, and I can now say that I am the U.S. Champion!!!  But even better than winning a couple of races at the end of the season was the fact that I was able to live out a dream of mine to ski in Alaska.  Big mountains, wild lines, and fantastic locals made it an all-time epic trip!  Big thanks to everyone at Challenge Alaska for all your hospitality and guidance in the mountains.

April was filled with lots of miscellaneous activities like recording a video game for the Raise Your Hand campaign in conjunction with WorkSafeBC. If you haven’t given it a go yet, DO IT!  It is a great way to raise awareness about young worker safety and good fun to boot. I also attended a few conferences and spent some time at home getting the gardens ready for spring planting.  At the end of the month I went to a ski hill called Nakiska for a two-week ski testing session.  The mountain was closed to the public, so it was just a handful of hard-core ski racer types that had full rule of the entire resort — it was a surreal experience to be on a mountain so quiet ~ plus as a bonus the conditions were perfect (cold and snowy like you would experience in January).  The verdict?  In my opinion Volkl skis are the ticket!  Their race skis are amazing and their line-up of freeride skis has me drooling.

In my spare time I’ve been in Vancouver a couple of times doing presentations and some appearances, keeping people stoked on their potential and what is possible.  I’ve also done a few trips out east to speak at some conferences as well; one in Ottawa in early May that was for the Canadian Paralympic Committee excellence series.  As a gathering of Canada’s top Paralympic athletes, we were given an open forum to share knowledge and experience to further our personal selves and the Paralympic movement.

On the home front, I’ve been doing some landscaping and gardening in my spare time, and my favorite pastime is spending some quality time at the dog park with my best pal Rome.

Well, spring is a sign of a New Year beginning for me . . . so stay posted, as there is lots of excitement coming down the barrel very soon.

For all those Canucks fans out there, see you on the streets as we cheer our team to victory!

GO ‘NUCKS GO!

Needless to say, it’s been a busy few months. In March, I won a second provincial championship with my Division II team, the Victoria Titans. This is one of my favourite teams that I play on and we had a total blast. We’re small (only 6 players), but we’re good, and we have a ton of fun. My husband Jon also plays on the team, so it’s a really great way for us to spend time together, while still engaging in athletic pursuits. I was also named to the tournament All-Star team which made me a happy camper.

Following that tournament I hopped on a plane and flew to Calgary, to play with the B.C. women’s provincial team in a friendly tournament with teams from Western Canada. I like to call these tournaments “Building Hope, Not Crushing Dreams,” because a large part of the weekend is spent teaching new players the ropes, and encouraging them to take larger roles on the court. As a national team athlete used to international play, it can be a bit challenging to rein in one’s natural tendencies to “crush dreams” and play super intensely, but it’s really important if we want to encourage new players. Wheelchair basketball is an extremely challenging sport to learn and having national team players around to mentor you is fantastic, as long as they are letting you play and not ripping the ball out of your hands. This is what I have to keep reminding myself.

Since coming home from Calgary, things have been a bit of a whirlwind. I’m in my last full-time semester of law school and the pressure is on. The amount of work that goes into a law degree is daunting, and I will be happy when it’s done. I have to scale back my training at this time of year, which is doubly frustrating because I want to be playing, but I have to be in the library. It’s a fine line indeed.

One nice break came on Sunday at the Pacific Institute of Sport Excellence Women in Sport Awards. I was nominated for Vancouver Island’s Athlete of the Year, so Jon and I were invited to attend the awards brunch. We sat at the VIP table along with Olympic Medallist Kristina Groves and other nominees. I got to catch up with some great friends including Paralympic racer Michelle Stilwell, and handcyclist Karen March — people I often only see in airports as we’re heading to our respective competitions. At the end of the brunch they announced the winners, and it turned out I had won! I was quite surprised and really pleased. 2010 was an awesome year for me and it was great to be recognized by the local sporting community.

Jessica and Jon at PISE Women in Sport Awards Brunch

I’ll leave this post with some thoughts that have been on my mind recently. While I’m sitting in the library cramming for finals, I occasionally hear snippets of conversations from students planning on going back to work for the summer, tree planting, or forest firefighting, or even just around town. Remember that while making money is important, nothing is more important than your life. It’s as simple as that. Often we young adults don’t realize how vulnerable we are out in the workplace. Think about why you want to make money and then think how that money is useless if you’re not around to enjoy it. So, while you’re making plans, plan to be safe as well.

Stay tuned and stay safe!

I was unsure of what to expect from the whole ski contest day; who’s it gonna be, are they going to be quiet or loud, do they even know who I am, have they ever skied? Well I have to say that WorkSafeBC and the CPC did a good job choosing the winner! Not only did Camilla put together a fantastic essay about how she incorporates safety into her workplace, but also Camilla and her boyfriend Flynn were great people and totally fun to ride with! Here is a picture of the four of us.

Ski Day at Silver Star

Next I packed up for my trip to Toronto where I was scheduled to appear on Canada AM, CBC, Much Music, E Talk and TSN.  As well I was lined up to do a school presentation for a group of students who won the CPC Paralympic essay contest and go to a Toronto Raptors game, all in one day!

I arrived in TO at midnight on Thursday and was scheduled to do Canada AM at 7 a.m.  At 5 a.m. the producer of the show called me to say that my spot had been canceled due to a massive earthquake in Japan.  I turned on the news and felt disbelief, shock and horror.  My heart and prayers go out to all those being affected right now.

Understandably most of my TV spots were canceled throughout the day, which was Ok because it gave me more time to hang out at the school with a super cool group of kids.  I shared my story with them, talked about the values of sport and the importance of listening to your intuition (your internal compass which helps you to make the right decisions).  Then to my surprise the class shared with me some videos and collages that they put together for me . . . I was —and am— super impressed.  Thank you Wilclay Public School for a wonderful experience!

From the school we went to the Raptors game, which was super fun!  I’ve never been to an NBA game before and to be honest neither of the teams played very well that day, but it didn’t matter because the atmosphere and people I was with made it awesome.

At the Raptors Game

Twenty-four hours after I arrived in Toronto I was on another red-eye flight back to Vancouver to celebrate the relighting of the Olympic/Paralympic cauldron and the one-year anniversary of the Paralympic Games.

One-Year Anniversary of the Paralympic Games

And then, twenty-four hours after arriving in Vancouver I was on a flight to Kimberley for the official Josh Dueck Day celebrations in my hometown.  It was great to be home and the city threw me a great party . . . I was invited to present the awards to a whole bunch of mini shredders after their big year-end race and then we went to the local grill and enjoyed sharing some stories, speeches, pictures and some classic après with full house of friends & family!  Thanks Kimberley for a great day.

Josh Dueck Day

Josh at 2010 Paralympics

When I look back to my Paralympic experience; it was not about personal athletic achievement or glory, it was not about sport or my passion for the mountains.  I do not remember all the sacrifices or the setbacks along the way nor do I recall all the times when I asked myself WHY?  My experience at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics was all of these and none of these…

My journey to the games began several years ago, as an aspiring freestyle mogul skier.  I was drawn into the sport of freestyle by the strong sense of community amongst the athletes, the passion for the mountains that we all shared and the endless possibilities of how we could express ourselves.  My quest as a freestyle skier ended too early, due to the overwhelming financial constraints of being a full time athlete (a sad song sung by far too many talented Canadian athletes).

I transitioned into coaching the next generation of freestyle superstars.  I started at Apex Mountain before finding my home in Vernon coaching the highly regarded Silver Star Mountain Freestyle club.  As fate would have it my time coaching was also cut short, this time by a catastrophic accident that would leave me paralyzed from the waist down.  That was in March of 2004.

Some might say that my accident was brutal and burdening ~ while others would claim that it was a great spiritual enlightenment for me.  I will not deny the first but I am certainly drawn into the latter.

Lying in the hospital, writhing in pain and unable to move is certainly not a position I would wish upon my worst enemy.  But when faced with such adversity one is left with the simplest of choices; wallow in misery or move forward.  Needless to say, I immediately decided to move forward and make the best of the situation.  Rather than focusing on what I had lost (which to this day stills boggles me)… I made a conscious choice to move forward with every ounce of my ability.  Something magical started to happen right away… those around me began to feel the positive energy coming from within me and it lit a fire within them; and by nature it became cyclical (from there the positive energy began snowballing exponentially).

It was not long after my time in the hospital that I returned to the mountains to satisfy my unquenchable desire to ski.  After learning the basics of the mono ski I decided to go for gold at the Paralympics in 2010.   The stories from then now are endless and the lessons learned are timeless…

Flash forward to the March 2010, the Paralympics Games in Whistler.  The hype is insane and had been for the year leading up to the games.  The crowds are huge, more than any of us athletes had ever seen.  The energy was out of the world!  Finally my moment had arrived to compete on the ultimate world stage… and the greatest sense of calm came over me.  My objective coming into the games was not about personal accomplishment or glory or any of that; it was all about creating a sense of unity and community amongst those that matter most to me.  I looked down into the crowd and new that I had already done what I had set out to do… the connection I share with my friends and family was LOUD and clear!!!  The only thing left was to do what I love to do… just SKI.  The rest is now history… a story that I hope will be shared for years to come.

High-energy fans

Find your passions and live your dreams; embrace the unexpected and see each of life’s challenges as an opportunity waiting to be seized.

Josh Dueck

Having a chat with assistant coach, Michael, on the inter-seat phone system. Hours of fun.

Because Canada is hosting the inaugural Women’s U25 World Wheelchair Basketball Championship this summer, the team we took to Japan was half national-team athletes, and half junior national-team athletes. I like to think the team does this for two reasons. First, the Osaka tournament is a hilarious good time: we do school demonstrations, the Japanese actually cheer for the opposing teams, and Japan is an awesome country. Second, the trip is horrendous. Flying halfway around the world for four days of playing is a good test of a player’s composure under stress. So it’s kind of a test to see how the younger girls (and even some of us veterans) can cope with jet lag, different food, and rock-hard beds when the results don’t matter.

Me taking the jump ball in front of a Japanese middle school. I totally won it.

When we arrived in Japan we learned to our dismay that the Americans had dropped out at the last minute. This left the Japanese organizers scrambling to find a team to fill that fourth spot, and the rest of us disappointed because we’d all wanted to get a good look at who the USA was sending. When you play at an international level, you see the same teams over and over again but there hadn’t been an international event since the World Championships in July. A lot tends to happen after a major competition: girls retire to start careers, start families, or simply decide they’re done with the work of international play. Needless to say, I was super curious to see who would show up in Japan, but with the Americans dropping out, I wouldn’t get much of a chance.

The organizers managed to cobble together a “Japan B” team comprised mostly of their juniors. Their Japan A team was the exact same team we’d played at the World Championships. This was a little intimidating because while we’d beaten them in England, we were now missing half of our team. Our first game against them was less than stellar and they beat us handily. The next game we played was against the Japan B team. We managed to squeak out a win, but we got a serious talking-to in the locker room. Our team needed to communicate and quickly, because we had Australia coming up. Talking to the rookies, I let them know that Australia plays rough, tough ball and to keep pushing no matter what. Our team managed to communicate and put the ball in the hoop a little more efficiently. With three minutes to go we were only down by 2, but the Aussies managed to pull out the win. Still, I was very impressed with the composure of our new girls against the assault Australia launched at us.

The loss meant we were playing for third place (again!) on the final day against Japan B. I started the game like I usually do, but found myself being rested for most of the game. Our U25 girls were doing great! My veteran line had run up a comfortable score and the coaches wanted to get the younger players in, and they kept scoring! We finished the tournament with a 40-point win. It might sound silly, but I’m more proud of the close loss to Australia than the runaway win over Japan B.

After four quick days, it was back on the plane home to Victoria and right back to school. I was painfully jet-lagged but dragging myself through the week when I was notified that I had been named the recipient of the Ann Roberts Humanitarian Award for the faculty of law! Every year they give the award to a student that goes out of their way to lend a hand to the school, the community, and other students, and this year they chose me. I was incredibly flattered and really honoured when it was announced. It felt like the perfect coming home present!

Getting presented with the award. Sadly, I didn't get to keep the plaque. I would have hung it over my bed.

Paralympian and silver medallist Josh Dueck is being honoured by the B.C. government as part of a provincial program recognizing B.C.’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes and volunteers.

Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Colin Hansen says the provincial government will proclaim recognition days for every B.C. athlete who won a medal during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Volunteers will also be honoured with their own day.

Athletes are being recognized on the one-year anniversary of their medal-winning performance. Josh, who won his silver medal in Men’s Sitting Slalom, will be recognized on March 13, along with guide Lindsay Debou, who won silver for the Women’s Visually Impaired Super-G on the same day.

Josh is one of 17 B.C. athletes who won a medal during the Games. “Our athletes have left us with lifelong memories, and they have helped to inspire our youth,” says Hansen. “Proclaiming days to recognize their achievements is just one way we can show our appreciation for the contributions they have made to our province.”