DISABLED WATER SKI PROGRAM
By Paul Jurbala

Jeff Penner is a competitor. You don't need to see the shelves lined
with trophies in his office to know that- you can hear it in his voice
over the phone. The guy just hates to lose.

Penner runs a business called Olympic Wheelchair Sales and Service from
Kitchener. For the last two years, he's been trying to get a disabled
water ski program going in Ontario, partly to help develop sales of the
special skis he makes and imports, but mostly because he just wants it
to happen. You can see his eyes light up when he hears there are US and
World Disabled Water Ski Championships: "I'd like to go to that. I'd
like to win that. I love to beat Americans."

In 1994, after sending letters to all Ontario water ski clubs and
getting a limited response, Penner started a program at McClintock's
Ski School, which is conveniently close by in Cambridge. Over the
course of the summer, he, his staff of two, and the McClintock's staff
held seven clinics, teaching 30 different disabled skiers, of whom 13
were under 19 years old. On the videos he shot you can see the steps in
getting each new skier up - first on a sort of wooden surfboard which
resembles an oversized kneeboard, then on the seat-ski from the boom,
finally to long line. You can also see the smiles on the faces of the
skiers, even the full rope length away. "It's total freedom," says
Jeff. "In a wheelchair you can't lean, you can't cut. Water skiing
gives you that- it's totally new for them."

The videos show something else as well - Jeff Penner learning to
slalom. He has to struggle with all the same things as any other new
slalom skier - learning to keep the handle down, learning to cut on
edge across the wakes. In the initial runs you can see the wide
seat-ski (called "Kan-Ski") slapping across the wakes, but as the video
goes on he begins to get the hang of it. McClintock's has a slalom
course - Jeff will keep going back until he can run it. Although he's
water skied since his early youth at his parent's cottage in
Waubashene, his accident in 1982 changed his approach. Over the next
ten years he tried to ski again, first on home-made wooden skis, then
developing his own seat cages and seat-skis. Eventually he came across
the commercially- produced Kan-Skis, which retail for $ 1750, but he
still tinkers with the design. And now he has a slalom course to
conquer.

The work continues. Jeff, who is a 6-time member of the Canadian
Wheelchair Basketball Team (and has 3 silver and 2 bronze medals to
show for it) knows the ins and outs of recreation for the disabled.
He's in demand to put on demonstrations and clinics across Ontario.
Last year he did some runs with Dave Brandstetter's ski show at the
Oakville Waterfront Festival- this year he wants to demonstrate at the
Canadian Water Ski Championships in Orangeville. "You don't just want
to advertise to disabled groups," he explains. "For every able-bodied
skier who sees this, well, maybe he's got a disabled friend who would
like to water ski. You can spread the word that way too. And they see
everything's the same- you don't change the course, you don't need to
change the coaching." He'll affiliate his Ontario Modified Water Ski
Association with the OWSA this spring, as well: "It makes sense to
integrate right away. It saves time."

For 1995, Jeff has 12 clinics scheduled at McClintock's, beginning May
28. It costs $ 45 for a 20- minute session, of which $ 35 is
McClintock's regular rate, and $ 10 goes to offset Olympic's expenses.
It will cost Jeff an estimated $ 14,000 to run the program this year,
of which nearly $ 11,000 is in the special equip- cont on previous page
DISABLED WATER SKI PROGRAM  cont from next page ment. His dream is for
every club to be holding this sort of clinic, with their own special
ski, but he acknowledges that's a long way off. Still, he's enthused to
hear that the OWSA's Pro Clinic may be able to hold some disabled
clinics in other Ontario locations- the program's got to spread out
from Cambridge. Bond Lake is interested, too. And the thought that
there may be a disabled competition program in Ontario within a few
years- for Jeff Penner, that's downright exciting.


To find out more about the Disabled Water Ski Program, contact Jeff
Penner c/o Olympic Wheelchair, (519) 741-1756.