About this Short Film
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Film Transcript
The passion in all you do — take your seat. Those games will — they stay in there.
Most of the sleds that you'll see out here today are beginner-type sleds where the blades are quite a bit wider apart. It gives you a lot more stability that way. We use exactly the same gear as regular hockey, obviously aside from the stick. Our sticks just have the pick on the end of them that helps us get around. I guess the really difficult physical limitation is the balance and manual dexterity. Yeah, it's a lot of upper-body strength in sledge; you do most of your turning with your hips and then everything else is all upper body. There's adaptations for pretty much any disability — you know, we can have somebody pushing you. It's a pretty open sport.
The Calgary sledge organisation here is really open, very accepting of anybody, all skill levels, all interest levels. I lost both my legs in Canada, in 2008. I was on rotation there with the Canadian Army, and after being injured like that, especially as a soldier — you come from a very active lifestyle — you don't really know if you're going to get your life back in order. They brought us together and put us through all these different adaptive sports just so we can kind of learn there's life after injury. After I left Edmonton and came back down to Calgary, I was kind of looking to get involved with it locally, and that's when I got hooked in with the Calgary Scorpions. I've been playing here for the last two, three years.
I played hockey for a living and ended up having a work accident after my career had ended. One of the guys that I knew who played on the national selection team up in Edmonton asked me to come out to the World Sledge Challenge here just about three years ago, and I was hooked from that point on.
Because our structure is basically not recreational but skills and development, there's a wide range of fun for everybody. One of those things — the sled the first time you're out — is the hardest thing you'll ever do. Everybody here has fun. Like all these other guys, you have to come out and practice like regular hockey, and then every time you get out you get a little bit better and a little bit better. It looks better, and then after a while you kind of forget why you are in the first place.
I actually play with the national programme, so I just come out and I'm helping coach these guys this year. Our season generally runs about the same as a hockey season. We have tournaments across Western Canada, probably about six to seven a season, and yeah, we're always looking for more players and we've come to help. I didn't get to wear my Canada jersey playing stand-up, and getting to do it now is just an absolute thrill.
Filmmaker
Remy Bernier is the filmmaker behind this entry. See every Focus on Ability entry from Remy Bernier.
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