4-1 Adventure Camp

Izzy Lynch: We're here in Whistler, British Columbia for the Live It, Love It Foundation's Freewheel Whistler Adaptive Adventure Camp. We have 15 injured athletes here. They've all sustained spinal cord injuries within the past five years, and we have them out trying some new activities. A couple of those are bungee jumping, rowing, kayaking, and zip lining. And, uh, I think it's going to be a really great week.

Group: Three, two, one!

Izzy Lynch: In April of 2010, I was skiing with Jeff Scott at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, and he had a horrific snowboarding accident, which he ended up a quadriplegic. And after a year of rehab, he, he got let out, and we decided to go on a cross-country road trip adventure. So we just talked about how great it would be to have a platform for people with like minds who love adventure but are facing the adversity of a new disability or an injury, um, to come together and, and try out new things.

Jeff Scott: Yeah, the Live It, Love It Foundation works in numerous ways. We've got our camps where we bring people out and work on charging the adrenaline fuel tanks, but also working with the mind and giving individuals the tools to help them through a spinal cord injury.

Samson Danniels: Live It, Love It just seems to be just fun all around. I mean, it's run by, you know, people who get what it is to be out pursuing the mountains and, and this sort of active lifestyle. And there's nothing patronizing about it. It's just really like-minded people that are, you know, looking at some of our friends who, you know, had some bad crashes and going, "Hey, like, life doesn't need to change. Let's, let's keep at it. Let's keep having fun."

Amanda Timm: I got injured in a big mountain ski competition and just happened to catch an edge and cartwheeled into a tree.

Samson Danniels: Overshot a huge road gap in central BC on my mountain bike, and, uh, I broke my back in 14 places.

Ben Thompson: I see so much positive stuff coming from guys with disabilities just getting back to sport, getting back doing something they love, and more than just trying it, like actually having a good adventure with it.

Izzy Lynch: So adaptive adventure is basically just adapting sporting equipment to suit specific needs. And, uh, we really like to push the, you know, more action, exciting adrenaline sports.

So when we see campers try new sports, it's funny. You see kind of a whole realm of people. The people that just throw themselves into it with no fear. And once they're in there and they're in the boat on the water, on the bike riding down the trail, it's just this incredible feeling of independence, and, and you can see it in their face and in their smiles.

Jeff Scott: For me, it's been huge to speed the process of regaining my independence, uh, to connect with individuals.

Ben Thompson: The camaraderie between athletes with a disability is a big part for always kind of pushing each other to go a little harder and all that. So I see a lot of that with all the guys at Live It, Love It, like, uh, going bungee jumping. You know, the first guy does a single backflip, the other guy's like, "Well, I'm going to go for two," and it's just an awesome thing to see.

Jeff Scott: Never gets old, man. Never gets old.

Izzy Lynch: One of the biggest things about these camps is just bringing people together and, uh, they can talk about the similar challenges that they face. And I think that is just such an important aspect of the program. It, it helps them deal and, you know, learn new things, figure out different things about their equipment and, and tactics. And a lot of it is just problem-solving all the time.

Samson Danniels: You know, the value of being outside and the value of pushing your own limits, for a lot of people, is what creates a reason to get up in the morning. I mean, everything you do every day better be worth it because you're paying a huge price. You're, you're exchanging a day of your life. You know, and there's only so many of those, and you're not going to get any more.

Jeff Scott: Yeah, the Live It, Love It Foundation has given me a lot of opportunity to connect with other people with similar injuries, with completely different injuries. It's allowed me to connect with places and, uh, with myself. Pushes me to challenge what I can do and can't do and helps me find that balance. And that's what we're trying to help other people do as well.

Izzy Lynch: I'm inspired on a daily basis. It's so incredible. The athletes just show me that life is, is worth living no matter what and to make the best of any situation. And, uh, the support we get from outsiders is really, really inspiring too. There's just so much goodness in this world, and people get so much satisfaction from putting smiles on other people's faces, and I get to do that a lot, so it's pretty cool.