Patrick Ivison

Hi my name is Patrick and I’m 10 years old and have a C-4 spinal cord injury.  I like to play sports.  I like basketball, rugby, soccer and hockey.  And I like to surf.

Surfing is one of my favorite sports.  I sit on an extra long board and someone paddles me out with a small kayak.  Once we get out far enough, we wait for a wave and then both surf in together.

I live in San Diego.  We get about four to five foot waves.  They can even get up to six feet, very rarely though.  It’s pretty fun because you get going really fast while you’re surfing a wave.  And I like to go fast.

Sometimes it hurts a little going through extra big waves.  And we have even flipped over backwards because the waves were too big.  But, it’s still pretty fun.

I also really like playing competitive sports like hockey, rugby and basketball.  People wonder how I can play these sports.  Basically, you’re on the same courts with the same equipment, like when I play basketball I use a regular basketball.  And when I’m on the ice, I use a puck and a regular hockey stick.

I also snow ski.  The gear is a little different with skiing.  It’s basically a bucket chair and two skis below the chair.  And then you can put two outriggers on the sides so you don’t flip over, but you only do that on the smaller slopes.  I can’t ski the steepest runs but I am able to ski deep, steep runs.