Discovery of Project Airtime
A couple years ago, right before I climbed El Capitan, I had the opportunity to do an internship in California. I was finishing up my Computer Information Systems degree at the time and needed the internship to satisfy that requirement. As part of the internship, I agreed to drive cross country from Maine to California while recording various places and adventures in 360 videos. Knowing this I went on a major dreaming expedition in my head thinking of all the things I wanted to see and do. I had to try to pack it all into 2 weeks, so I wanted to hit as many of the major things as I possibly could. In my search on Google for adaptive things to do, I found an organization called Project Airtime. They allow people with disabilities to experience paragliding in a specially made wheelchair, and they do it all for free. I will talk about my experience on Friday, but I wanted to highlight a few other people that have taken this to a much higher level than just trying it once.
Chris Santacroce – Founder of Project Airtime
Chris Santacroce has been a full-time paragliding professional since 1992 and spent 13 of those years as a Red Bull athlete traveling the world to showcase free flying sports in general. He flies everything from airplanes to powered and unpowered hang gliders – paragliders, paramotors, and has hundreds of skydives and BASE jumps. Chris founded Project Airtime after suffering a life-altering spinal cord injury which resulted in him spending some time in a wheelchair. As good fortune would have it, he made a 120% recovery but was left with a different view of the world and an improved view of life.
He went from a wholehearted “look at me and look what I can do” sort of attitude to a world where the only question was, what can I do for you? He answered that question by making it his life’s work to make sure everyone regardless of their situation in life can experience the freedom of flight.
Joe Stone – Project Airtime Student
I met Joe when I got to experience paragliding for myself. It was only later that I realized what an awesome guy he really is.
On August 13, 2010, Joe nearly died while speed flying, a form of paragliding. He was moving at nearly 50 mph and hit the side of a mountain in Missoula, MT. Before his injury, he had always been an avid outdoorsman and really enjoyed pushing his limits. He felt lost after his injury but with some research, he realized that he may not have lost much after all. He decided to set a huge goal to test his limits once more to see what was possible. One day before the anniversary of his accident, he completed the tough challenge of handcycling the entire Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park.
Ever since then he has made it his mission to show the world that disability doesn’t necessarily mean the loss of ability. It just means using the abilities you have, to accomplish your goals. He has gone on to be the first quadriplegic to finish an Ironman, he paraglides with Project Airtime and has started a foundation called the Joe Stone Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to help merge the disabled and able-bodied communities through activities that can be experienced together regardless of their ability level. This mission really resonates with me. I truly believe that this world would be a better place if we could just become one community working together to help each other out.
Matt Thomas – Project Airtime Student
Matt Thomas was a world-class kayaker in his able-bodied life, but a mountain biking accident changed the way he does things. It was July 9, 2009, and Matt was out with friends doing their usual pushing it to the limit adventures. He had come to this jump numerous times and chose to steer around it, knowing this wasn’t something you screw up and come out of unscathed. For some reason this day he decided to go for it and hit the jump going way too fast. Matt landed 5 feet beyond where he should have and crashed hard. His friend Anthony rode up to his side and the only Matt could muster from his mouth in a desperate breath was “I can’t feel my legs.”
After years of rehabilitation and frustration, Matt went online to research ways to recover my spinal cord injury. During his research, he came across Project Airtime and knew he wanted to give it a go. He spent 5 days with Chris Santacroce taking tandem lessons and by the 6th day he was off on his own, soaring the skies. Chris would give instruction from a radio for the first couple flights and by the third flight, Matt was making things happen before Chris could utter a word. He had it and he knew it. Life was never going to be the same Life had changed once again but this time for the better. For more on Matt Thomas check out his blog here.
Closing Thoughts
I have mentioned community many times throughout my blog posts. I really hope that some of the people that read this blog are inspired to become part of someone else’s community and make the life of someone else better through a helping hand. I know that without Chris Santacroce, Matts friends, and the community behind Joe Stone it would have been a much harder path to get where they are today. I will be back on Friday with my own Project Airtime experience so stay tuned!
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