Check Out Kevin Wilson’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Wilson.

Hi Kevin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I could go into a lot more detail but I’d feel like I’m writing a multi page article! If you want more detail than I provide please let me know.

In 1990, when I was 16 years old I had a car wreck that paralyzed me at the T5 vertebrae. I spent a week and a half in ICU with collapsed lungs, a broken wrist and jaw, a spinal cord injury and 100’s of cuts all over my head from the shattered glass. My car rolled end over end several times.

My dad was a high school coach so before my wreck my life revolved around sports. I had played soccer, baseball, basketball, football, and ran track. My family also spent a lot of time in the mountains during the winter months snow skiing. I had actually told my parents 2 weeks before my wreck that if I didn’t receive a scholarship to play football I was going to move to Colorado to become a ski patroller or a ski instructor, something that allowed me to be on snow skiing all the time. After my wreck I thought this dream was done, the adaptive skiing of 1990 is not what we have today.

I went through several bad years/decades… At first it was drinking, a lot, enough I didn’t finish college. Then it was the pain pills they were handing out like candy in the early 2000’s, and during this time I couldn’t hold down a job for very long as I was always on pain pills. I just felt like my life had been put on hold and never really got started again, it was in limbo. I also gained a lot of weight during this time, I didn’t like to go out of the house, I was pretty depressed I just didn’t realize that is what it was.

It took a bit to get out of the funk, but I did. I got off the pills, I hadn’t drank in 10 years, I started losing weight and while I could hold a job down, they weren’t great jobs because I didn’t really have a history of working at a job for very long. I found a local adaptive sports program in Dallas and became active again. I tried wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, hand cycling, kayaking, water skiing… many different adaptive sports and I enjoyed them but none of them grabbed and held me there, I was still searching.

My wife and I moved to Colorado from Texas in 2015 and we found a place up in Gold Hill, outside of Boulder, so we went straight from Dallas to a small mountain community of 250ish population, it was the change I needed and wanted. I found a job in Boulder for a start up company and just being in the mountains, the fresh air, a place I had always wanted to be really invigorated me. I worked hard and a lot of hours and it paid off with multiple promotions and raises until I ended up being the Director of Operations for the start up I was working at.

I knew adaptive skiing was available and I really wanted to try it but I just kept working and not taking the time to look into it more. My wife and I ran across a table at the Boulder Farmers Market for Ignite Adaptive Sports in the fall of 2018. They were mostly there to recruit new volunteers for the upcoming season but they also had some information on taking lessons. My wife then surprised me with my first mono-ski lesson for Valentines in 2019, The first day back on snow was amazing and I knew I wasn’t going to continue to skip out on skiing. One of the questions you get asked when you first start taking lessons is what are you goals. I told them that mine was to be able to ski the whole mountain on my own and to come to work for them (Ignite).

I had a couple more lessons that season and then the next season I applied and received a grant from an organization called Kelly Brush Foundation (KBF) who tries to get people with spinal cord injuries active again. I had several more lessons in 2020 with Ignite at Eldora and with Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center (BOEC) in Breckenridge. I was hooked, I applied for another grant through KBF to help pay for my own equipment. Having your own adaptive ski equipment lets you really dial it in for just you instead of using the equipment the programs have for everyone where they are adjusting it for each student but never get them really dialed in.

I received the grant and was able to purchase my very own mono-ski from a guy that makes them and was a past Paralympian. It was a big change as this was a much more advanced mono than the ones I had used on lessons the first 2 season and with COVID raging it was hard to get out on the mountain for a lesson but I tried and got a few in, enough to know that I wanted more and more.

In the summer of 2021, I was sitting at my desk at work in Boulder when I received the monthly newsletter from Ignite, at the bottom they said they were hiring a new Operations Manager and if anyone was interested or knew someone that might be interested then let them know. As soon as I read it, I emailed them to let them know that I was the person for the job, that I wanted it and that they wouldn’t find anyone more qualified or that had more desire than I did for this position. 6 weeks later I was hired and started working for Ignite! To say I was happy isn’t saying enough. There really aren’t words to describe it. I had just gotten a job at a resort in the mountains for an adaptive ski program, I had a hard time believing it.

When we started training our instructors for the season, I wasn’t able to ski on my own yet. I needed lessons still myself, or I felt like I did anyway. On Christmas day I went out with our Snowsports Director and our Equipment Manager and within 30 minutes they had me skiing, loading the lift and unloading all on my own! I was just skiing easy green runs, but I was skiing and I was doing it without any help, I hadn’t skied like that since before my wreck in 1990!

Since that time I have progressed a lot and while there are still parts of the mountain I haven’t skied yet, I am able to ski all the groomed runs without issue, I’ve also gone through the process and have become a certified (PSIA) ski instructor to teach anyone how to ski, and I this past season I got a 2nd certification for instructing other bi and mono skiers. I feel like life has finally come full circle, and I am now living and working a passion that I had had long ago. I never forgot what I wanted to do, but I honestly never thought I would do it.

This past season I taught over 50 days for Ignite, I skied around 90 days total and I got to spend a week in Snowmass teaching disabled Veterans. Right now Ignite is about to start our 50th season, we have a permanent building being built at Eldora and I can’t imagine being anywhere else.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, not at all. I had an alcohol problem when I went to college, after that was the pain pills. All during that was depression and lack of confidence in myself. I gained weight and was out of shape, I couldn’t hold a job down and I couldn’t find one I actually enjoyed or wanted to do. Live was a pain for a good decade or two.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am not the Program Manager for Ignite Adaptive Sports. A non-profit organization that teaches snowsports to people with disabilities. That’s what we do in simple terms but we do so much more at improving the lives of both our students and our volunteers.

Along with being the program manager I have 2 PSIA (Professional Snowsport Instructors of America) certifications’. I have an Alpine 1 and a Bi/Mono Adaptive 1 and I am very proud to have earned those. I am as happy as can be after every one of my lessons.

I think what I specialize in and what sets me apart is just simply how I treat everyone else. I have a philosophy that you should treat everyone like they are a great friend of yours. If it’s someone I don’t know, I just think of it as someone I haven’t seen in years and am excited to see them again. We teach adaptive skiing to people with any type of disability, whether it be a physical or cognitive one. People just want to be treated with respect and like they matter. Many of our athletes go through life not being talked to. Their parents, their caregivers, their spouses, their friends get talked to while they get looked over.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I listen to the Huberman lab podcast. I will also listen to other podcast from people that motivate and/or inform similar to the Huberman Lab podcast. I try to incorporate much of what I learn about health and keep yourself motived from those.

The only book I can name that has really made a lasting impact was The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

I’ve tried apps that help you concentrate, or meditate or… and I find just doing it works the best. I feel most people are insightful enough to know what is right and wrong, what works for them and what doesn’t. The issue runs when you just aren’t honest with yourself, be honest with yourself, correct the things that you know need to be corrected and life works out.

Pricing:

• $95 per lesson for downhill activies
• $50 per lesson for cross country/snowshoeing

Contact Info:

• Website: https://igniteadaptivesports.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/texaswheels/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ignite-adaptive-sports/posts/?feedView=all
• Twitter: https://x.com/igniteadaptive
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJkS4Fw5Re2wEyEZxgmQnvg