Hi! Sydney here, and I want to share with you a bit about my journey from a wheelchair back to snowboarding made possible by Oregon Adaptive Sports! 

I first learned to snowboard in 2017/2018 after moving to Denver to work as a paramedic. The feeling of pure joy I got the first time I really started to pick it up still sticks with me. After a bad snowboard wreck at the end of that season, I had to stop working as a paramedic and required 3 surgeries over the next year and a half to put my wrist back together. 

I decided to make Bend home in 2019 after falling in love with it while living here during my 18 months of surgeries/recovery. I finally was able to start snowboarding again in the 2019- 2020 season, but unfortunately only got two (rusty!) days in before Mt. Bachelor closed due to COVID. I intended to start back again in the 2020-2021 season after the mountain reopened, but I had a sudden cardiac arrest and related anoxic brain injury in the fall of that year while home in Arizona. While that was a scary situation and a tough recovery, I often remind myself that not many people can say with certainty that they were a snowboarder in a past life and their current one–it’s all about perspective ;) 

I set an intention to start snowboarding again in the 2021-2022 season, but required a tracheal resection(5 rings of my trachea removed) due to tracheal stenosis(narrowing of the airway) from a rapid intubation during my cardiac arrest. I was in a full upper body brace for quite some time and my very kind, very skilled surgeon at OHSU begged me to take the season off. With my paramedic background, I recognized the importance of that healing period to be trauma-free, so I (reluctantly!) complied. Related recovery from that meant the 2021-22 season was out. 

In the 2022-23 season, I (again!) planned to get back out there. However, in January of 2023, I suddenly found myself in a wheelchair after I went from hiking and finally working as a paramedic again after my snowboard wreck, to unable to walk within 2 weeks. I was initially diagnosed with Guillain Barre Syndrome, but in time my doctors learned I have the chronic cousin of Guillain barre, C.I.D.P, and require immunotherapy infusions (IvIg) to gain and maintain the ability to feel and move the lower half of my body. To this day, I receive these 4 hour infusions every week through a port, and am incredibly grateful for them!
 

Also in January of 2023, while still in the hospital after my diagnosis, I stated an intention to the doctors that I wanted to be snowboarding again by the end of the year. They smiled and said while they admired my tenacity, that was likely at least a FEW YEARS down the road, considering at that point I couldn’t feel or move much at all below the tops of my thighs. I did not like that answer, but I do love a good challenge, so I made snowboarding again my sole focus for 11 months! I have what I call an optimistic curiosity, the mindset can be described as acceptance of current life circumstances while optimistically curious about “what if it all works out?”. This of course started with little goals, such as moving my toes or flexing my foot, regaining joint rotation, etc. With an earnest commitment to physical therapy 2-3x/week for the last year, the little things have turned into the big things! 

When considering my return to snowboarding, I recognized my risk on the mountain was high, six years had passed since I learned and had a serious accident, and even more risk having only relearned to walk over the last several months—though I do it pretty well now! I learned about Oregon Adaptive Sports over the summer through my neuro Physical Therapist and got to participate in a few summer events—paddle boarding on a lake despite my PICC line at the time, as well as outdoors riding mountain bikes on a course—all while I was still using forearm crutches to walk! These first experiences with OAS were striking to me—where I was met with incredible people who only ask where I’m at so that they can give me the help to be where I want to be and do the things I love. After these highlights in my summer, I started to dream a little bigger in my recovery and worked hard to regain the strength to pick up fly fishing again at the end of last summer!

On New Years Eve of 2023, my 29th birthday, I went snowboarding with the amazing crew at Oregon Adaptive Sports. I thought I might need a rider bar(snowboard handlebar) and all sorts of other help, but my coaches Taylor and Holly encouraged me to try it with just a foam wedge in my bindings. Sure enough, with their great instruction and encouragement, I was getting on edges and stopping on lesson one, and by lessons 2/3 I was starting to link turns. I truly don’t have words for the feeling of freedom I experience nearly every Sunday snowboarding with the OAS instructors and volunteers. After experiencing so much limitation in my body for so long, the feeling of surfing on snow surrounded by trees, epic views, stoked people, and fresh mountain air is pure magic. I can’t wait for the rest of my lessons! 

One of the coolest thing about Oregon Adaptive Sports is that they have been able to accommodate whatever my leg weakness looks like that day, some days I have been good with just the foam wedges, other days I’ve used tethers(an instructor holding tether straps attached to my waist to assist with balance and turns). Regardless of how I show up, the OAS crew always gets me on the mountain! 

Sundays at Mt. Bachelor snowboarding with the OAS crew has truly become the highlight of my week and makes all the infusions, needles, neurologist visits, PT, etc, that I do during the week so very worth it. These incredible volunteers were dedicated from day one  in helping me see a very long time goal through after several years of feeling like it was getting further away. I truthfully cannot say enough good things about my experience with them. 

Thank you for spending some of your most precious un-renewable resource, your time, to read my story. On Saturday March 16th, I am participating in a “Ski-for-all” event on a team with my neuro physical therapy center, Spark Rehab, where I will be snowboarding, completing fun tasks across the mountain, and raising money for OAS!

My goal is to raise $2,500 for Oregon Adaptive Sports so that they can give to many more, regardless of financial ability, what they have given to me since my diagnosis—the joy of outdoor adventures for people experiencing disabilities! Every dollar contributed will advance OAS' work in breaking down barriers to the outdoors for individuals with disabilities. This includes obtaining and maintaining state-of-the-art adaptive sports equipment, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships, and training and retaining the world's greatest volunteers!

I believe in the importance of OAS’ work. If you are able, please help me lend a hand to this amazing organization that lights the fire of joy in each and every athlete they serve through their pursuit of making the outdoors more accessible! If you can contribute, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart! If you cannot contribute, I want to thank you for taking the time to read my story and ask that you might consider sharing my page with a friend or to your social media! Feel free to continue to follow my page either way for video and status updates of my journey on the mountain! https://oregonadaptivesports.rallybound.org/sydneyshredsforgood         (Or the QR code)

With love, gratitude, and prayers for powder! 

Sydney Fitzgibbons 

Oregon Adaptive Sports Athlete