Island teen Jordan Griffin has been careening down the slopes on a bi-ski with the help of islander Mark O’Neill and the Outdoors for All Foundation.

He hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to tear up the powder like he used to, before a snowboarding accident two years ago paralyzed him from the chest down. He has been fighting hard to regain his health amid a series of setbacks that sometimes take all of his energy.

“Before the accident, I loved to do anything active or adrenaline-pumping,” said Griffin, who was sixteen and an avid athlete at the time of his injury. “After the accident the doctors told me about mono-skiing, and Mark said he would take me … but I didn’t think it would be as fun. But that state of mind isn’t going to get you anywhere. If I wanted to have fun I kind of had to change things.”

Griffin and O’Neill just finished a seven-week session with Outdoors for All, which uses specialized equipment and volunteers to help make outdoor recreation accessible to people of all ability levels.

“We all have something that trips our trigger – for Jordan it’s snow sports,” O’Neill said. “There have been times in my life when I desperately wanted to do something and couldn’t do it; everybody knows that experience at some level. What I am doing is helping him to find a way to do something that he really loves. He’s working at it really hard. He’s putting a lot of effort into it. He sees where he needs to work at stuff, and he’s willing to commit to that.”

During the session at Snoqualmie Pass, Griffin learned the basics of maneuvering the sit ski by shifting his balance with his shoulders and arms.

“It’s all angulation, rotation, weight management that you or I would do with our ankles or knees; Jordan has to learn to do that with a different part of his body,” O’Neill said.

He said one girl who comes to ski through the program is a full quadriplegic and can steer her sit ski by tipping her head.

O’Neill skis behind Griffin, holding a pair of tethers that he uses to shift or steer the ski when needed. With each run they focus on developing a particular skill. While Griffin is helped by a variety of volunteers, he said he likes skiing with O’Neill the best.

“It doesn’t feel like it used to, but it gives me back the mind set; you know you can still do things, just not as well,” Griffin said.

He and O’Neill plan to continue with weekend ski trips, and he hopes to develop enough upper body strength to move to a mono-ski sometime, which is steered using arm outriggers.

“Jordan … loves all sports,” said his mom, Rachel. “He and his brother snowboarded every season from age six … He is a winter/mountain sport person. Summers were spent on dirt bikes, waterskiing and sailing.”

Jordan had a rare opportunity to go waterskiing in Sacramento this summer, courtesy of the area’s Shriners. He’s also tried quad rugby but said it didn’t really grab his attention.

“I want to try skydiving,” he said.

Jordan has enjoyed working with film for years and created his first video of himself and his twin brother Josh skiing when they were 14. An Outdoors for All volunteer gave him some footage from his ski runs, and he’s using it to create a film for his senior project that will also be shown at the Orcas Island Community Church in the future.

“[Since] his accident my own kids have all blossomed,” said Rachel about her children Josh, 18, Anna, 14, and Bethany, newly 13. “I see a maturity and a respect; they all have a good strong head on their shoulders now. They don’t take things for granted that other kids their age do. If I’m ever gone it’s going to be the four of them that keep each other straight.”

And of Jordan: “He’s an amazing kid, he has so much drive and motivation that it kind of keeps us all going. He’s had so many setbacks … he works so hard at everything. It’s been so emotional. Our days aren’t always easy, but always pushing forward.”

Rachel and Jordan both expressed amazement at the amount of love and support that has surrounded them from the Orcas Island community.

“When my accident first happened, people donated a lot, and we couldn’t really write thank-you’s to them all,” Jordan said. “So, thank you to all the people who helped.”

How to help now

There is still ample opportunity for those who would like to help Jordan on his journey toward strength and mobility.

He wants to do more physical therapy, but his current insurance will not cover it. Thad and Angela Douglas, owners of Orcas Spa and Athletics, have given the family a lifelong membership at their facility, but Jordan is often not strong enough to work out there.

The family is also researching promising stem cell experimental trials now being conducted in Europe.

“They take the patient’s own stem cells and put them into the damaged area of spine – and [paralyzed] people are actually walking,” said Rachel of the trials being conducted in countries like Russia, Germany and Portugal but not yet approved in the U.S. The cost breakdown is $25,000 initially, plus the expense of housing and food during a several month stay, and $12,000 to $15,000 for several subsequent visits.

In addition, O’Neill says the ski equipment is “prohibitively expensive, so we’re renting it.”

“Right now he can only ski when equipment is available, and in the areas they have it,” he said.

If Jordan had his own gear, it would be designed and balanced just for him, always available and ready to travel when he is. O’Neill said a unique bi-ski runs around $2,500, with about $650 more in hand outriggers and specialized tetra gloves.   To see how mono-skiing works, check out this video:

The Griffins can be reached at 376-4776.

The Outdoors for All Web site is http://www.outdoorsforall.org/.