Athlete Feature – Tremain Wade
How many adaptive sports can one person try? Tremain Wade is bound to find out. So far, he’s taken part in bicycling, kayaking, camping, bellyaking, skiing, snowboarding, and recently at Ignite Adaptive Sports, he tested out the ski bike. “Have you ever seen bellyaking?” Tremain asks, “you get on your belly and use your hands as paddles, like a kayak. It’s awesome!” With infectious positive energy and a big smile, Tremain lights up the room at World Headquarters on a snowy powder day at Eldora. This is his first year with Ignite and he’s somehow managed to have already tried almost everything we have to offer. Tremain says his favorite snow-sport is snowboarding. “So, the thing with boarding, right, you’re experiencing the same event of gravity guiding you down the mountain as the board itself, it’s just an incredible feeling. I always wanted to be a skate boarder, so it’s just a great journey for me to take part in.”
Despite his tremendous ability to make others smile, Tremain says one of the biggest challenges he faces is keeping a positive attitude. “I’m all smiles and giggles right now,” he says, “but it hurts. It hurts to see others going up the mountain and me sitting here complaining about my leg. I have Multiple Sclerosis, and part of my challenge here is keeping my body from burning up, and my leg from giving out.”
Originally from Long Island, New York, Tremain builds his objectives and goals around the idea of keeping a positive attitude. When attending the Winter Sports Clinic in Colorado in 2007, Tremain realized the positivity he felt from people around the snow sport world, and the beautiful sunny skies was something he wanted every day, so he moved here. He heard about Ignite Adaptive Sports through the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) and says since his introduction to the program, his life has been more chaotic, and that is something he enjoys. “You want to get something done?” Tremain asks, “Talk to a busy person. You don’t talk to a person lying on a couch, right?”
Ignite Adaptive Sports exists to help people like Tremain experience the beautiful outdoors as well as the positivity and comradery that comes along with the snow world. On a beautiful powder day like this, it’s very hard not to smile and enjoy.
