SAN ANTONIO – A local nonprofit makes adaptable skateboards for kids with mobility issues.
Andrew Garcia and his team created Ability Skateboarding after he saw “a big void” in services for action sports, including skateboarding.
In just two years, they have helped 300 San Antonio kids with mobility issues try skateboarding for the first time through their adaptive skateboards and have reached 600 kids nationwide.
“I was like, this is so cool,” 15-year-old Raya Edison said. “I can’t believe I have never tried this before.”
Raya’s smile is contagious, and if it’s possible, her smile gets even bigger when she is flying on a skateboard.
She was born with spina bifida, which affects her mobility. She uses a walker or wheelchair for long distances, but it has never affected her mindset.
Even after 15 surgeries, she has always stayed active and powered through with a smile. It’s why her mom said they were so excited to work with Ability Skateboarding.
“The doctor said that she could do anything a child without spina bifida could do,” Danni Edison, Raya’s mom, said. “So we ran with it. So when Andrew came to us and (said), ‘Let’s do trial skateboard,’ I was like, ‘Let’s go forward.’ And Raya, she tried it and loved it.”
Edison said no kid is left out.
“You bring your child, any diagnosis, Andrew and the team will make a way and let them enjoy skateboarding,” Edison said.
When they don’t have something that works, Garcia and his team said they will build one, like the specialty machine that can harness a skateboarder that has no lower body strength.
“There are only like three of these in the world,” Garcia said.
Raya hopes that if other kids see her skateboarding, they will be inspired to grind too.
“It makes it feel great to know that we can do it,” Raya said. “I hope I help others realize that, because they might want to the skateboard and see me in one of those things and think, ‘Wow, she’s doing that, but she has braces or she’s in a chair or a walker, maybe I can too.’”
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