Page 7 - Mobility Management, April/May 2020

New Dreams, Familiar Dreams
His partnership with Amylior, launched in 2019, gives him the freedom to create films and to educate.
“I’ve been working on videos with them, showing a little bit of a motivational video,” he said. “It’s not really ‘corporate.’ It’s wakeboarding, and then me transitioning into filming and a couple of shots of me filming from the wheelchair, what I can film now. I’m proud to associate myself with a company that has the same kind of values as me, that’s pushing towards something better, and showing what I’m doing now: filming, editing, a little bit of background. The other videos coming up are more about my lifestyle, simple things like going into the snow with the chair, or going to the grocery store.
“We’re adapting a camera onto the wheelchair so
I can control the most I can. Once that’s ready, I’ll be ready to make all the product videos. There’s so much more to show.”
Amylior — parent company of Amysystems power chairs, Continent Globe durable medical equipment, and the CG Air seating series — hasn’t put many restric- tions on filming content, Leclair said: “Just trying to show- case what it’s like to be in a chair and what life looks like.”
His Amylior product development work is another throwback to his wakeboarding days: “I’m testing new wheels, I’m testing new seats, I’m testing the new control- lers, and I know how to give feedback well because I’ve done that for other products.”
Leclair’s competitive nature is now expressed through handcycling. When he began rehab in Montreal, “I could pedal a bike slowly with one hand, and I would strap the other hand on there and try to make the move- ment, even though I couldn’t feel my arm,” he said.
He kept at it, buying a stationary hand-cycle system and practicing at home. In 2017, he traveled to NextStep Orlando to continue his rehab and training.
“I tried one of the bikes they had, and I wasn’t strong enough to pedal it,” he recalled. “I told myself, ‘I’m going to buy a bike, and at one point I’m going to be ready.’”
Leclair bought a second-hand bike and put it on rollers in his home. “I wasn’t strong enough to turn,” he said. “For the whole winter, I pedaled 120 km, but a couple
of kilometers at a time. At the end of the winter, I wasn’t able to turn, but I was strong enough to pedal outside. That made me say, okay, I think it will work.”
He set his sights on a Red Bull Wings for Life run, which raises money for spinal cord injury research. Leclair had been invited to the Montreal event; organizers recruited him to appear in person and pose for photos. Leclair reached out to Top End, who promised him a bike much more efficient to pedal.
“I was supposed to be at the starting line or finish line,” he said, “but I told them: ‘I might be able to pedal a couple of kilometers. If people help me turn, there are straight lines [within the race course], so I’ll be fine.’”
The host of the event, a veteran marathon runner, said if Leclair could pedal for five kilometers, he’d run with
him. Leclair said, “I was like, ‘Let’s do the whole thing.’” And he did.
“It wasn’t perfect,” Leclair said, “but I was able to do the entire 10 kilometers with a couple of people pushing me here and there for the curves.”
Three years after his accident, how much does Leclair still use his professional wakeboard training and the lessons he learned from it?
“I think 100 percent of what I used to do is what I use now,” he said. “I’ve been working through injuries in the past, never as drastic as this. Pain is part of the process, and pushing yourself isn’t going to be good all of the time, there are going to be bad parts.”
He chuckled. “You always get the cake at the end.” m —Laurie Watanabe
DIESTCO MANUFACTURING CORPORATION
MobilityMgmt.com
MOBILITY MANAGEMENT | APRIL-MAY 2020 7