Scott Reardon
Humility…
Over the years I have done things to try to get the perspective of the skiers I coach. One of the biggest things I have done is to ski opposite foot forward which takes you back to the original days of slalom skiing where your body automatically retreats back to a “safety” position instinctively. Well, when Scott Reardon was skiing with us, we decided it would be a good experiment for me to try skiing on one leg like him. I thought you might enjoy the video links below. The first is a video of me, and the second is a video of Scott…please bear in mind that Scott skis up to 36 mph/58kph at 28 off/14 meters. I had to slow the boat down originally to 23 mph and eventually a little faster to be able to even run the course…humbling, but good fun!
Seth Stisher on one leg in the course.
Scott Reardon Skis into 28 off
You can see that Scott is an unbelievably accomplished skier. Scott, thanks for the dose of humility!
Stop whining! Why Scott Reardon will inspire you…
Surely you’ve caught yourself moaning about your age, a minor injury, rough ski conditions, Zero Off versus Perfect Pass, your ski breaking down, your boot coming apart, a bad day at work, etc. Well, I am no exception, I’m a bit of a whiner from time to time myself…that is until I had the great opportunity to spend a summer with Scott Reardon, one of Australia’s premiere athletes both on the water and off.
Scott is a three event waterskier, and an elite runner (competing for his home country of Australia in the 100 meter). He can run into 28 off in slalom, trick almost 2000 points including a flip, and jump around 75 feet. Sounds like a pretty solid 19 year old skier who many college ski teams would love to have. Well, the real catch here is that Scott does all of these things on one leg. Scott lost his leg when he was 12 years old in a farming accident and now pushes the limits despite this setback. HE has become quite an inspiration to all of us at H2Oz. I have never heard him bitch or complain a single time about having to ski on one leg or run with a prosthetic leg. Amazing huh?
Scott has trained with us all summer and just left on a flight headed to France for the Disabled World Championships where we hope he can sweep his events. After that, he will be back home in Australia training for the next Olympics to run the 100 and represent Australia against the world.
We wish Scott all the best and appreciate having had him around all season. We all feel like we have grown for experiencing his attitude, determination, and general upstandng character, in addition to gaining a new friend! We’ll be rooting for him August 31-September 6 as he competes in Vichy, France.
To follow Scott’s Results, checkout his blog at http://reardoski.blogspot.com/ or checkout the Diabled Worlds website at http://waterski.online.fr/competition.php?cc=D-09FRAD001.
