Heidi broke her back when she was in her late teens. The break was at T5 and was complete, which means that she is totally paralysed and has no feeling at all from her mid chest down. She needs firm support to be able to sit upright and she needs a special "pressure cushion" (called a Roho). Heidi has done ocean sailing but with all the hectic moving around that goes the tacking and jibing of racing, she finds she is more in the way than a help. If we can find a way of holding her firmly and comfortably, dragon boat paddling will be an excellent sport for her as her arms and shoulders are wiry and strong from years of coping with a wheelchair. Sue Humphries and Wendy Perkins told me about a excellent seat that has been used to enable a Canadian Paraplegic to become a competitive outrigger paddler (see http://www.gear4portaging.com/ seatingandyokes.html). It is however expensive - add to this the rand:$ exchange rate + shipping + tax (14%) + import duty (11%) and it is out of the question. The only option is to get a seat made here in Cape Town especially as, although she is excited at the idea, we do not yet know if Heidi will really enjoy paddling! I discovered a company (www.shonaquip.co.za) in Cape Town who custom design wheelchairs and other mobility aids. How's this for a small world? ... Matthew, the American engineer who is visiting Shonaquip this month, used to work for gear4portaging !! We had our first "fitting session" on 17th October 2007, in the amaBele Belles' newly launched boat. Heidi's style will obviously be different to the rest of us and she won't be able to lean. She will be relying mostly on arm strength and as much rotating as she dares. She also needs her Roho. As you can see from the pictures, the Roho is several inches thick, which would put her at gunnel level if we attached her seat to the boat seat. The last seat does not have a central support post and is simply screwed in, so it would be no trouble to unscrew this seat when Heidi is paddling.
The base board of the support seat rests down on the angle of the side with the bottom chine Using a piece of foam as a makeshift "belt" while testing Heidi's arms' pulling strength.	The basic trial seat, sides way too high; they will be cut down as low as possible while keeping Heidi feeling secure. Heidi felt better with the seat tipped slightly back. Although some people express horror at the idea of strapping anyone into a dragonboat, Heidi cannot sit upright and exert any effort into paddling without being held. She also needs some means of keeping her legs straight. I do not like the idea of any seat-belt type buckle, velcro is the only option and you can get industrial strength velcro that will stand up to constant dousing with salt water. We'd need a large, easy-to-find grab bobble on the velcro (rather like the grab-bobble on a kayaker's splash-cover) so the sweep or nearby paddler could help.
It will be interesting to see what AK and Matthew come up with as their mark one seat - watch this space! We will also have to rethink paddling style for paddlers like Heidi. I noticed she was afraid of loosing he balance if she straightened and raised her inside arm and was reying mosly on arm strength, pushing away with her top hand and pulling with her lower, blade hand (more kayaking style) whilst we focus on back rotation-&- leaning and uncoiling. Step 2