Durban - The ocean and the road are happy places for two disabled sportsmen who will take part in the aQuelle Tour Durban cycling event tomorrow (Sunday) to raise funds to go to the World Para Surfing Championships at Pismo Beach, California, in December.
“Surfing is the closest thing to being in the bush,” said Oliver Sinclair, 47, who was a game ranger before multiple sclerosis struck.
When there’s a road closure during an event that includes adapted hand bikes, having the open road ahead is “beautiful”, he said.
“It’s a time when we don’t have to look out for cars and pedestrians and these bikes go faster than bicycles on the downhills.”
Doug Hendrikz, 43, who lost both legs in a 1999 motorbike accident, finds the waves “an even playing field” where, on his wave ski, he feels no different to other wave riders.
“There’s the same freedom cycling and surfing. You’re on the road in the water doing something you do by yourself among others. They’re individualistic sports but you do them with like-minded people.”
In August Sinclair won the prone assist division and Hendrikz the wave ski division at SA Championships.
In normal times, both go into the water once or twice a week but the recent sewage crisis has closed some beaches and are best avoided by disabled surfers, who may have compromised immune systems. That hasn’t kept them from the promenade.
“We go down there so we can see the waves we’re missing out on while we are busy preparing (for the world champs),” said Hendrikz.
Sinclair added: “We are on the beachfront most Saturday mornings, riding our handcycles, often with the SA flag flying on them.”
The team of 18 was announced this week and includes people who qualified for various categories, including visually impaired and those who can kneel but not stand up.
Sinclair and Hendrikz’s cycling for the world para surfing champs fundraising efforts won’t end with the aQuelle Tour Durban or next month’s Amashova.
In mid-November, they plan to honour a deal to ride a kilometre to match every R1 000 raised by cyclist Grant Hill riding the Freedom Challenge from Pietermaritzburg to Wellington in the Western Cape. This is for Made For More, the non-profit organisation that helped them to get into surfing.
That translates to 80km, up and down the promenade.
Then Hendrikz has plans to promote the off-road version of handcycling that would involve routes having wider tracks to accommodate two wheels at one end of their cycles.
“Maybe we could end up with a modified version of the Freedom Challenge. Why not?”
Donation to help the surfers reach the World Para Surfing Championships can be made to https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/douglas-hendrikz
The Independent on Saturday