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Riding Whistler with one good eye

887 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  stephsonegoodeye 
#1 ·
I recently rode Whistler bike park for the first time and I am completely blind in my left eye. This was the first time I have ridden gravity trails and it was a challenging experience having to judge depth and technical features going at such a fast pace. Has anyone else who is vision impaired rode Whistler? What was your experience and do you have any tips for improving speed?
 
#3 ·
Onegoodeye,

I've not ridden Whistler but I ride the parks and trails here in the northeast (pass holder at Highland). I've been riding with compromised vision for about 4 years now. I lost most of sight in both eyes from neuroretinitis, and thankfully I have gotten a workable amount back thru chemotherapy. Riding was very tricky at first, but I found that riding lift serve was the easiest style of riding to continue to do at first. For me it was all about trail familiarity, knowing the trail made for confident riding and riding the groomed-bermed jump type trails didn't require the short and long focus required for more technical riding. Early on I got jacked up by not being able to understand where my back pedal was in relation to rocky outcroppings/obstacles (that i didn't see) in our local freeride spots. Over time I have learned to turn down to and whip into my bad side to use the best of my vision when guiding the front tire back in the desired direction.

I do a fair bit of night riding, and when things go bad due to bad vision it's like when it goes bad at night with good vision, **** happens fast and you don't see it coming, the worst kind of falls, I wear the pads. My approach is to not charge on my first time down new runs and to follow my 14 year old for speed checks on the consequential features. He's dying to go to Whistler, you can borrow him when we get out there....

Good luck.
 
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