Adaptive Paddling with Team River Runner

The first time John Fritzell picked up a kayak paddle he was only 11 years old. Because of a rare neurological disorder, he was physically unable to hold a paddle for the next 39 years. Last Saturday at Canoecopia, the world’s largest paddlesports expo held annually in Madison, WI, John was one of the featured presenters. There he described how, thanks to advances in adaptive paddling equipment and the support of family and friends, he has reacquired his ability to kayak. John Fritzell’s is a remarkable story and he has graciously agreed to share it here.

My Adaptive Paddling with Team River Runner

by John Fritzell

Thanks to Team River Runner and also to Rutabaga for putting on this awesome show and for allowing me to tell you my story. It’s a great pleasure to be here in Madison and, for once, talking about something non-work related.

I’m a native Wisconsinite, raised in Appleton and still living there today. I have, since birth, had muscular dystrophy; more specifically, I have Charcot Marie Tooth disease which is a gradually progressive peripheral neuropathy which attacks the axons on the nerve endings and, thereby, reduces muscle mass, most acutely in the limbs. In my case, the lower legs, toes and feet were impacted first, to the extent that I was walking with lower limb braces to correct for ‘drop foot’ when I was five years old, that was my first real experience with adaptations to make life easier and more enjoyable; and speaking of joy, it was about six years after that when I had my first contact with a kayak and a kayak paddle. It just so happens this was in London, England of all places, where my family spent a year in the late 1970’s.

So here it is, the spot of my first kayaking experience—the Pirate Club, now known as the Pirate Castle in the heart of Camden Town, London on the edges of Regent’s Canal. The Pirate Castle is still an active charity today, providing paddling resources for children and adults alike. At that time and age, I was still able to hold a paddle conventionally, although somewhat weakly, and remember fondly paddling along the canal. I also remember, not so fondly, my first capsize in a kayak. Doesn’t everyone remember that? Now just imagine going over with those braces I mentioned before strapped to your feet, braces which hold your ankle locked at 90 degrees, braces not exactly meant for swimming or even pulling one’s feet from the hull of an overturned kayak. I was certainly shaken, but survived to paddle another day, foot loose and fancy free. I make it a point now not to wear anything but thick neoprene socks when I’m paddling a kayak with an enclosed cockpit.

So now, flashing forward and back to the U.S. and through adolescence, young adulthood and parenthood, many years passed of mostly just playing around in small boats and canoes often with the help and company of large dogs. One of my favorite boats was the Poke Boat, which I was able to master very well when outfitted with a rowing rig, the oars of which allowed me to push with my palms and upper body. In this fashion, paddling or rowing didn’t require any grip strength. I used the Poke Boat to go on several picnics and also on an overnight trip on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage with my eight-year-old son, after we purchased his first kayak.

Now, during the time between my Pirate Club (1970s) kayak introduction and the time my son picked up a paddle, my hand strength had gone from weak to practically non-existent; this, to the extent that when the urge to paddle a “real” kayak struck, and I climbed into my son’s kayak and tried to hold the paddle, I simply could not. This frustration and the passion to paddle led me on a semi-frantic search for adaptations and solutions to the grip problem.

Here you can see me on a paddle board working with one such solution, the “miracle of Velcro solution,” which I had some pretty good success with when curing my ‘golfing’ passion, which is another sport that requires at least a fair amount of grip strength. Velcro has some pretty obvious disadvantages when being used for the paddle sports, however, so I kept looking and much better solutions soon availed themselves through another channel—the miracle of the internet and Google searches.

It was through a Google search that I stumbled upon this wonderful man, Kevin Carr, and his company Creating Ability.

I pause here, for a bit of reflection on this story, which is only partially mine, it is also, importantly, a story of all the people and resources out there which allow for stories like mine and the stories of so many others (many with maladies and barriers much more severe and/or complex than my own) to occur. There is, you see, not just a story of overcoming to be told here, but also a story of achievement without much reward, a story of people like Kevin Carr, Ken Braband, Daren Barrett, Paula Gozner, Jeff Mazanec and many others who have a passion to help others achieve their goals and realize their paddling dreams.

So, what did I find on Kevin Carr’s website? His patented quick release wrist adapters, specifically engineered for people with zero grip strength to grab or attach to a paddle. You can readily see the concept and the primary means of making these functional yet safe in the event of a capsize.

The video clip below shows me undergoing my second kayak capsize, one which was much more pleasant than my first, and one which shows the wrist adapters efficiently disconnecting from the paddle. These things are the cat’s meow! My ticket to paddling liberation! My ticket to renewed access to paddling, to being able to explore and move out confidently over open water. These adapters have also allowed me a get some cardiovascular exercise and, perhaps most importantly, meet some new friends.

If I had an ultimate goal for any of the adaptations I’ve used over the years, it’s to eliminate the differences, the gaps which in many cases prevent or hinder my participation in sport or ordinary life; I suspect this goal is close to universal among all people with disabilities. The design and functionality of these wrist adapters have achieved a great deal of that goal for me by all but eliminating the differences between myself and most others while in a kayak. And Kevin Carr, and others like him, have done this time and again with other adaptive inventions.

After solving the grip problem, I starting reaching out to local paddling groups to gain more experience and confidence with my newly found tools. Water and these adapters were the great equalizers, now I needed more time on the water.

While reading one of my Able Outdoors magazines, I came across a feature story on Team River Runner, which through many of their chapters not only offers disabled veterans access to kayaking resources, but, in chapters where the volunteer resources are plentiful and the bandwidth is high, also offers access and support to other persons with physical disabilities. I called up Ken Braband and found out that the Green Bay chapter was in just such a position. The leaders, veterans and volunteers of the Green Bay chapter took me under their wing and we have had wonderful times together.
At first, we practiced quick releases and numerous wet exits to help me gain confidence in, under and around a kayak in various sorts of water conditions. In essence, we put both the tools and my body through a stress test. We practiced various sorts of assisted rescues to efficiently get me back in the kayak in deep water. We also have used and tested out the fat tire Kayak Chariot (or the Maserati as I like to call it) for entering and exiting various sorts of launches. Stress Test with Team River Runner—PASSED!

I also want to give a shout out to the Northeast Wisconsin Paddlers club (NEWP), because the wrist adapters also gave me the confidence to take one of their public classes and also join them on a number of their public paddles. I’ve joined NEWP on excursions on the Wolf, Fox and Manitowoc rivers in N.E. Wisconsin. The broader paddling community has been exceedingly helpful at navigating the “on land” challenges, which honestly are now the most challenging and sometimes still frustrating aspects of my paddling world. I have found a number of precious paddling buddies to help with all these challenges and they have allowed me to go places and participate in trips which otherwise would not have been possible.

Last summer, I also reached out to a college buddy in Iowa and we did the Great Iowa River Race and ended up winning the double recreational boat class, plowing into a blast furnace of wind on a hot sticky Iowa day. I was loving the spray that day, but still ended up getting a bit dehydrated. With all the cardio I get paddling, hydration systems, such as Camelbak, and I have become very good friends.

All these events and especially some more practicing on the open waters of Green Bay, led up to my epic trip with Team River Runner to Sand Island in the Apostle Islands last August. We launched out of Little Sand Bay and made the roughly four-mile crossing to group campsite A on Sand Island. As we drove up to the launch, I must say, as I looked out at the big water and choppy, undulating waves, I became quite nervous and, as we launched, I quickly became very conscious of where my expert trainers and veteran companions were at all times. Their coolness and confidence in their skills and their encouragement to me was exceedingly important in calming me down, allowing me to stay focused and just paddle. It was here also, however–on this trip–that I got that sort of scary but wonderful thrill of riding the waves and letting the big lake be boss. Here are a number of shots of that trip…

…finishing with a picture of me with a broken ankle, suffered while back at home putting my paddling gear away. The moral of the story…keep your butt in a boat and out of the basement!

Finally, I’d like first to thank my wife Dawn, who, while not yet a big paddler herself, has been highly supportive of her kinda crazy husband and his kinda crazy adventures, I couldn’t do it without her support.

I also want to thank again all the veterans and Team River Runner, without whom none of this would have been possible. And on the ankle, I’ve recently been back in action in the pool with Team River Runner and I’m looking forward to warmer water and more adventures with friends.
Thank you all again!

–John Fritzell