Movement recovery after spinal cord injury with Theo St. Francis.
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MIT in 2018 + Kickstarter Success + Surfing!

9/19/2017

1 Comment

 
Time for some rapid-fire updates! It’s been a busy month.

First off...

​To clear some confusion: I’m heading back to MIT NEXT YEAR. That means I have time to commit myself to our projects at Zebrafish Neuro and eventually to brush up on my academics, too (yikes!). The video I posted this summer states that 2018 is the year, and I can understand that making the announcement in the summer may have led to assumptions about the upcoming fall. I still have a lot of anticipation. It’s a deadline for some of my projects. 
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Secondly…
​
Zebrafish Neuro's Kickstarter has been a success! Emphatic and truly heartfelt thanks to all of you who so generously contributed toward the project. 
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Just this weekend, Stephanie and I met our stretch goal of $30K raised to cover: development and publication of our movement manual, the video series for the manual content, and some of the at-home recovery video library.

If you have not already pledged, you may do so for the NEXT TWO HOURS until the campaign concludes at 8PM PDT tonight. Thanks!

We’re excited to fulfill our promises with these projects, and share the client-centered approach we believe is fundamental to recovery after spinal cord injury. I’m sure it will surprise absolutely no readers of this blog when I emphasize that taking ownership for one’s own healing is something I believe very strongly. It is Zebrafish’s mission to enable SCI recovery athletes (“clients”) to work effectively with their trainers – and using their own power – to find reconnection.

If you’d like more background on Zebrafish Neuro, listen to our podcast interview on the media tab here.


Thirdly…
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Surfing this weekend was a total blast. Fellow SCI-athlete Alina invited me to join her and Rob, who has sit-down and prone surfboards, just south of San Francisco in Pacifica. (Check out Alina’s recovery blog here. She’s a kick.) I was optimistic and tried a wave-ski – a cross between a kayak and a surfboard. In between wave sets, I was fine. It handles like a hyper-maneuverable kayak.  
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Add an unstable and changing base of support, though, and it was more than my torso stability could handle. I had to spend all my focus just staying upright. So, prone on the board it was. 

Since I last did this almost 2 years ago, in Hawaii, the difference was huge. My back is so much stronger. My awareness of where my knees and feet are is completely changed. Although I press from side to side on my elbows, I can feel the force I exert travel farther down from my arms, to my hips and even into my legs. What used to be only an arm exercise is now an integrated-body movement.

That’s connection – a word I use all the time. My body is talking. It’s communicating within itself more than it used to, and surfing made that really clear.

I rode some 3 foot faces and wiped out slightly more often than I made it into shore. But only slightly! Sadly my GoPro didn't get transferred to the prone board so no footage this time, but Alina’s face and hair sum up the day pretty well. 
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1 Comment
James Radtke
10/4/2017 01:02:53 pm

Glad to hear you're not leaving till next year and have time to commit to the manual. I really think you guys could be sitting on very good business opportunity.

Good education is overrated anyways. Especially one from MIT.

High school degrees are very helpful. The sky's the limit.

Congratulations on all the success you have had recovering.

I think the manual you putting together could have a very positive impact for a whole lot of people.

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