Courtesy of US Sailing

"St. Petersburg, FL - While most of the country is preparing for a winter storm this week, over 1,500 sailors are headed to Florida for the Sperry Top-Sider National Offshore One Design (NOOD) Regatta, in St. Petersburg, FL, sanctioned by US SAILING. Scheduled for February 16-18 at host St. Petersburg Yacht Club, the regatta’s organizers are preparing for 200 teams spread across 19 one design classes. Daily racing will take place on Tampa Bay under the guidance of Principal Race Officer (PRO) Peter “Luigi” Reggio, who also is known as the PRO for the America’s Cup. The 2006 defending overall champion, John Storck (Huntington, NY), will return to J/80 class competition with his Rumor. The largest class is the Melges 24 with 40 boats set to compete. The J/109 class will be an interesting fleet to keep track of with five of the seven boats coming straight from Key West Race Week. Five of the six entries in the Tripp 26 class are returning from 2006, including class champion McMillan/Melville (Pensacola, FL) on Joe Cool.

It's 7:30 in the morning and I'm getting ready to head over to the Sailing Center to get my spot situated. This is the first major sailing event that I have attended as a quad and I'm really looking to it. Stay tuned for a whole boatload of pix!

Courtesy of the ITF

"This year, for the first time, a wheelchair tennis tournament is to take place at Roland Garros. Following 3 years of exhibitions, the event will host wheelchair tennis in the Masters Series format with the top 8 Women and 8 Men. After having tournaments at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, Roland Garros is the last of the Grand Slams to include a wheelchair tennis tournament alongside the able bodied event.

Roland Garros Masters Series will take place from 6th until 8th June and will be followed by the Invacare World Team Cup in Sweden the week after.

For more information on Roland Garros Grand Slam click: here."

It's sad to say that Europe, and for that matter, the rest of world, is so much more inclusive of wheelchair sports. That said, it's awesome that w/c tennis will roll out on the hollowed grass of the all England Club.

In other Wheelchair Tennis News:

"Robin Ammerlaan (NED), Esther Vergeer (NED) and Harry Boniface Prabhu (IND) won Sunday's Main Draw Singles finals at the NRMA Insurance Sydney International Open, part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.

Top seed Ammerlaan was only a semi-finalist in last week's Australian Wheelchair Tennis Open in Melbourne, losing his World No 1 ranking in the process to Shingo Kunieda (JPN), and the Japanese second seed looked to be getting the better of Ammerlaan in their first meeting of the year when he comfortably took the first set of Sunday's final in Sydney.

However, Ammerlaan regrouped and came back to dominate the latter stages of the match to seal a 26 63 61 victory.

In the Women's Singles final Vergeer came up against fifth seed Korie Homan (NED), the last player to take a set of tennis off Vergeer. However, there was never any danger of Vergeer dropping a set on Sunday as she successfully defended her Sydney Open title with a 62 62 win.

The closest Main Draw final of the day came in the Quad Singles as Prabhu took on Adrian Dieleman (CAN). The two players had finished in the top two positions in their five-way round robin competition earlier in the week, with Prabhu having finished the pool stage undefeated after a straight sets win over Dieleman. However, Sunday's final was a much closer contest, the Indian player eventually prevailing 62 67(8) 76(5)."

Photo - Getty Images

NEW YORK – Twenty-two of the top wheelchair basketball players from across the country will participate in the 2007 NBA/National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) All-Star Wheelchair Classic on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. PST at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino South Convention Center during NBA All-Star Jam Session presented by Adidas.

“The NWBA would like to thank the NBA for the opportunity to showcase our game at its highest level," said Todd Hatfield, NWBA Executive Director. “Fans will be surprised and amazed by the skill and athleticism displayed by these athletes.” In addition, the NWBA All-Stars will host their annual basketball clinic on Wednesday Feb. 14 at 5 p.m. PT, for over 20 junior wheelchair athletes at Doolittle Community Center in Las Vegas as part of the NBA Cares All-Star Caravan. The 2007 NBA/NWBA All-Star Wheelchair Classic will feature the top wheelchair athletes selected from wheelchair teams that are members of the NWBA. The players, selected by the NWBA, are divided into East and West All-Stars. For more information on the NWBA go to http://www.nwba.org/.

After a glorious week off I'm back to work. Didn't do anything, just relaxed.I didn't even have internet! I took my mom to the Casino, and lost, but that's about it. While I was away I got a cool e-mail from another quadriplegic photographer in Mexico. He mentioned to me that he reads my blog, and that he had just bought a new Nikon D80.

Nikon's aren't really my bag. The technology is great, the simple fact is that I am stronger in my right arm/hand and the Nikon's mode dial is on the cameras left side. I prefer Canon, the design, and being able to use the complete line of EOS lenses made my decision easy. Nikon makes a good product, it's just not good for me.

Sadly he told me what I have known, and said for a couple years, "I’ve struggled to find adaptive camera equipment." Isn't that the truth! It has taken me two years of research, and lots of trial and error to use my camera rig well, and I still need help with the set-up. I guess that even the best photographers need assistants, and every body needs help with something. Check out his site @ Rollingfstop.

That's it for now, but I will get a chair sports update going now and put it online later this afternoon.

In the never ending quest to work smarter not harder.......... I sent an e-mail to the United Spinal Association and asked them if they would use any of the content or interviews off this site of mine.

I got a response today and I quote. "What a great blog! I am definitely interested in using some of your material. We have a Recreation-themed issue coming up in August where any of these would be interesting to include. I will spend some time when I have a chance looking them over and I'll let you know which ones I'm interested in. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me directly and I will be happy to consider any query you want to send my way. I'd also like to add you to our blogroll."

Good news eh? I can think of all kinds of cliches, paddling up you know what creek, etc. etc. I just don't care to struggle, or feel like I'm struggling professionally, any more.

Did you know that every 41 minutes another person sustains a spinal cord injury? You can join United Spinal Association for free by clicking this link.

The first major paralympic sailing qualifier of this year...... and I missed it. Oh well. Jen French placed 11th overall. Here is the full results.

She gave me an interview last year, you can check it out here.

The next Regatta will be in her home waters of St. Petersburg, Florida, Feb.15th-18th. It's only an hour and a half from my house so hopefully I can be there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il3GsvOLpuw

Photo by Doug Pensinger (Getty Images)

From US Paralympics:

// U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association // January 27, 2007

"Paralympian Tyler Walker (left) held on to this lead to win the first Mono Skier X competition at the Winter X Games Saturday.ASPEN, Colo. - U.S. Disabled Alpine Ski Team athlete Tyler Walker (Franconia, N.H.) piloted his 40-pound mono-ski to Winter X Games gold Saturday as mono skier X made its official debut.
"Right out of the gate, I just tried to stay focused on everything in front of me," said Walker, a student at the University of New Hampshire. "But the big thing is how important this event is for the sport. The crowd was huge and going crazy, the media is everywhere - it's awesome. This brings our sport into the mainstream and lets everyone know that we're all outstanding athletes, we just use different equipment." (more)