When I became a wheelchair user many years ago I had to learn new skills. How to move forwards, backwards and turning left and right are easy but one of the skills I was taught early on was how to balance on two wheels or how to pull a wheelie. The reason for learning this very valuable skill was to make it easier to get up and down kerbs, there was almost nowhere I couldn’t go.
So, as this was such a useful skill I thought it might be a challenge to teach someone that doesn’t use a wheelchair how to master it. My subject was Ian Blackett, a good friend of mine. I put him into my spare chair and let the tyres down a little so that it wouldn’t roll too easy. That way he’d have better control when he was getting up onto two wheels.
The target we set was to get Ian to balance on two wheels and then once he had mastered that turn round a full 360 deg. It took a lot of practice but Ian did manage it very well.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PtH0Cka8d4&w=550]
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