Whether they are surfers, climbers, adventurers or mountain bikers, these riders have never given up their passion despite their disability.
Alban Tessier / Adventurer
To cross the Salar de Uyuni with all your physical means is already a feat. To do it with a progressive disease of the vision is even greater. It is what succeeded Alban Tessier in July 2018 when he set foot on the Salar d'Uyuni, the largest expanse of salt in the world. Despite his very reduced visual field, less than 5 degrees of central vision, this 42-year-old from Nantes (teacher at the Institut Les Hauts-Thébaudières) walked 140 km in this desert landscape located at 3,658 m altitude. A real feat for the one who is photophobic (intolerant to light). "I used to get up around 6am for an 8am departure, the time to eat and to take down my bivouac" he explains. "I would walk until about 4pm with one or two 30 minute breaks during the day. And I avoided walking at night to limit certain dangers."
Philippe Ribière / Climbing
This Frenchman is one of the few professional handisport climbers in the world. Born with a congenital malformation and abandoned by his parents at birth, he discovered climbing at the age of 17 and has persevered in this discipline to the point of making a living from it today through sponsorship, the conferences he gives and the book "Faire bloc" (published by Arthaud) which he published two years ago.
Ismaël Guilliorit, Laurent Marouf, Benoît Moreau and Eric Dargent / Surfing adventurers
With the Association Surfeurs Dargent (created by Eric Dargent, surfer amputated after being bitten by a shark in 2011), four friends have made a surf trip to Mentawai. Ismaël Guilliorit, Laurent Marouf, Benoît Moreau and Eric Dargent were accompanied for the occasion by the coach of the French teams Manu Portet, the cameraman Valère Caneri, the photographer Bastien Bonnarme and the doctor Thibaud Viard. The film "Alive" retraces this adventure.
Cole Bernier / disabled mountain biker
If this Canadian wasn't necessarily an outdoor sports enthusiast before his fall on the roof of his house in 2015, it was this accident that finally made him discover mountain biking. Paralyzed in the legs, he took advantage of a chair specifically designed for him to venture into the bike parks of North America. And Cole Bernier is now such a fan of the discipline that he won the title of Canadian champion in his category. Here he is below with French pro rider Rémy Metailler.
Aaron Fotheringham / wheelchair ride
The American is a pioneer when it comes to handisport riders. Now 30 years old, he suffers from spina bifida, a malformation linked to a defect in the formation of the vertebral arches which leaves him in a wheelchair. But from the age of 8, he ventured into skateparks and other bowls. He did the first backflip in history in a wheelchair when he was only 14 years old. Later, he even managed to do a flair, an even more technical trick. He also joined the Nitro Circus crew of extreme sportsmen, whose tours around the world made him known beyond the North American borders.