In April 2008 Geoff Stratton had an Apollo tandem, an old beach cruiser tandem and was put in contact with Peter Meers, who had some experience captaining a blind person on a tandem. This is the seed that would become Exsight, but how did this pair grow into a group of over sixty members in Wollongong, with branches in Sydney and Armidale? Geoff tells the story.
News
Vale Lord Bernard Tobias
In the last week, while planning to get this site live, Exsight lost a member and friend when Lord passed away. His funeral was yesterday, and it seems fitting to lead the launch of the new site with some words about Lord from Exsight’s President, Geoff Stratton.
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About This Stoker (Part 2)
I’ve already outlined in a previous post my primary diagnosis of my blindness. As part of the classification process as a para-cyclist I’ve had to get an extensive history from my doctors. This has lead to me being reminded of some other things I didn’t mention last time, and my discovery of problems I didn’t know I had.
About this Stoker
Some readers will know me already from posts on Media Access Australia, ABC Ramp Up and Twitter. Others of you who read this because you’ll see the post via Facebook or otherwise because we’ve been friends. Some readers won’t know me at all. I thought it was time to present a little about my vision impairment. For those who don’t know me, hopefully it will be informative. For those I’ve not had face-to-face time with recently, it’ll be a bit of an update
The Intentional Stoker
How did I become a stoker? In contrast to Dave’s experience, unsurprisingly, my becoming a stoker was fairly intentional.
I’d tried some tandem cycling in my mid 20’s, and indeed got to buying my own tandem (a basic Apollo) in my mid to late 20s. My issue at the time (I was living in Armidale then too) was finding people to captain.
The Accidental Captain
I haven’t always been a tandem captain, but if you’re wondering exactly what the process is to becoming one, you probably shouldn’t do it like me.
So Why Tandem?
Given this is a restart of an old Blog, now lost to the death of Posterous, I thought I’d start with a basic question. Why do I ride a tandem?
On one level the answer is quite simple: because I’m blind, I can’t ride by myself, so if I want to ride a tandem is my only option. But really, this isn’t a very satisfactory answer, at least for some people. If I can’t see, what do I get out of jumping on a bike behind someone and peddling?
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