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.

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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

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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.

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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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