Rich VanderWal and Justin Van Niejenhuis are at different ends of the sport of sit skiing.

VanderWal is a 15-year veteran of the sport who has represented Canada in international competition.

Van Niejenhuis is a rookie who made his first sit ski run during a Ski and Snowboard Day hosted by the Canadian Paraplegic Association Ontario, Friday, at Craigleith Ski Club.

The sport opened the ski hills to people who have lower-body paralysis. Replace the wheelchair with an aerodynamic sled set atop a shortened ski, and you've got a way to enjoy a swift downhill run.

VanderWal was an avid skier and ski instructor before he was injured in a motorcycle crash in the spring of 1992 at the age of 21. As soon as he could, he was trying wheelchair sports, and ski skiing was a natural.

A native of Niagara Falls, Ont., VanderWal returned to Holiday Valley, near Ellicottville, N.Y., to try sit skiing.

"I fell in love with it immediately," VanderWal said. "After the first day I was able to negotiate a run, carve some turns, and get the feeling of actually skiing again."

Van Niejenhuis, who lives in Newtonville, Ont.,  was injured last August 21 when, he says, "I rolled a pickup truck". He's been in a rehabilitation program at the Lyndhurst Centre in Toronto and says he's starting to see some improvement in his legs. He hopes to be back on a snowboard some day.

For now, though, he's interested in learning to sit ski so he can back onto the hills. After his first few attempts, Friday, he was looking forward to more.

"It's not like snowboarding, but it was pretty good,î he said after his first few sit ski runs. ìIt's sure a lot better than sitting around in a chair."

Although the techniques of sit skiing can be learned in a day, VanderWal says, it took him about three years to be really comfortable on a sit ski on any terrain and in any conditions. Newcomers to the sport, like Van Niejenhuis, are assisted by two stand-up skiers who guide them down the hill. As their skill level improves, they can handle the sit ski on their own.

Beginners learn by riding a sit ski that sits lower and has three skis. More advanced skiers use a version that sits higher and rides on one ski. Instead of ski poles, they use a pair of outriggers which are basically ski poles with ski tips attached to aid balance.

Top level competitive ski skiers can zoom down the hills at speeds of about 100 kilometers per hour.

VanderWal is something of a role model to young athletes learning to adapt after a paralysing injury. He turned his love of sports into a career, working as a therapist with Toronto Rehab's spinal cord rehabilitation program. He plays tennis, races a handbike and rows.

He competed in the Adaptive Events competition at the 2004 World Rowing Championship in Spain. In tennis, he's competed at the provincial and national level. He's tried water skiing and kayaking among other sports.

For VanderWal, there are no limits. Ski jumping, soaring 20 feet above the ground for distances up to 55 feet, is one of his achievements. It's one way of proving people with disabilities don't have to accept limits.

"I've seen all different types of sit skiers on different types of terrain. You get good at whatever you spend time on," he said. VanderWal is paralyzed from the upper chest down, so he doesn't have the use of his abdominal and back muscles. He has to rely on the strength in his arms and shoulders.

"Moguls are a little difficult (on a sit ski) because you have to turn a little bit quicker and that's tough for me, but I've seen guys with lower-level injuries tear up the bumps as quick as anybody standing. It really depends what your focus is."

The self-admitted 'adrenaline junkie' prefers downhill.

"I like an intermediate run where I can lay down some nice, big carves," he said. "That seems to be my strength and it's what I enjoy so that's what I look for."

He added that no other sport gives a person with a physical disability the same sensations that able-bodied athletes experience.

"The first thing I learned about living in a chair is that everything is two-dimensional -- there's no leaning anymore," he said. "With any other sport or activity, tennis, basketball, racing chair, handbike, you're always level. Sit ski is the only sport where you get that sensation. You can lay down a carve, do a really big turn, and that feeling, that sensation, well,  you fall in love with that right away."

The dynamics of the sport are only slightly different from stand-up skiing, VanderWal said. "Once you're dialled into the equipment, you're on a level playing field with everyone else on the mountain,"he said.

"The basics of controlling a sit ski are the same as for a stand-up skier except that you're only focused on the upper extremities, your shoulders and head. Instead of pole planting, you're doing something similar but with the outriggers -- your pole has a ski tip on the bottom. So it's very, very similar to stand-up skiing."

More information about the Canadian Paraplegic Association Ontario can be found on its website  www.cpaont.org