Nine years ago, Wawota native Blake Lamontagne’s life changed irrevocably when he became a T4 incomplete paraplegic after an automobile accident. Since then, the 26-year-old has become a client services coordinator for Spinal Cord Injury Saskatchewan in Regina, was recruited by Rick Hansen to become an ambassador for the Rick Hansen Foundation and most recently, has become a world-class adaptive athlete, competing for Canada at the 2016 Disabled Water Ski National Championships in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2017, he will compete for Canada at the 13th Disabled Water Ski World Championships in Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.
“On July 8, 2007 – when I was 16-years-old – me and two friends were in my truck and two friends were following us. We were just out trying to get my old truck running and we hit the ditch.”
“The last thing I remember was trying to miss the fence and then waking up four days later in Regina,” he says. “I’m a T4 incomplete paraplegic – just below my nipples. I have full use of my hands and I’m very lucky, because I crushed two vertebrae in my neck, too.”
“I have enough use of my legs and abs that I can stand up and get in and out of my truck, but that’s it. In the hospital in Regina, I recovered super-fast, because I was young and fit. After the accident, I was in Wascana Rehab Centre for four months.”
“I went back to Wawota after that,” he says. “I had just finished grade 11 when I got hurt, so I finished my grade 12 and after that, went to Regina right away where I took a small motor mechanics course, but I found out it wasn’t for me.”
“It took me a while, but I began working at the Saskatchewan Abilities Council and now, Spinal Cord Injury Saskatchewan,” says Lamontagne. “I’m now a client services coordinator for Spinal Cord Injury Saskatchewan and one of the things I do is peer monitoring and volunteer training. I can just connect to people on a personal level and of course, I’ve been there.”
Lamontagne credits two men – as both mentors and friends – who helped him not only adjust to his challenging new reality, but also to thrive and to help others facing the same challenges.
“Both of them passed away prtty young from cancer,” says Lamontagne. “But, Clayton Gerein and Chris Pearson are absolute heroes of mine. When I was in the hospital, Clayton came in and told me that everything would be okay – and now, I’m doing his job.”
“It’s the same thing with Chris – he was always trying to get me going sport-wise. It was always: ‘Come out – try tennis, try this, try that.’”
Ultimately, Lamontagne tried waterskiing and he quickly realized that it was his sport.
“I first got into it on Aug. 5, 2014,” he says. “It was the first time I tried it – at a give-it-a-go day at Wascana Lake. Before that, Id’ skied once – when I was 14.”
“It was funny, we had a side-skier go beside us,” he addes. “It turned out he was the Canadian national coach for disability waterskiing. Shrotly after that, I went to a prospect camp in Florida. I did some trickboarding in Florida and I was addicted.”
“I loved it and I knew it was the sport for me.”
With “only two partial years” under his belt, Lamontagne has already competed in Saskatoon at the provincial level. He followed that feat by earning a spot at the 2016 Disabled Water Ski National Championships in Charlotte, North Carolina in October. And in 2017, he will compete at the 13th Disabled Water Ski World Championships in Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.
“Competing in Charlotte was just the most amazing experience I’ve ever had,” he says. “We trained before in Jackson, Mississippi. The way they do it there is that 28 skiers are U.S. nationals and the remaining competitors are from other countries and the two teams compete.”
“There were two of us from Canada, two Australians, and skiers from Belgium, England and France. The American team was made up of skiers from North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, California, Florida, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, and New York State.”
“It was a great experience in so many ays. In nine years of being in a chair, I haven’t met anybody who has the same injury as me. But there, within an hour, I met two people that had the same injury as me.”
“I was pretty starstruck by the whole experience,” he says. “I kind of got put in my place, because I’ve only been skiing a few years.”
However, Lamontagne placed third in three events, but says: “I’ve always been a competitive guy, but what struck me the most about the competition in Charlotte is that it’s the only sport where I’ve seen opposing teams offer equipment to each other and coaches offer advice to their competitors.”
“An Australian guy’s ski was damaged on the plane and a guy from the States spent two days fixing it; if your foot piece broke, you had another one. One guy used my whole set-up. They could beat you in competition – and we do compete – but that’s not everything.”
Lamontagne’s equipment for adaptive waterskiing consists of a cage and a board, but equipment varies according to an individual’s abilities.
“It’s a metal cage that we fit in and a harness that you sit in,” he says. “My board is a normal wakeboard cut down to competition size.”
“I train at Regina Beach,” he says. “My coaches are Lisa Williams in Regina and Dave Wassill in Saskatoon. I’ve tried a lot of sports since I was injured – hockey, tennis, basketball, rugby. I’ve tried them all – and waterskiing was the last one I tried. I really enjoyed hockey and I’m a competitive guy, but waterskiing is my sport.”
“If I didn’t get out there and try it, I never would have experienced it. The world can seem like a scary place and sometimes, it’s hard to let your guard down. But, you’ll never know until you try.”
Continuing the legacy of the encouragement and support given to him by his friends Gerein and Pearson is important to Lamontagne, too. And his keen interestin sport and supporting others in his situation came together when he became an ambassador for the Rick Hansen Foundation.
“I’ve been an ambassador for the Rick Hansen Foundation for about two years,” he says. “When Rick Hansen was doing his 25th Anniversary tour, my mom and I went to a presentation he was doing.”
We’d been waiting an hour and a half to talk to him and we decided to grab a drink and come back. As we were leaving, all of a sudden we heard him yelling: ‘Hey! Hey! I wanted to talk to you! Don’t leave yet!”
“He told me: ‘You’re going to do good things. You’re story’s just beginning.”
“Two years later at a book signing, it’s the same thing,” says Lamontagne. “I’m with my auntie and my cousin and the crowd’s just huge. We decide to go for a bit and come back and this chair spins around and it’s Rick Hansen and he says: ‘Hey man, how’re you doing?”
“I couldn’t believe that he remembered me, but he did. He said: ‘I want that kid to be an ambassador for me.’ And the rest is history,” laughs Lamontagne.
“I haven’t done as many speeches as I’d like to yet,” he says. “But a lot of what I do is talk to elementary and high school students about inclusiveness and accessibility and being a Difference Maker.”
The Rick Hansen Foundation encourages anyone to be a Difference Maker – and by doing so, help create a barrier-free world.
“For me, Chris was that person,” says Lamontagne. “A Difference Maker is a person who influences you to come out of your bubble, to come out and experience something new.”
“That’s what Chris did for me – he always told me to never shy away from anything. And that’s what I got from Clayton, too. You never know when it’s your time, so go out and do what you can do, while you can.”
“They both ultimately changed my perspective on live,” says Lamontagne. “If I hadn’t tried waterskiing, I would have missed out on so much. You never know when or where an opportunity is waiting. You have to try things.”
This spring in Australia, Lamontagne will move closer towards his “ultimate goal of becoming a world champ.”
“We’re going to try and get there a little early to deal with the jet lag and stuff,” he says. “And get used to the warmer water conditions, which are softer and more difficult to ski on than colder water.”
“But,” he adds, “I’m used to training in Regina Beach when there are 100 other boats out there. I’m used to the rough stuff.”
“I’m a very different person from the person I was nine years ago.”
