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Eyes Free Sports explores sports and recreation activities for blind and visually impaired individuals.
Episodes
Saturday Mar 13, 2021
Saturday Mar 13, 2021
In Episode 33 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, Joshua “The Jedi” Loya is our guest. In Part 2 of our chat with Loya, he talked about:
- Getting to work with an Olympic alternate who helped train Ronda Rousey
- How he got into surfing and the unique intersection between surfing and judo
- Competing in the U.S. Open Adaptive Surfing Championships and a national event as well
- Competing in the AmpSurf ISA World Para Surfing Championship
- What slack lining is
- The importance of athletes surrounding themselves with positive coaches and actually enjoying the sports they compete in
- Why he believes blind and visually impaired people should take some risks and do some “scary things”
- His Adventure Mind podcast and initiative to get more blind people into surfing
- What it’s like skydiving as a blind individual
- Jumping off the Stratosphere building in Las Vegas
- His personal mental health challenges and strategies he uses to cope
Follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/joshuathejedi/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JoshuaTheJedi/, and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/servantwarrior.
Learn more about his podcast at www.adventuremind.net and feel free to contact him at joshua@adventuremind.net.
Saturday Feb 27, 2021
Saturday Feb 27, 2021
In Episode 32 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, Joshua “The Jedi” Loya is our guest. In Part 1 of our chat with Loya, he talked about:
- Growing up in Santa Cruz, CA
- Having limited vision as a child
- How he suddenly went totally blind at age 15 but why this actually improved his quality of life
- Getting into martial arts
- How he and his wife got into running a Dojo and how he has adapted when teaching martial arts techniques to blind and visually impaired students
- His involvement with Blind Community Martial Arts in San Diego, CA
- How martial arts and self-defense go hand-in-hand
Learn more about Joshua “The Jedi” Loy at http://servantwarrior.me.
Find his Adventure Mind podcast on all major podcast platforms.
Friday Feb 12, 2021
Friday Feb 12, 2021
In Episode 31 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, Kevin Broussard of the United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) is our guest. Broussard talked about:
- His early years growing up in San Clemente, CA
- His visual impairment
- A dinnertable conversation he recalls having had at age eight and how this conversation ultimately changed his mindset as a young man with a disability
- Playing offensive line on his high school football team
- A high school coach who gave him a chance at track and field
- The first blind sports event he attended in 2007 at the Junior Blind of America (now Wayfinder Family Services)
- Competing in the World Youth Games
- Competing on the track and field team at the University of La Verne in California
- Competing and winning medals in the 2011 and 2015 World Championships in track and field
- The adaptations of the discus and shotput for blind and visually impaired competitors
- Getting into judo and the adaptations of this sport for the blind
- His role working for USABA
- His interest in blind soccer and a description of this sport
- His thoughts on why the unemployment rate in the disability community has remained high and some advice on how job candidates can increase their chances of finding gainful employment
Visit www.talksbykevin.com to learn more about his story, watch some of his videos/speeches, and to follow him on social media.
Learn more about the United States Association of Blind Athletes at www.usaba.org.
Saturday Jan 30, 2021
Saturday Jan 30, 2021
In Episode 30 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, host Greg Lindberg speaks about a book he just finished reading. The book is titled Seeing Home: The Ed Lucas Story – A Blind Broadcaster's Story of Overcoming Life's Greatest Obstacles. Greg provided a brief overview of the book without giving away too many details. His life has included getting to know some U.S. presidents, Hall of Fame baseball players from the 1930s to the present, having four guide dogs from The Seeing Eye, and finding ways to persevere in many aspects of his life despite being blind since age 12. Lucas was also inducted into the Irish-American Baseball Hall of Fame which is recognized by the main Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
Check out the book on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Home-Broadcasters-Overcoming-Obstacles/dp/147678583X and on Audible at https://www.audible.com/pd/Seeing-Home-The-Ed-Lucas-Story-Audiobook/B00VKSCMD4.
Learn more about the Ed Lucas Foundation at www.theedlucasfoundation.org.
Saturday Jan 16, 2021
Saturday Jan 16, 2021
In Episode 29 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, we hit the skatepark to learn all about skateboarding for the blind and visually impaired. Guests Matt Janz and Curtis Ruttle of Calgary, Alberta, Canada spoke about:
- Matt’s background and attending the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and the University of Calgary to earn journalism and communications degrees
- His volunteer work in teaching skateboarding and how he got into low vision skateboarding
- His visual impairment and how his parents spotted it quickly when he was a youngster since he has an inherited condition
- How Curtis attends a self-directed high school program
- Curtis’ involvement in skiing with Canadian Adaptive Snowsports and playing blind hockey through the Calgary Seeing Ice Dogs and Canadian Blind Hockey
- How they each got into skateboarding, including Matt’s introduction to skateboarding while living in Vancouver and how Curtis was introduced to the sport by Matt
- The unique Skate Bats program Matt started to offer skateboarding lessons to visually impaired kids
- Curtis’ Alt Route program and how he got grant funding through the CNIB Youth Council
- The adaptations Curtis and Matt have come up with to make skate parks more accessible using some very creative techniques for both low vision and totally blind participants
- How blind skateboarders can actually use a white cane to help guide them
Learn more about Skate Bats at www.skatebats.ca and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/skatebats.
Learn more about the Alt Route project at www.altroute.ca and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/altrouteprojects.ca.
Saturday Jan 02, 2021
Saturday Jan 02, 2021
In Episode 28 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, Tim McCorkle of Ski for Light, Inc. joins the conversation to speak about:
- Growing up in Juneau, Alaska and the winter sports he learned to love as a youngster, especially cross-country skiing
- Being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative retinal condition
- Jobs he has had working in accounting and finance
- How he discovered Ski for Light, Inc. and got involved in cross-country skiing as a blind individual
- The history of the Ski for Light organization and how it was born out of an effort from a blind musician in Norway in the 1950s
- How the ski guides are trained and what information they verbally provide to help blind skiers navigate the terrain on which they are skiing
- The weeklong Ski for Light international event held annually since 1975
- How a location is identified for the Ski for Light international events
- The 2021 virtual Ski for Light event being held from Jan. 27-30, 2021
- His experience skiing at the Ridderrennet (“Knights race” in English”) event in Beitostolen, Norway in 2014
- How skiing has benefited his orientation and mobility to be a better independent blind traveler
Learn more about Ski for Light, Inc. at http://www.sfl.org. Check out their Facebook page at http://facebook.com/skiforlight and follow Ski for Light on Twitter at http://twitter.com/skiforlight.
Saturday Dec 19, 2020
Saturday Dec 19, 2020
In Episode 27 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, blind skier Tyson Ready of the Braille Mountain Initiative was our guest. Ready spoke about:
- His early years and how he got into winter sports like hockey and skiing
- Why he suddenly lost a significant amount of vision in 2018 and 2019
- Working as a back-country ski guide for Great Canadian Heliskiing
- Getting services from the CNIB and Canadian Assistive Technology
- Receiving an Orcam device from the Canadian Ski Guide Association
- What inspired him to create the Braille Mountain Initiative, a nonprofit he recently started to bring back-country skiing experiences to blind and visually impaired skiers
- The upcoming back-country skiing trip he has planned for April 2021
- The adaptations of skiing for those with visual impairments and specifically how back-country skiing offers far more opportunity for independence for blind skiers
- Other mountain sports he hopes to incorporate into his organization
Learn more about the Braille Mountain Initiative at http://www.braillemountaininitiative.com and on Facebook at http://facebook.com/braillemountaininitiative.
Tyson welcomes email contact at braillemountaininitiative@outlook.com.
Saturday Dec 05, 2020
Saturday Dec 05, 2020
In Episode 26 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, beep baseball star player Erik Rodriguez joined host Greg Lindberg to talk about:
- A rare genetic condition causing a visual impairment that he and some of his siblings have had since birth
- Attending the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and getting into sports like wrestling while there
- How he was introduced to beep baseball at age 10 when he attended the 2008 National Beep Baseball Association World Series
- Starting his beep baseball career with the Chicago Comets and then transitioning to the Indy Thunder
- How he has helped the Indy Thunder win the past four National Beep Baseball Association World Series titles
- His take on how to be a successful beep baseball fielder, runner, and hitter
- What the sport of beep baseball means to him in his life
- His experience playing goalball
- His current career and future goals
Learn more about beep baseball and the National Beep Baseball Association at www.nbba.org.
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
In Episode 25 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, we discuss trail orienteering for the blind. Our two guests, Russ Myer and Megan Hale, discussed:
- How Myer got into helping people with disabilities -
- His involvement with World Para Nordic Skiing and International Orienteering Federation
- The Capital Region Nordic Alliance in Albany, NY and its adaptive sports programs for local residents with disabilities
- Hale’s visual impairment and current degree program she is working on at Hudson Valley Community College
- How Hale got into blind sports by attending Camp Abilities events in New York and then joining the track and field teams at her middle school, high school, and college
- Her guide dog, Hero, from Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s Running Guides program
- Myer’s work with Microsoft on the development and beta testing of a more robust version of the Microsoft Soundscape mobile app to be used for trail orienteering
- The various sounds that are used to indicate a trail orienteering competitor’s whereabouts in relation to the virtual beacons within a course
- Hale’s experience with trail orienteering and the differences between using her white cane or being guided by her dog on the course
- Hale’s enjoyment of participating in adaptive sports and how rewarding it is to independently compete in sports as someone with a disability
- What Myer has seen in terms of how positively sports and recreation have impacted the lives of people with disabilities
Learn more about the Capital Region Nordic Alliance in New York at www.capitalregionnordicalliance.org.
Contact Russ Myer directly to learn more about trail orienteering or to get involved by emailing him at russmyer08@gmail.com.
Learn more about the Microsoft Soundscape project at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/product/soundscape/. Download the Soundscape iPhone app at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-soundscape/id1240320677.
Sunday Nov 08, 2020
Sunday Nov 08, 2020
In Episode 24 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, Fred Nickl of the American Blind Bowling Association is our guest. Nickl discussed:
- - How he suddenly lost his vision from an accident
- Why losing a job actually helped him get into blind bowling
- The adaptations of bowling for the blind and visually impaired
- The history of the American Blind Bowling Association (ABBA)
- The annual national tournament the ABBA puts on and how the locations are selected for these tournaments
- The social aspects of the tournaments like the dance and exploring the locations of each event
- International participation in blind bowling and some unique rules in other countries
Learn more about the American Blind Bowling Association and blind bowling in general at www.abba1951.com.