Joe Stone is an athlete, motivational speaker, filmmaker, and the Director of Mission at Teton Adaptive. Teton Adaptive’s mission is to promote, support, and develop outdoor sports and recreation opportunities for people with disabilities living in and visiting the Greater Teton Area. 

In this chat, Joe shares the story of how a speed flying accident in 2010 changed the course of his life. The accident left Joe an incomplete C7 quadriplegic, meaning he is paralyzed from the chest down and has impairment in both his hands. Within a year of his accident, he overcame the challenges of being in a coma and rehabilitation to become the first quadriplegic to bike the Going-to-the-Sun-Road in Glacier. Joe then shares with Stephan another big first that you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out. Joe and Stephan then discuss the incredible work that Teton Adaptive is doing in our community. 

Teton Adaptive is helping local athletes and visitors with disabilities to enjoy all the outdoor activities we love to do. Find out more about Teton Adaptive at TetonAdaptiveSports.com  

Watch the documentary It's Raining, So What, the Story of Joe Stone on Vimeo

This week’s episode is sponsored in part by Teton County Solid Waste and Recycling, announcing the new commercial Curb to Compost Program for restaurants and other commercial food waste generators. More at TetonCountyWY.gov or at @RoadToZeroWaste.JH on Instagram

Support also comes from The Jackson Hole Wine Club. Curating quality wine selections delivered to you each month. Enjoy delicious wines at amazing prices. More at JacksonHoleWineClub.com

Want to be a guest on The Jackson Hole Connection? Email us at connect@thejacksonholeconnection.com. Marketing and editing support by Michael Moeri (michaelmoeri.com)

You are tuned into the Jackson hole, connection, sharing, fascinating stories of people connected to Jackson hole.

I am truly grateful for each of you for tuning in today and support for this podcast comes from:

Everyone, I really enjoy reading and learning from others, which guides me to share a quote with you today.

Today's quote is by choosing healthy, over skinny, you are choosing self love over self judgment, and that comes from Steve Maraboli.

Remember what you see on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

That's not real life out there.

Be real.

Be true to yourself.

Follow with what's in your heart.

And, you know, to get to a certain level, there's always a sacrifice.

You have to give something up to gain something can be a lot of pain and sacrifice to get to certain places.

So if you're willing to endure the pain and to make sacrifices, the reward is.

Well worth it.

And today on episode number 199, I have the pleasure and honor of interviewing Joe Stone.

And Joe is the Director of Mission with an organization here in Jackson hole, Wyoming called Teton Adaptive.

A lot of people in town know it as Teton Adaptive Sports, but they're rebranding themselves as Teton adaptive.

During this interview, I learned so much about people.

I learned about myself while speaking with Joe.

And I feel the best way for you to learn from Joe is really for you to listen to him yourself.

You're gonna thoroughly enjoy this interview.

While speaking with Joe, I was challenged.

I did this to myself.

I was challenged to think about how I view myself.

How I view others, how I approach people and I know I have a responsibility to improve and change the words that I use.

And, and I hope you take some of that away as well from today's conversation.

I promise you, after you listen to Joe Stone speak, you will ask yourself, how can you change and how can you overcome your fears?

And also, how can you help society do the right thing.

So everyone has opportunity.

Joe, thank you for joining me here today on the Jackson hole connection podcast.

It's wonderful to meet you and be able to, uh, have a conversation with you.

Oh,

it's my pleasure.

Thank you so much for having me on you're.

You're

welcome, Joe.

I do love starting off by learning more about you and a little bit of your background.

So I'm curious to learn where were you born and raised and, uh, how, how long have you lived out here in Jackson and how did you land here?

Yeah, so born in North Carolina, Goldboro, North Carolina grew up a little bit there, but the majority of my upbringing came, uh, from Minnesota.

So my parents had moved just out to Minneapolis when I was about 11 years old.

And we had moved around quite a bit before then.

And they finally said, you know what?

This is a really great spot.

I think we need to just post up and let our kids stay in one place for the long haul for the rest of our, at least like growing up the rest of school and all that.

So grew up in Minnesota, really the really outdoorsy family, camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, that sort of thing.

And just really into sports.

Rollerblading was my big one, like going down handrails, doing tricks and that kind of thing.

We're talking late nineties, early two thousands, when that was a lot bigger than it is now, still exists, still going strong, but it's not as popular as popular as it used to be.

And, uh, but that was a huge hobby sport passion of mine that I chased until probably chased it pretty hard until I was about 22.

And then like 20, you know, age 20 to 22 was starting to.

Explore more of getting deeper into the woods and further away from the concrete, which, you know, as you can imagine, roll waiting is at its finest on concrete.

And so sort of exploring that side of things, realizing that I wanted to find something new to chase because roll waiting comes the style of role waiting.

I did comes with a lot of injuries and with those injuries, it was just starting to kinda wear on me and also recognize that, you know, I'm, I'm 22 and not really probably gonna be able to hit the, the pro level that I had always been chasing.

And so it was time to kind of not totally leave role waiting, but move on to something new.

And so I got into skydiving with the goal of getting into base jumping.

And like I said, was spending more time getting into the woods and back country camping and that sort of thing.

Long story short, that led me to Montana, where I moved to Misso Montana.

And that's really where I started.

That's where like, adulthood really kind of kicked in for me in terms of, you know, doing something big on my own, starting over somewhere else where I didn't really know anybody.

I moved there with no job, no place to live, no real idea of what I was gonna give into once I moved out to Montana and just started exploring.

And that was a really good growth moment in my life.

So about, so now we're talking about 2008, 2009, and I, in that process of living in Montana, once I got settled, I ended up getting into a sport called speed flying.

So speed flying, speed flying.

Yeah.

Speed flying.

So speed flying is a lot like parading for those who have seen it off Jacksonville mountain resort or other mountains in the area.

It's just a really small wing where you go a lot faster.

It's kinda like the downhill mountain biking of the paragliding world.

and I ended up, you know, shortly after getting into that, made some mistakes while trying to progress and maybe trying to progress a little too quickly and doing some maneuvers in the air that ended up collapsing part of my wing and created some line twists.

And that sent me spiraling, spiraling down and crashed into the side of the mountain pretty hard.

So that started a whole new journey for me, which was living life with a spinal cord injury and diagnosis as an incomplete C seven quadriplegic, and trying to refi out how to live, how to take care of myself, but then more importantly, how do I get a smile back on my face?

Mm.

And, and so the one thing that I always knew to be very consistent in my life was the outdoors and chasing outdoor adventure and setting goals within that and trying to progress.

And that, that is what I knew.

And that's also what I knew to be how I kind of gauged progression in my.

And so once I was able to get myself up and dressed and ready for the day, which took about seven months, I kind of quickly jumped back into trying to rediscover life in the outdoors.

And through that process, I figured a lot out for myself.

I did things like hand cycling to going to the sun road up in glacier national park, which was a pretty he goal for me.

That was one day before the one year anniversary of my accident.

And it led to that opening my mind to a whole lot of others.

I tried whitewater rapping and I got into mountain biking and I got into all these other activities.

And as I was relearning, all of these things that I used to do as an able bodied person, but now as a person with a disability, I ability I started recognizing that, you know, I'm figuring it out for myself and I'm stubborn enough to do so, but there's a lot of people out there that keep asking me questions.

Like, how am I doing these things?

How am I camping?

How am I traveling?

How am I finding funding for the equipment?

Cause it's really expensive for people with disabilities.

And that opened my mind to wanting to really do something, to help the disability community so that I could, you know, hopefully open up more doors.

And in that process was learning that, you know, people with disabilities aren't really included in community activities, community events, regular organizations in town that are supporting the community.

It's always people with disabilities off somewhere else, doing something somewhere else, at least in the outdoors.

And so that kind of led me on the what's.

Now my life's mission on supporting people with disabilities through outdoor recreation and trying to bridge the gap between people with and without disabilities through outdoor recreation and to, to wrap the whole thing up, I, in that process was working with.

A mountain bike festival called the Wydaho Rendesvous, which is how the Grand Targhee, every labor day weekend, that started in 2013.

And I just showed up by, I was invited there to, to show up and test out the trails for adaptive mountain biking showed up, had some support from a couple people that were working at Teton adaptive at the time.

And that sort of the friendship with Teton adaptive year after year, we kept partnering on the same event, inviting more people.

It actually turned into the largest gathering of adaptive mountain bikers that we're aware of, at least at the time.

And so about 30 people or so show up a year, each year with a disability athletes with disabilities.

And we partner with a bunch of other organizations to bring all the gear and make sure everybody has access to the trails and the equipment.

And, uh, some are showing up as the pros and some are showing up as never Evers.

And we kind of have a really sweet party over labor day weekend amongst this whole other festival.

That's got 600 people there without disabilities, or at least without, as visible of disabil.

And so that really started this partnership between myself and Teton adaptive, which led down this years of, um, you know, it was kind of funny.

My, my boss would've often asked me to, you know, move to Jackson and, and, and just start officially working in Teton adaptive.

But I would be, she'd like, call me in the winter and I'd be in California parading or something, and be like, it's cool.

I don't need six foot snow drifts outside of my house.

I'm, I'm doing right in 80 degrees, east Southern California right now.

Um, but my girlfriend ended up being a PT job here.

I helped her move here and the conversation just kept continuing.

And now we're two years into me or almost two years to me working full time with Teton adaptive.

So it's about as quick as I can tell the, the story of how I ended up here from, from birth to, to now.

And, uh, I'm sure you might have a question or two in there.

Um, a few questions.

Yes, thank you for being such an open book and sharing your history and experience from going to you.

I think you called it a full able bodied person or an able bodied person yeah.

To a person with a disability.

Yep.

Okay.

Um, did I get that correct?

Yeah.

I mean, able, Bodi just means you, you know, you, you don't have any disabilities.

Okay.

Um, and you know, then there's, you know, somebody with a disability.

So, um, I'm, I'm now a person living with a disability and that was not the case before I, you know, became pretty good friends with the mountain that day and ended up wrecking my body a little bit.

Yeah.

when you, I'm very curious to know when you woke up from.

Being did you wake up from the hospital and somebody saying, Hey, this is what happened to you.

Yeah.

So that was a pretty wild experience.

I, I crashed into the mountain.

And just to give you an example of how bad it was, I had a laceration in my liver.

I had sadly bruised both in my lungs and that was probably the most life threatening part of everything in the, the very immediate moment.

I had four broken ribs.

I had eight broken vertebraes throughout my neck and back.

I had a burst fraction burst fracture in my C seven vertebrae.

So that, that vertebrae just completely exploded, which created spinal cord damage at the C seven level.

So I'm diagnosed as an incomplete C seven quadriplegic, meaning I.

Impairment in all four limbs.

So the big misconception with quadriplegia is that you're paralyzed from the neck down mm-hmm um, there are walking quads all the way to being paralyzed from the neck down.

It's just impairment in all four limbs.

So I do have full function in my arms with my hands or what affected.

So I, I don't have any grip in my left hand.

I can open it a little bit, but I can't close this hand at all.

Mm-hmm and I got very lucky and recovered quite a bit of function in my right hand.

So in the incomplete part means that I have some signals that are still getting through my spinal cord.

And so I have sensation everywhere.

There's nowhere on my body gets completely numb, but it does feel like half numb.

There's almost like a vibration or a hum below my injury line.

So basically from the nipples down, there's like this tingly feeling in my body all the time, which now I'm very used to, but as you can imagine was part was, was really hard to kind of adjust to in the beginning.

So it was such a life threatening situation that I was in my heart stopped twice in the hospital.

I was put into an induced coma that was supposed to be for a couple of days that ended up being almost a full month in an induced coma.

So when I woke up from that, you know, some of my earliest memories, like I remember one of my speed flying buddies, actually, he was a ER, nurse showed up and comes into my room.

It's super early in the morning.

And it, I, if I remember correctly, I think he was, you know, showed up a little bit before he started his shift to work at the same hospital that day.

And, you know, I just had him like, you know, I remember I was on a ventilator.

I could talk a little bit, but it was like really weak and almost nothing.

And, um, I remember, you know, at, in some way, signaling to him, like to tell me what happened.

And he told me that I had crashed speed flying, and I just remember being so devastated because when I, when I kind of left the, the, the idea of.

Chasing being a pro as a, as a roller blade, I was letting go of a, a massive passion and goal that I'd had in my life that I'd been chasing for, you know, 10 or 12 years or something like that.

So a big part of my life and letting go of that sent me into this unknown of, can I ever have that feeling again?

Can I ever, you know, have passion for something again?

Can I ever be that driven for something like I was with role, like wake up every day and that's all I wanna do.

And that's all I think about and how can I get better?

And nobody's motivating me to do it.

It's just, I just had it in me and I, and so I went on this search, you know, through endurance sports, through back country, camping, to, you know, trying out a little bit of climbing and trying out a whole bunch of other things skydiving.

And with the goal, like I said, getting into base jumping and.

When I got into speed flying, I found it and I didn't even realize that I was gonna find it, you know, and all of a sudden I was just like, my whole life was completely full again.

And I was so excited about finding that passion and that drive for life again a little bit of time to get there.

But I finally found it after a couple years of searching and, and then it wasn't that long after I learned how the speed slide that I crashed.

And then there, I was waking up after a month on com and being told, you know, I have this spinal cord injury and I'm most likely gonna be using a wheelchair for the rest of my life, that I had no idea what life would look like from that point forward.

So at that point in my life, I thought life was over.

I was gonna be living in a nursing home for the rest of my life, and I would be 100% dependent on everyone around me.

So there's not a word that really describes it that I've ever found, but I mean, I was completely devastated and.

And thought that I had just threw everything away and my entire life was completely over.

And I, you know, had this opportunity where I rediscovered passion for life again, true passion.

And I threw it away out of getting too excited and a little too connected to the, the adrenaline and the, the adventurous part of speed line guy got too consumed by that.

And wasn't really focusing too much on the risk management end of things.

You know, when you're, when you're 24, 25 years old, you know, especially as a guy, like not to throw a gender on it, but I was filled with ego.

Nothing was gonna kill me.

I had it all figured out.

I wasn't listening to anybody else.

I knew how.

You know, make it happen.

And I really looked at it as I'm gonna look back and see a video about myself being a, a really good speed flyer base jumper kind of guy, and go, I can't believe I survived the first few years of it because of all the mistakes I made, but I survived it now, here I am like, that's literally like what was going through my mind in the early days of getting into speed flying.

So yeah, no fear, no risk management, none of that.

So because of that, I quickly realized how poor the decisions were that I made and, you know, the, the level of guilt that I was facing while being on a ventilator and not even being able to really verbalize that was, was pretty heavy.

Mm.

And so it was the, it was, it was the feeling of just completely EV you know, being alive, but also mourning my death at the same time.

And what helped you, you said earlier finding the smile back on your face to be able to put that back on your face.

That was a pretty interesting transition.

So that first year was super interesting to look back on because the beginning of it, yes, I was getting on my computer and I was trying to search for whatever's out there in terms of what people with disabilities or someone in a similar situation to myself is doing in the outdoors.

But there wasn't a ton on the internet in 2010, like there is now, so it's come a long way in the last 12 years.

And so I found a few things and I did find a video of a guy para viding.

Uh, as a wheelchair user and that sort of thing.

And I was, that was, it was great to see that stuff, but I, I really, I really did have a moment where I said once I started seeing some of that and I watched a, a documentary called murder ball, which is about quadriplegic rugby, awesome film.

That one really changed my whole perspective on disability.

Cuz I got to see all these guys on the Paralympic team in those days that were very similar level of injuries as myself, happy setting goals, chasing dreams, traveling, doing all of these things that they were super into.

And so I, I kind of started to see, you know, there is, there is more to this than a nursing home being a hundred percent dependent, but, but I need to dial it back, figure out how to get myself healthy.

Again, figure out how to get myself up and dressed and ready for the day.

Figure out how to maybe cook a meal, feed myself, that sort of thing.

Before I could really start thinking about the outdoors.

So I'd set a goal originally to become independent with my basic needs.

So not driving, not going to work, nothing like that, just literally get up and get dressed and ready for the day.

And I wanted to do that within one year.

And I had a lot of people at the hospital that were telling me that that's a really ambitious goal.

It takes most people at my level of injury, two to four years to be able to get to that point.

Hmm.

And I remember laying there once in my hospital bed and I was thinking about being told that, and I was like, you know, two to four years to be able to put pants on and pushing manual wheelchair around and, you know, accomplish the other things that comes with just your basic cares that we all brush our teeth, you know, cook a meal, whatever, take a shower, that kind of thing.

I was like, that just seems, you know, given my path and how I set goals in my life and how I was okay with failure.

Because in setting goals, you have to be okay with failure as well.

I was like, that seems way too long.

I'm still gonna stick to doing this in one year.

And if I don't do it, then at least I know I gave it everything I could to do it in a year, but if I do do it, that's amazing.

And, and, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll be that much more ahead of the game.

So I worked really hard.

I got outta the hospital after four months, did three more months of outpatient therapy.

And towards the end of that outpatient therapy, I had actually hit my basic independence.

So I was only seven months into my injury.

Now I still needed help for a lot of things, but I could get myself up and dressed and ready for the day.

It took seven months, six months of being awake for me to actually get to that point.

So that's where I sat back and I said, okay, I got five months until I met the one year mark.

I just crushed that other goal.

Hit it outta the park.

So now can I find a smile before I start thinking about driving before I think about working again and all those other pieces to life, can I find a smile?

And did a little research.

Couldn't find much information on anybody with a disability ever hand cycling did going to the sun road up in glacier national park.

Something I kind of always wanted to do, knew I could do as a person without a disability.

But now as a quadriplegics was like, I don't know, can I, this is even possible.

Can I even figure out how the, at this point I skipped a step of where I'm back in Minneapolis, close to family again.

So I'm not in Montana anymore.

So it was like, can I drive out there?

Can I camp, can I do all those, that part of it?

Can I travel?

And can I bike this 50 mile road with a mountain pass in the middle that has 2,500 feet of elevation that you have to, you know, you have to climb up and over.

So I spent about a month and a half or so trying to find the equipment found a nonprofit that had it similar to Teon adaptive to where I could borrow a hand cycle throughout the summer and train.

By the time I got that and got solutions to keep my hand on the pedal that has no grip, you know, that sort of thing.

By the time I got all that figured out, I had three months to train and I five days a week trained as hard as I could.

I had set up a, a pretty good plan for progression over those three months where I was at in St.

Paul, Minnesota's pretty hilly, no mountains, but plenty of, you know, you know, three to 600 foot Hills that are pretty steep to climb and cranked it out five days a week.

And just learned a lot about myself.

Personally, learned a lot about my physical situation.

Um, learned the fact that I don't sweat anymore.

So how do I control that when I'm out on hot days to keep my body cool, learn that I can feel my leg hairs blowing in the wind, you know?

And that was pretty cool to be biking and all of a sudden realize my, my, I can feel my leg hairs.

Um, a lot of really, really.

Neat things that I learned about myself, but also some, some areas where I had to problem solve.

Like I said, not being able to sweat, how do I go to the bathroom while I'm on this hand cycle?

How do I deal with, how do I change a flat tire if I get one with one and a half hand?

And so it was super cool, the way that big goal of the going to the sun road made me figure out all these other things.

It forced me to figure out all of these other pieces on how I can be as independent as possible on the hand cycle, which trickled right into my everyday life.

So to speed it up, I, I, I made it to Montana after figuring out all of these pieces and, and actually ended up biking to going to the sun road one day before the one year anniversary of my injury and took me eight and a half hours to climb Logan pass, got to the top of that.

That was the big unknown and was just, my mind was just completely opened up to what life can look like with the disability.

So, you know, I remember sitting there thinking to myself, okay, so Speed Flying accident.

Monthlong induced coma three more months in the hospital, three more months of outpatient therapy.

After that got my basic independence back then there I was with this open space of creating this new goal.

surrounded it by a bunch of filming to create a documentary called It's Raining, So What organized all of that and trained and got myself going and made it to this top, Logan pass in eight and a half hours of climbing.

And I was like, if I could do all of that in a year, given what I was up against, you know, I think that, I think the future is pretty bright for me at this point.

Like, I feel like I can accomplish a lot if I could do that in the first year and ended up taking me about 14 hours, pretty much on the nose, 14 hours to bike the whole road.

And yeah, I left that project with just a complete open mind and a new sense of curiosity with life and just started saying yes to everything.

So every opportunity I got, whether it was getting on the water, getting on trails, putting tires on dirt for mountain biking, eventually getting back into paragliding and speed flying and a number of other different, really cool opportunities all the way into career shift.

Public speaking now became a big part of my life.

Um, helping other people with disabilities, starting a foundation at the time that I had started to bridge the gap between people with and without disabilities.

You know, it just took me into this whole new direction in my life.

That was totally different than what life was like before my injury, but now had so much more meaning.

So finding that smile happened and that one moment at the top of Logan pass just opened up so many doors for me, you know, and now fast forward 10, 11 years from that.

And you know, I'm pretty stoked on where it's all taken me in the end.

Joe, what you accomplished in that first year is astonishing.

And from my perspective, it's like, wow.

Sometimes I complain that my feet hurt when I get up in the morning or they cramp up too much.

But, um, I have nothing to complain about.

because I, yeah, I'm not a quadriplegic.

Um,

well, you know, I will say real small I, I, I will say I'm, I'm not a huge fan of the comparison game.

We all have our own issues.

We all have things that we're faced against and we all have our own, whatever that worst is, and that's different for each one of us.

Right.

So my worst might sound worse than your worst, but it's still your worst moments.

It's still your hardest moments.

So I it's, it's more about, instead of saying someone else has it worst.

So I have no room for complaining.

It's acknowledging that something is hard and challenging for yourself and figuring out a way to move around that.

And that's where the strength in overcoming adversity really starts to shine.

And that's where you can build on that and build more endurance in the world of overcoming adversity.

Mm-hmm

. Stephan Abrams: Now you said that you created a documentary along the way.

Yeah.

What's the name of it, Joe?

It's the, so the title of it is It's Raining.

So what, and so I ended up meeting Kevin May shortly after I did the, going to the sun road and, uh, he's a film producer and started chatting with him random meeting.

We ended up having a great conversation and he ended up coming over my house the next day.

And I showed him the hard drive pool.

Like we had 65 hours of footage that we had gathered, um, all the way up to the going to the sun road.

And so I showed him some little clips here and there of what we had.

And he was pretty fired up and he was like, I'd love to help make this into a real documentary.

And that turned into a three year project of not only taking that first 65 hours of footage in the first year after my injury, but then continuing to film all the way up to November of 2013, where I was the first quadriplegic to ever compete in an Ironman triathlon.

Really.

And so, yeah.

So, um, I won't spoil no spoil or alerts.

The, the film's still out there.

You can find it on vio and it's, um, or if you go to the website, it'll, it'll link you to the right places.

And I, yeah, I set a goal shortly after the going sun road, I met a, a friend of mine who was a paraplegic and he was doing Ironmans and I was like, wow, that I wonder if a quad's ever done that.

And then I did a ton of research and found out no quad had ever even attempted it.

So, um, I did find one guy who was a walking quad.

So he rode a two wheel bike and he ran just like everyone else.

And he swam just like everyone else.

So I shouldn't say a quadriplegic had never done it, but nobody had ever done it as a wheelchair using quadriplegic, which is a pretty big difference.

And so I yeah, set out, I trained for two years and worked really hard and figured out a seven solutions and ended up in Panama city, beach, Florida.

And, uh, yeah, went after it then.

And that was 2013.

So the film follows from a little bit before my life to, you know, injury to that first year after my accident due to going to the sun road and all the way up to what it took to not only go after an Ironman, but the, the lessons I was learning throughout that process and how I was, uh, figuring out ways around some of the barriers or the perceived barriers that I was facing.

And the big picture for that film.

We released it in 2015, did a little bit of film festival kind of stuff with it.

But the big picture was to get it in hospitals and do with it like Murderball did for me, which was give people who had newly sustained injuries like myself, an opportunity to watch it and hopefully spark some motivation within themselves to look at their new situation and the new life that they're living with a spinal cord injury or any, you know, a stroke or brain injury or anything,

And we ended up it's in some hospitals, it plays on a loop at, at quite a few hospitals in the Midwest and a few other areas.

And, yeah, that was our whole thing.

If we can, we were like, you know, we had a, a distribution guy kind of ask us three questions and told us to put an order and, and it what's most important to to least, and.

The three areas were, money further your career or change the world.

And those are the three elements to a film for a documentary put 'em in order.

Cause that'll let you know what to do with them from there.

And so we put it in order and we said, change the world further.

Our career money was the least important.

And so we approached everything from, from, with, you know, that order of things and yeah, I'd look back on it now.

And I think it was a total success and Kevin May totally crushed it and knocked it way outta the park on creating that film.

And it was just a really neat process to go through that.

Not only the filming aspect of the setting goals and then the amount of work we had to put in, in post after it all, which was, I learned a ton about visual storytelling and it was just a growth moment.

Those, I mean, I think all of life is a growth moment, but those years in particular were, were really big in me trying to.

Figure out, you know, what my trajectory of life was gonna look like and what I was gonna be doing career wise and how to apply what I was learning to what, you know, my passions were well, Joe,

I, I look forward to getting on the internet and looking for, I've never seen Murderball and, and I've never seen your documentary either.

So I certainly look forward to getting on the internet and, and seeing those and, and showing my kids as well that they can, uh, do anything they set their mind to and, and put the effort and effort into.

Um, I, I do want to hear about what you're doing now with Teton adaptive and, and how you're making such a big impact and the community here.

We have to take a quick break to get a word from one of our sponsors.

I've taken so many notes right now.

I hate to break away, but I gotta break away and we're gonna be right back.

Joe welcome.

Welcome back.

you just shared with us, um, just a remarkable, journey that you've had in your, in your life.

I, I think you're probably one of the only people I've ever met, who has shared so much of their journey of being a quadriplegic and, um, how, how that became, and now how you stay positive and you're making an impact on the world.

You're, you're looking to change the world and, and I, I feel that you're doing that and you've been here for about two years in Jackson hole.

You've been coming out here for quite a while now.

but you're working at Teton adaptive

and

yeah.

Tell me.

is Teton adaptive making a local impact or do they have an impact in, in a greater area as well?

Uh, so Teton adaptive is, is focused on Teton county.

Okay.

So we're supporting a lot of locals.

Um, but we also live in an area that as we all know, brings a lot of people in from a lot of different parts of the world.

So we're supporting a lot of people, both locally and people who are visiting the area.

And, but our focus on where we create that change and where we create the level of inclusion we're working on is, you know, within Teton county and the, you know, within this valley so that we can open up more doors in national park and on the rivers and, uh, at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort,

Be able to also support people with disabilities.

So we want a family to be able to travel to or live in Jackson to that happens to have a person with a disability in the mix to have just as many opportunities as everyone else.

So, you know, we, we, we worked for Jackson hole para guiding last summer to, to kickstart adaptive parading with them.

So now they can take people with disabilities, parading with a specialized tri that Teton adaptive purchase, thanks to a lot of amazing donors.

And so we help get them dialed in with that piece of gear.

Whenever people call us looking for things to do, we let 'em know that's one of the options.

Sometimes people buy it on that one and they sign up and they end up going parading and, and have a really magical experience with all of their friends and family, everyone doing it together.

So that level of inclusion, so everyone can recreate together is what we're really after.

So our three part model is with providing equipment.

Providing training to the organization and then providing scholarships to those that if, if the, if the funding aspect of it is the, the barrier to get into the way for entry, then we help out there as well.

And, and you said businesses, you want to help businesses support people with a disability.

And you've mentioned a lot of recreation businesses, but you didn't say that initially.

So I'm curious, where does the reach go with Teton adaptive to help businesses support people with a disability?

can you clarify what you mean by that a little bit?

Well,

it, I mean, you mentioned Jackson hole, mountain resort, Teton, paragliding, getting some mountain biking.

Those are all act activities for yeah.

You know, you guys helping find the equipment, supplying the equipment for people to get out there, enjoy the river as well.

You mentioned, but is Teton adaptive doing something with, um, helping businesses, support people with disabilities that are not necessarily in the activity business.

so we do a little bit, like we get calls every now and again from like on an accessibility standpoint, like if a business is trying to figure out how to make it more accessible for someone to get inside their business or that sort of thing.

and, and we can get some advice, but that's not our focus.

Our focus is on the outdoors and our focus is on outdoor recreation.

Mm-hmm so you'd be surprised how many phone calls we get on that, but there's, there's other groups in town.

Um, you know, like, uh, cultivated ability is another great example of somebody doing similar work, but in a different industry, so CT ability is working on helping businesses get more comfortable and have what they need to be able to employ people with disabilities.

So now we're talking about employment, right?

Which is one of those areas that people with disabilities struggle with is finding a job in a place that will hire them to be involved and, and to recognize them as a productive member of society that, that deserves to have the opportunity to work at their business.

So that's what cultivate ability is doing.

And so we're connected with all the different groups around town that are supporting people with disabilities in one way or another.

So sometimes we get calls and it's like, you know, I'm not the person for that, but you should chat with so and so over at cultivatable or a different organization.

So we're all kind of, sort of working together to try to build more inclusion in the community.

Our focus is on the outdoors, outdoor recreation and, and the things that you know is a large reason why most of us, I think, live in areas like Jackson is to have access to the mountains, have access to the rivers, have access to the wildlife, and we're trying to open those doors.

It's a pretty interesting study.

If you look.

From when the Americans with disabilities act was passed.

Let's just take that, for example, in 1990, you know, that, that was the biggest piece of legislation ever signed to give people with disability, civil rights.

And that intent was about integration for people with disabilities.

So getting people with disabilities out of nursing homes, out of institutions, into the communities, giving people that weren't necessarily in those situations, but providing them with what they need to have access.

So the byproduct of that was curb cutouts that was electronic openings for doors.

That was elevators that was lists on buses, that sort of thing, to create opportunities, to make it barrier free for people with disabilities, to be able to access our communities.

Right.

And so they did a lot with that.

They did a lot with physical barriers, a lot with education, a lot with, employment.

A lot of areas, but the outdoor industry, I feel like is one of the last areas to start really getting dialed in on, on how do we support people with disabilities in the outdoors?

And how does the ADA apply to that?

Which it absolutely does, but it hasn't been pressed too much.

So we are, what we found is we make the most progression when we follow the good energy.

And so instead of taking these federal laws and always shoving that down in people's throats.

So if someone's saying, you know, I, I think it's too risky to have people with disabilities involved in this, whatever it might be, which we don't run into that it's pretty rare.

We run into that.

But instead of saying, no, you have to, the law says you have to, it's a federal law.

It's kind of like, well, you're not the only one doing that, whatever that might be.

So I'm gonna go to the next person down the line and they usually say, that'd be sweet.

We would love to be able to support people with disabilities.

So we Highfive them and we help them out.

And so the, the goal in the end is to follow that good energy.

And we're seeing how that can grow really quickly when we follow the good energy and just try to share it with love and happiness and not, uh, necessarily with like forcing legislation and, and laws and, you know, potential lawsuits and stuff like that down people's throats.

Now, all of that's in the background and all that is a thing that could happen.

So every business should be aware if you're, if you're not also opening up opportunities for people with disabilities, technically speaking, you are, you know, breaking a law, which was put into place in 1990 a federal law.

But we also recognize as a small business, especially, it's very hard to get the equipment.

It's very hard to have the information, and it's very hard to understand it in terms of gathering it.

but it's easy to implement.

And so that's where we step in and what's why we provide training.

And that's why we provide the equipment.

And that's why we provide scholarships to people who can't afford the activities so that we can make it an easy entry for a business to get involved with supporting people with disabilities.

And we can make it easy for people with disabilities to then feel welcomed and involved in whatever that opportunity is that business provides.

Well,

well done.

Thanks.

Well, well done.

Well done.

there's so much that you have covered here today, Joe.

I am I'm a loss for words right now.

cause I I'm just trying to absorb everything that you've shared with me, not just what you've accomplished since your, your accident in becoming a quadriplegic, but just your perspective of how to work with people.

And your perspective of how you're willing to work hard, take a risk, still a mitigated risk and accomplish so much.

And when, you know, we, we were talking before the show started and I, and I said that I wanted to make sure that I don't say or ask anything that's, outta line or inappropriate.

I want to make sure I reference everything properly.

And you said, Hey, I'm an open book.

You can ask me anything.

And I, and I'll tell you basically straight up how it it's supposed to, you know, what's right.

What's, what's appropriate.

What's not appropriate.

And, I feel like we can all use so much more, just honest, conversation in one where if somebody asks you a question, don't assume that they have.

That they're being mean or, or anything they could have just messed up.

They just might not know.

And you just might have to help 'em along the way.

Yeah.

You know, I had a really wise person once tell me that the hardest thing for humans to change is our tongue.

Hmm.

Whether that be the food we eat or the language we speak.

And I just thought that I I've always thought that makes so much sense and it really opened my eyes to, you know, it's, it's, it's really about taking in the information, but just because you took in the information, doesn't mean you're gonna be able to completely change habits tomorrow.

And that takes time.

So let's use, uh, language for an example.

So, um, you know, I'm not in, in terms of the way the community of people with disabilities want to be in general, referred to it's person, first language.

So a person with a disability, not a disabled person.

So if you were to accidentally say, you know, in, in a conversation, you start talking about disabled people, you know, that doesn't mean you just like ruined everything and you're the worst person in the world because you didn't say, oh, you know, a person with a disability.

It just, it's just a, a moment of like, recognizing that you said it maybe the wrong way and trying to do better next time.

Right.

And so same thing with using other words like handicapped is probably the one that gets thrown up the most.

To me, that's a pretty outdated way to describe people with disabil.

And it's, it's tough for people to, to change that language and change, especially when you start breaking it down into ages.

So if you're talking to somebody who's in their.

Seventies and eighties, they grew up when handicapped was, that was the language.

Right.

And so changing that now is harder.

Right.

And so I always think context is extremely important.

So if somebody is uses the word handicap and not person with a disability, well, you know, are they doing, are they saying that in a mean way or is that just what they know?

You know, and if they're not saying it in any kind of hateful way, well, I'm not gonna get offended by that.

You know, maybe, sometimes they correct people.

Sometimes they don't, it just depends on the, the conversation that I'm having.

And, um, if I feel that it's even worth it, but yeah, I mean that we can really get hung up on words.

I think the safest bet is just to always use person first language, but, um, but also don't get hung up if you make a mistake, cuz that's, we're all humans and we do that and we're all guilty of it.

And no matter how hard we try, we're gonna do it for the rest of our.

Make mistakes.

Yeah.

We're gonna make mistakes.

There's no way around it.

Yep.

Like, I mean, uh, we're humans, we've all had we're humans and we've all had one chance to do everything.

Right.

And I think we've all screwed it up at some point.

So we're not, none of us are getting through this without making mistakes, you know, that's

so true.

And I like what you said as well earlier is, you know, people that set goals are used to

failure because it,

it you're about you're bound to fail at some point, but you still gotta keep setting goals.

Yeah.

I mean, failure, uh, you know, during my Ironman training, that's when I really started noticing like how valuable failure is.

So it, it just, even on the days, like the days in my training, so I was training when I, when I hit the full on eight months of Ironman training, it was six days a week.

For eight months, no breaks, you know?

No, no saying no, no, I'm tired today.

It was we're doing, unless there was an injury where I needed to rest, then, then there, it was go time.

And I had some days that were just so incredibly hard because my muscles were so tired and I was so fatigue.

And I just like, I was just really struggling on those days.

And I realized those were the days that I was learning the most about myself.

And those were also the days where the most progression was being created in my physical strength and so, and mental strength.

And so I, I, I started noticing these days where maybe I didn't go as fast as I was supposed to that day.

You know, maybe I didn't hit the times that I needed because I was just so fatigued.

But then I saw like how, because I just went with whatever I could that day, how that built my strength for the, the next day or the day after.

And I was even stronger.

That, that was how, what was building me.

And so those moments of, you know, those days I would consider failures.

Um, and, and then all of a sudden I'd realize it grew from that day.

And I learned from that that day, you know, I could look at my speed flying accident.

That was a huge failure, right.

I made some serious mistakes that day, a hundred percent my fault.

And I smashed it in the mountain and became a quadriplegic cause of it.

And now if I sat on it like that, and that's all I ever thought of, then what's that gonna do for me?

But what has I learned from that day?

Right.

So I learned a lot about risk management from that day.

And it took some time to process that and to understand it and to really be able to apply what I was learning to my life, but learned a lot about risk management.

I, I learned a lot about, really what it means to have a passion for something in life.

I learned a lot about how hard it is to work against a lot of adversity, but how great it feels when you.

Get around that adversity and, and really start progressing in life.

And so failures are inevitable.

We're gonna have 'em happen.

There's nothing we can do about it.

In every aspect of our life.

We're gonna have moments of failure.

And instead of looking at it as a failure and looking at it more as a moment of growth, that's where I started really tapping into welcoming in that failure.

Now, I, I don't wanna make that sound like I wanna fail every day.

And that every time I fail is, is enjoyable, but it's a moment of growth.

And if you analyze it that way and put a study on it like that, then you can take what you've learned and apply it to the rest of your life.

And, and hopefully not make that same mistake again and continue to grow

well.

Well stated at my businesses, we have a one page business plan and on there it has our core values and one of our core values is it's.

It's okay to fail and it.

And the narrative behind that says, we all own it.

We all grow from it.

And we all benefit from it because yeah, well, it, it, it is inevitable.

And I think there's part of society.

That's like, Ooh, I can't fail or I'm not gonna talk about it, or I'm gonna hide my failure to where, when you bring it front and center, then that's when you can really learn from it and be a stronger wiser person.

Yeah.

I, I mean, I couldn't agree with you more and, and I also think it's what holds a lot of people back from doing what they really wanna do.

Mm-hmm , I think being fearful of failure is pretty common and we've all been there.

We all, we all face that, you know, and being fearful of failure is, is a real thing.

But should it stop you from living the life you wanna live?

Should it stop you from progression?

Should it stop you from new ideas or maybe pushing yourself physically in some way you've never done or going into a business endeavor that maybe you always wanted to, but you are afraid to do it.

Cuz what if you fail it, it definitely shouldn't get in the way.

And, and I think it's worth noting if you know anything worth doing is gonna have failure.

You know?

So if you're do, if you're doing something big enough, you're, you're, you're gonna mess up.

You know?

And so if you're starting a new business, I, I don't know a business owner out there that can't throw down a, a pretty lengthy list of failures.

They made in the process of starting that business.

But they, instead of letting that first failure be what makes them stop, they learned from it.

They applied what they learned to their business and they moved forward and then they made another mistake.

At some point they did the same thing and they moved forward.

Eventually, you know, hopefully you're running a successful business in the end and.

Guess what you're still gonna make mistakes.

So it's just a part of life and we can't avoid it.

And so allowing it to get into your, in your way for your own personal progression is, yeah, it, it, it's a hopefully more and more people.

Well, you know, maybe they're listening to this, we'll take something from that and maybe do something that's been fearful for themself.

You know,

that that would be wonderful, Joe, and, and it's their choice.

So it's of each individual's choice, Joe.

I, I have so enjoyed getting to speak with you and be inspired by you and, and he learned from your, your story.

what is a way that people could connect and, engage in conversation with you?

Yeah, well, Teton adaptive is a great way to, to reach out.

So, um, you can go to Teton, adaptive sports.com and you'll find plenty of information and can get ahold of us there.

If you wanna get ahold of me directly, my email is Joe Teton, adaptive sports.com.

Pretty easy to remember, but it's Joe@TetonAdaptiveSports.com.

That's a great way.

I'm happy to connect with anybody and everybody that reaches out.

I, I love connecting with people and learning about other people's lives and figuring out ways that we can all work together to improve our communities.

So, you know, and we're also, we're a 5 0 1 C three nonprofit, just trying to.

Do some good work to bring more inclusion to the world and into our little valley of, of Jackson and the surrounding areas.

So, obviously anybody out there that's able to throw us any support, whether that be your time, your expertise, um, a donation, so many, there's so many ways you can help a nonprofit like ours to help us grow.

So please reach out in any way and let's start conversations and let's start building more partnerships.

And I'm, I'm a huge fan of working together.

I don't, I don't believe in competition, especially in the nonprofit world.

We're all trying to do something to better something in some way.

So the more we're working together and the more we're partnering on things and collaborating on ideas, the more progression we see in our communities.

So yeah, whatever it might be, or as, as odd as it might sound or whatever, please reach out, like, let's get a conversation going.

Well

said, Joe, thank you.

thanks again and wish you all the best and, keep growing Teton adapt.

And for people to know your Teton adaptive sports is rebranding to Teton adaptive.

So that's why initially we talked about Teton adaptive, but even though the website is still Teton adaptive sports.

Yeah.

We still got a few, few kinks to work out in the, the rebranding side of things.

Mm-hmm so the sports is still attached to it and, um, but yeah, it's all the same.

So if you find that one it's you're in the right place.

Okay.

But thank you so much for having me on and give me a, a platform in the space to be able to chat with you and be open.

And, and yeah, I, I hope I hope the community can take something from this and, and run with it.

I, I hope so too, Joe, and, and that's why I have this podcast is because.

It gets me talking to people that are outside of who I normally see every day.

And I get to hear more of the people who I don't know about that are making an impact in this community, but not just hear this local community, but, but how they make an impact in the rest of the world.

And that's something that you're certainly doing.

And I appreciate it.

Thanks.

You got it.

Take care, Joe.

Have a good day.

You do the same.

Appreciate everything.

You're welcome.

Bye.

To learn more about Joe Stone and Teton Adaptive.

Visit TheJacksonHoleConnection.com episode number 199.

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I love hearing from you people.

And I do love hearing from people when I'm talking and walking around town and getting to see folks of how you enjoyed an episode.

Thank you to my wife, Laura, who always supports me and my boys Lewis and William Lewis is away at summer camp.

Can't wait to see him.

It's been almost 14 days since I've seen the little guy so happy for him to be away at camp Williams, enjoying his time with just Laura and I.

And of course, Michael Moeri folks, if you are looking to start a podcast, get in touch with Michael Moeri.

He has been with me since episode one, and this is episode 199.

So, you know, he knows what's going on.

Thank you everybody.