This podcast episode elucidates the profound significance of adaptive sports and the invaluable resources provided by organizations such as the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). We delve into the personal narrative of Rudy Garcia Tolson, whose journey as a double above-the-knee amputee has been marked by resilience and triumph within the realm of competitive sports. His experiences reflect not only the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities but also the transformative power of community support and adaptive equipment. As we explore the various programs offered by CAF, we aim to inspire listeners to embrace an active lifestyle, regardless of their physical limitations. Our discussion serves as a clarion call for those within the disability community to engage with adaptive sports and discover the myriad opportunities that await them.

An insightful exposition unfolds in this episode of Walk and Roll Live, where hosts Doug Vincent and Addie Rich engage in an enlightening dialogue centered on their personal experiences within the disability community. Doug, a polio survivor, and Addie, living with cerebral palsy, share their reflections on a week filled with engaging activities, including Addie's attendance at a comedy show featuring Tina Fermel, a comedian with cerebral palsy. This experience serves as a powerful illustration of the vital role representation plays in the arts, highlighting the importance of visibility for individuals with disabilities. The hosts recount their shared laughter and camaraderie, reinforcing the idea that humor can serve as a bridge to understanding and connection within the community. The conversation further delves into the realm of adaptive sports, as Rudy Garcia Tolson joins the discussion to represent the Challenge Athletes Foundation (CAF). Rudy's journey, beginning from his early experiences as a young athlete to his current role within CAF, accentuates the transformative potential of adaptive sports for individuals with disabilities. He articulates the mission of CAF to provide adaptive sporting opportunities, thereby fostering an inclusive environment where individuals can pursue their passions in sports. The dialogue emphasizes the significance of community support, the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities, and the importance of perseverance in overcoming obstacles. In conclusion, this episode serves as a profound exploration of the intersection of disability, representation, and sport. It encapsulates the essence of the Walk and Roll Live podcast, illustrating the strength and resilience of the disability community. Through personal narratives and shared insights, the hosts and their guest create a compelling narrative that resonates deeply, inviting listeners to reflect on their own experiences while fostering a greater understanding of the diverse landscape of disabilities.

Takeaways:

• This podcast episode underscores the importance of amplifying the voices of the disability community in society.
• Rudy Garcia Tolson's journey illustrates the significant impact of adaptive sports on individuals with disabilities.
• The conversation highlights the necessity of grants for adaptive sports equipment, aiding athletes' participation.
• Listeners are encouraged to explore local adaptive sports opportunities and engage with communities for support.
• The hosts emphasize the transformative power of sports in fostering a sense of belonging among individuals with disabilities.
• The episode promotes awareness about the ongoing challenges faced by disabled individuals in accessing adequate resources.

Links referenced in this episode:

• forbes.com
• challengedathletes.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Punchline
• Tina Firml
• Forbes
• Kelly Brush
• CAF
• AGUIAR

The following is a productions original series.

Hello and welcome to Walk and Roll Live.

I'm Doug Vincent along with Addie Rich.

Our podcast is dedicated to amplifying the voices of the disability community.

I am a polio survivor and Addie.

Is a personal cp.

I was like, wait, how?

We said that?

That sounded weird.

But I still have cp.

Yes.

Yes, I do.

Yes, you do.

All right.

Last time you checked.

How you doing?

Good to see you.

How was your week?

It was really good.

My week was fine.

It was a week, but I. I feel out of sorts in the best way possible because two out of three evenings of the weekend, I was not at my house.

You kind of overextended yourself, huh?

In a good way.

Good way.

In a good way.

In a good way.

So I would encourage anybody.

There is a. Oh my gosh.

There's a comedy club here in Atlanta, but it's kind of.

It's been around apparently for 30 years.

Never knew that it was there.

It's called Punchline.

It's part.

It's like hidden behind a restaurant.

But apparently when like headliners come to Atlanta, they tend to like do an off show there sometimes because they were talking in the beginning about who had performed there and I was like, no way.

Anyway, I went there for Tina Fermel.

If anybody watches like Instagram and different things, she is a comedian with cerebral palsy.

I love her.

You know, I knew she was, but until you told me.

Yes, sir, then.

Because I never, I guess, never looked at the name so well.

Right, right.

You know, I just always know her as like Tina with cp.

Right.

Which is what we talk about kind of hating.

But like, I had heard she was coming, I don't really know how.

And I had put it on my calendar a few months ago and then forgotten about it.

But because I had put it on my calendar with a two hour reminder, it popped on at 5:30 and said, Tina, it's 7:30 tonight.

So I. Wow.

So you had to like get ready, let's go.

I like went quickly, went on, saw if there was any tickets.

There were still tickets.

Grabbed a ticket, you know, grabbed a friend and said, we're going to do this.

It was amazing.

It was so fun.

And she, her opening act was named Liam and sorry, Liam, I can't remember your last name.

Which sucks because you're from Atlanta too.

But he had Marfan syndrome.

So the whole like set was everybody with disabilities.

And it was kind of like apropos for Disability Pride Month, but there were five of us total with cp in that room, counting her and myself.

But we were all laughing because we're like, I don't think we've all had this many people with CP in one room because we all look so different.

We always talk about, CP is not in the same way.

Right.

And she was cool and did a meet and greet afterwards and, like, met people.

And we all kind of.

Some of us with CP were standing there.

We're like, oh, you know, this proves we don't have a directory.

And we don't know all know each other.

We've never met any of each other.

But it was really, really great again, and her.

A lot of her set was about disability, but there was also bits of her set that were not.

So it wasn't like if you weren't part of the disability community and you were in the audience, you were left out.

Besides cp, were there any other disabilities represented in the audience?

There were, but it's not like she made us all do a show of hands and talk about it.

She just happened to say during the set, like, I have cerebral palsy.

Anybody else?

And raise your hand if you do.

And all these hands went up.

Went up.

But, you know, she just did a great job of being humorous.

Just about, like, it was just funny.

She lives in Bushwick, New York, and she said, it's one of the only places that me being disabled and walking like I do is the least weird thing you're going to see.

Like, I feel like the audience as a whole, obviously, they bought a ticket so they knew what they were seeing.

So it was either people with a disability or community that cares for them.

So she didn't have to censor her jokes to explain around the joke.

I laughed probably the hardest I've laughed in a long time.

And she's a wonderful human.

Afterward, meeting her and, you know, joking about things.

So great time.

Then on Saturday night, as if I wasn't already, like, on a high from life for doing that, I went to a pillow fort party with some of my friends where we decided we were gonna act like kids.

And we built a ginormous pillow fort in the living room, and we ate junk and watched Coco and just hung out and decided not to be adults for a while.

And it was.

It was nice.

How about you?

Well, I can't top that, that's for sure.

Yeah.

Which is.

Went to a buddy's house to see the.

The fight.

Oh, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, there was a soccer game on at the same time.

And, you know, I've kind of started to get into it a little bit, but my.

My friend's son in law, he's really into it.

So.

So when we watched a few of the prelims, then we go back to the soccer fight and there's like, okay, it's time for the McGregor fight.

He's like, let's go back.

No, let's watch the game a little bit more.

And then we could kind of tell.

I think we got an alert that's saying that they're doing the walkout.

So, you know, we wait a little while and went over there and then we're presented with, right at that moment, him kind of like stumbling around and going over to the side of the ring.

We're like, what's going on here?

You know, it's already over.

And sure enough, it was like a minute and nine seconds.

And what we had to watch the replays to see what he just.

He did something to his knee.

And I don't know, we're kind of contemplating that it might have been a previous injury because when he was coming out on the walkout and getting in the ring, he seemed like he was McGregor.

Yeah.

Favoring his side.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, looked like he was in shape.

You're ready to go.

Well, it's one of those things too, right?

Like, if you know, as the opponent, if you know that he has a weakness, if you're true.

If you're a smart opponent, you're going to go for the weakness.

Well, they're both strikers, so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it didn't even.

I don't even think he got a leg sweep in or anything.

Holloway.

I think he just, he punched him in the head and he then.

Yeah, and then McGregor tried to do a leg sweep and.

And he kind of.

L. It wasn't the leg sweep leg.

It was his other leg.

He kind of landed on, know, a little funny with force.

And then, yeah, his knee kind of gave out.

So anyway, so we did that.

That was fun getting together.

I always is with.

It's nice to just have an excuse, right?

Like, I.

We were laughing at the pillow fort party because everybody, like, the thing was bring something like, from your childhood that you would have eaten.

So I brought like, fruit rolls and like somebody else, like, the main course was dinosaur nuggets and like, we drank Capri Suns and stuff.

And I was like, our sugars have got to be insane.

Yes.

But we were laughing about how long has it been since you had a fruit roll?

And I was like, 20 years.

I don't know.

20.

The ones you probably ate over the weekend they made 20 years ago.

That's what it felt like.

I mean you don't realize how sweet things are until you don't really eat sweet.

So it was, it was quite fun.

But I'm glad you had a yes.

In another development I got an email, I think it was just this morning that.

And you remember maybe a year ago now that we had this article written about the podcast from Frank Ra Opi.

Well, he just published another article.

I said Forbes.

I don't, I don't think it's in the magazine but I think it's on there.

Forbes.com but he sent a link so I'll, I'll put it up on the website.

But he did a.

You know, you can tell it's not the same one that he did for us before, but he wrote a whole nother write up for us and with other podcasts.

These are independent podcasts we tries to highlight and a couple of them really caught my interest.

I'm gonna go check them out.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So we appreciate.

Thanks Frank.

Thank you, Frank.

Yes.

And also want to thank Kelly Brush from the Kelly Brush foundation who came and chatted with us last week.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Great information and, and we're passing that along.

Got them up on the website, added some more camping ones.

Thank you for your input on that.

And there was a few other things that I found but just yeah, kind of peruse through there and did some other updates on the website.

So look around, see what's new and thank you for liking and subscribing, getting some new likes and subscriptions because we've been putting out a lot of clips out on all the social media and thank you for responding to those.

Yeah, we appreciate it very much, the kind comments and all of that.

So today we're going to be talking with.

We thought it was going to be Bob Babbitt with caf, but somehow we couldn't get the connection going.

So yeah, it wasn't working out for us.

But luckily Rudy Garcia Tolson was going to be with us and so he just took over.

Did a great job of talking all about caf and his story and everything.

And in it my suspicions were validated.

I thought I knew Rudy from years ago with possibilities.

He was just a kid back then, but he's a grown up man with a family and all that good stuff.

So we're going to learn all about that right after these words from AGYAR.

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From the AGYAR Professional Training Studios, you're listening to Walk and Roll Live Disability stories.

Changing up the game Living life unstoppable Known by our name with strength inside our hearts Independence we chase through every storm and trials we find our own space A world where all can flourish no limits in sight Our unity's our power we shine in the night Live and thrive let's blaze a trail worldwide Stand tall with pride no need to end behind in every town and city Our voices will be strong Together we can make it we belong.

Well, first of all, we start with a segment where we kind of catch up on what's been going on with ourselves, Addie and I and all that.

And one of the things that we do is we give our status as a disabled community member.

And I am a polio survivor from a year old and Addie has cerebral palsy.

So.

Welcome to caf Representative Rudy Garcia.

Tolson, how are you?

I'm doing fantastic.

How are you guys?

Really good, really good.

Glad to have you here.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

So I coordinated this interview through caf?

And Bob Babbitt hopefully is going to join us.

We had him on a couple of years ago and we've got the whole caf?

Story.

Well, at least up to a couple of years ago if you want to check that out and if.

If Bob makes it on, we can get any updates and I imagine you could talk about some of that too.

You've been involved for quite a while, right?

Absolutely, yes.

For a long time actually.

Yeah, I've been involved with caf?

Since really I was about eight years old as one of the first kid kids to work with caf and kind of been an athlete ambassador.

And then just recently over the last four years, I relocated out here to beautiful San Diego to be part of the the programs team.

So now I officially work full time for caf.

Well, congratulations.

And still an athlete, right?

Is in your title.

Once an athlete, always an athlete.

As you all know.

But yes, I am actually still competitively training.

Recently found a new sport.

You know, just a little background.

I, I went to five Paralympic Games all in the sport of swimming.

You know, being down here in San Diego, I'm an avid surfer.

I love the ocean, I love the water.

And I found a new sport in para kayaking which is a, a sport where the main race is a 200 meter, so it's a sprint distance.

It takes about 40 to 50 seconds to complete.

And you know, it' it's a sport for me where you know, I'm using pretty much most all, almost all arms and as they double above the knee, amputee.

It's a great sport for me.

And you know, I currently train with a team.

I train, I'm on the water about eight, eight times a week.

So it's kind of a full time gig as well.

And the goal now is to make it to my six Paralympics in la.

You know, I grew up an hour east of la, near as we were talking about, near Loma Lind, California.

Right.

So you know, being able to compete on home soil as a athlete is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Olympians and Paralympians.

So this is just something that could not let pass me up.

So I found kayaking and kind of going full, full bore into that.

Is that why you decided to try to make it in 28?

Because it was at home?

So you found a sport that would kind of accommodate that.

I had to find a sport.

You know, I really got into para cycling to start with.

So I, I, I ride a hand sign.

Oh, okay.

You know, previously in my history of being a triathlete, I finished an Ironman.

I did that all on a, a standing bike.

So I have prosthetic legs I use for when I, when I rode my bike.

Now that I'm no longer doing too many triathlons, at least the Ironman version of it, I, I recently got a hand cycle, a used hand cycle from one of our athletes who donated it to us.

And so I got into that and kind of was training last year quite ext hand cycling, thinking maybe I can make a Go in this.

And then I did a training ride with a Australian gold medal para triathlete, Lauren Parker, and shortly realized that I was nowhere near where I needed to be as she dropped me on the hand cycle.

So I decided that, you know, you know, honestly, the whole kayaking thing kind of came randomly.

I met me and my girlfriend Emily met Coach, Coach Chris on the beach.

We take our.

Our cat and our dog.

Yes.

I put my cat on the leash and take them to the beach for walks.

And so Chris, our coach, invited us to come paddle back in November and really been doing it ever since.

So.

Yeah, wasn't planned, but it's been working out.

Yeah, that's awesome.

You know, I wanted to take a moment, too, to let our Southern California listeners know if that name sounds familiar.

He was very involved in Loma Linda and the program there.

Possibilities.

Tell us a little bit about that experience.

Yeah, you know, I, I grew up in Bloomington, California, which is kind of San Bernardino or, you know, Riverside.

I kind of say a lot of names if you don't know Bloomington, California.

But, you know, I was born in Loma Linda University.

And so I had all of my operations from at a young age there at Loma Linda.

I got my first pair of prosthetics there at Loma Lind Prosthetics and orthotics with Michael Davidson.

And still to this day, I see Michael Davidson for my.

A lot of my prosthetic needs.

So, you know, Lomalen is very dear to my heart.

And, you know, being at a young age, I was very involved in the Possibilities organization there, doing the Possibilities triathlon and really hanging out at the Drayson Center a lot.

So, you know, a lot of my early memories of sport were.

Were there back in Loma Linda.

Yeah.

So I got to remind you because I feel like I'm in the middle of a story that I didn't know.

The beginning because typically, to go there.

Yes, typically when we start the story, we'll say, like, tell us where you're from, tell us your name, and tell us, you know, how you're part of the disability community.

So I still feel like I'm walking into the middle.

So for the audience and for myself, explain to us what your disability is and, like, how you identify with it so that we can kind of catch the story up to itself.

Yeah, absolutely.

Really was born with a congenital disability.

I was born.

I had multiple challenges when I was born.

It's called pterygium syndrome.

It's the.

Where my, my three middle fingers on Both hands were webbed together, and then I had webbing behind my legs as well.

And so my legs were really bent kind of like, kind of the position.

And I could not extend and straighten my legs out because of that webbing behind the knees.

And really, in that webbing behind the knees, there was the main artery there.

So there wasn't an easy solution to just cut that skin like they did on my fingers.

Right.

And I would be able to fully use them.

And so, you know, when I was born, my parents were told from the doctors, you know, we, we, you know, the best way I think, we think that Rudy will live a.

A, a close to a normal for.

For the doctors to amputate my legs.

And my mom and dad refused.

They didn't want me to come back later in my life and really question why they decided to take my leg.

So really from when I was born until I was five, I spent most, almost my whole childhood in the hospital there in Loma Linda.

All of my operations were geared towards trying to fix and straighten out my legs.

And, you know, after more than 15 operations, nothing worked.

So we decided when I was five to go ahead and let's amputate my leg.

So I had my big surgery.

I am a double.

I'm considered a double above the knee amputee, but I do have my kneecaps on both of my legs, but I just don't have the knee joint there.

So that's hence the double above.

And really, you know, as a, As a.

As a young amputee growing up in the.

In the, in the late 90s, prosthetics were not how they are today.

So, you know, working with Michael Davidson as a double above the knee amputee there at Loma Linda, we.

We create a very unique team where he and myself were learning from each other on how.

What.

What legs I could use for.

For running, what legs I can use for, you know, around the pool deck and for walking.

You know, it got to the point where I used to break my legs probably about 50 times throughout the year just because the legs that I had were not geared for kids.

They weren't used.

Right.

I was gonna say, you're a kid, you're a boy, rough and tumble, and you're like, this thing's going whether it says it's going or not.

And then I'm go jump over the walls.

I'm gonna land on my knees, I'm gonna fall full speed on my knees.

And I just.

It just.

They, they.

They were.

They were not geared for Kids.

So we really had to be creative and think outside the box and how better to improve what we had.

And that was really the start of our, our relationship there at Loma Linda and really kind of my, my start as an athlete.

You know, as an athlete with a disability, you're often told what you can't do.

You know, you're often told that, you know, you know, great to see you out here, but you're not going to be able to be as fast or you're not going to be able to do this or that.

And so, you know, for, for whatever reason, I'm not, not too quite sure why I had the mentality of like, you know, well, yeah, I, I might be missing my legs, but I still want to beat you.

You know, that was.

You have that chip on your shoulder like so many athletes.

Yeah, I don't know where it came from.

I always try to think back, like, man, I wouldn't, you know, there's a, you know, and I fully understand some individuals have a really hard time, you know, challenges with a disability, you know, it's not an easy thing and there's no you, there's no user manual out there to tell you how to do it and you know, what, and what resources are out there and who to go to.

You kind of have to navigate it on your own, especially back then.

So, you know, as a young guy, I was pretty oblivious and naive to my disability, which I think was a good thing because instead of kind of being discouraged about becoming last in races and 1 mile fun runs or in the pool at a swim meet, I use that as like, well, you know, let me try again and let me practice, let me try, let me go to swim practice, let me work on it and you know, kind of having patience and realizing that, you know, good things kind of take a little bit of, a little bit of practice and training and that kind of led me on a path to competition.

So.

So, Rudy, speaking of state of mind, do you remember what your state of mind was at five when you were making and I imagine your parents kind of included you in the decision making process of amputating.

Oh, yeah.

No, I think, you know, it' as, as a five year old understanding my situation, for me it was very black and white.

It was, you know, sit around and wait and watch my family, my brothers and sisters playing outside and kind of being very limited in my mobility or go ahead, go ahead and amputate my legs and get prosthetics.

And you know, to me I, I kind of looked at prosthetics as, like, my robot legs, because they.

They were very.

Can we just do it now?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, the mentality was never like, I don't know if I should or not.

A mentality for me was like, let's just get it over with.

Because, you know, when you're in a hospital as a young kid, it's.

It's not a fun place to be.

You know, you.

You get to go in a.

For a walk in the wagon and kind of explore the hospital and maybe go outside on a good day.

But, you know, it was very limited.

So I think a big part of that was really I wanted to go home.

I want to be.

Be.

Wanted to be part of.

With the family.

You know, I have an older brother, three older sisters, and I just felt like I wanted to be.

Be home.

Probably the prospect of no more operations, too.

This will be the last.

Getting me home.

You tell me what I got to do, because I'm going home.

We're getting it done.

So, yes, that was really kind of my.

My thought process.

And, you know, my parents, I think.

I think understanding my situation and understanding that I've already gone through all these operations, and, you know, when you go through operations day in and day out, year after year for a young kid, you grow up real quick, you know, you.

You know what's going on.

So it wasn't.

It was.

There was never any doubts on what.

What had to be done.

And so we, you know, I think my parents were fairly accepting of me making that decision and them going a lot, going forward with it.

Right.

So then jumping back forward, now you've got the prosthetics, you're improving them, you're out there competing, and.

And at first you had some work to do.

So tell us about that process.

Yeah, you know, I. I first started walking back in first grade, so.

I know.

And in kindergarten, I had.

I. I utilized a wheelchair, which was the best mobility for me at the time.

And then once I had my legs amputated, I got my first pair of prosthetics, and I still had a chair in case my leg broke or I had a sore or a blister or I just couldn't wear my legs for whatever reason, I still had my back up there, but most of my mobility was on my prosthetics.

And, you know, in first grade, when, you know, you go to school, the last thing you want to do is use a walker while you're going to recess.

You know, that's just.

As a kid, you're like, this is embarrassing.

It's like, I can't do anything.

So, you know, my doctor always requested, make sure you take your walker out to recess.

And they even told my teachers.

So we used to get outside and I used to hide my walker on the other side of the wall.

And then I would go.

And then, of course, we would get back from recess and a screw would be missing, a part of my leg would be missing.

And sometimes we had to send, like, a little search party out to the recess, to recess, the playground, to find Rudy's.

A piece of Rudy's leg that you really needed.

Right.

So that was.

That was like a normal thing.

Thing for the first two, three years of having prosthetics.

They were heavy, they were uncomfortable.

They.

They just didn't.

Didn't hold up for a kid.

Yeah.

And, yeah, I would say that was very frustrating, especially going through all the operations, getting to that point where I got prosthetics.

I kind of had this whole new life of kind of standing up and walking on my.

On two legs.

And then they didn't keep up and they couldn't hold up.

And then, you know, that.

That turned into.

Really, what happened was my.

Did a.

A VHS home video of she recorded me outside playing football, playing baseball, playing soccer, jumping over the walls and just being.

Doing what a kid did.

And she sent it to the company at the time, Flexfoot, which is now Oser, and she.

We.

I asked in the video, can you give me a new pair of legs?

And it was essentially, I was saying, can you please give me a new pair of legs, because my legs are a piece of junk.

Yeah.

And.

So they saw that, and I ended up getting a brand new pair of legs that were carbon fiber, they were titanium, they were very lightweight.

And it.

It was a new day.

It was a new day for me as I. I had a whole new world of mobility.

And then shortly after, I got my first pair of running legs, which, of course are the ones that look like a C. And as soon as I put those on, I was not.

I was gone.

Like, naturally.

I didn't have to.

Didn't have to practice or anything.

I just.

As soon as they put them on, I n just started running, I was gone.

Exactly.

Had they been doing this kind of prosthetics before, or did you kind of give them the inspiration for something more functional?

Yeah, you know, me.

Me and Michael, in a lot of ways, we pioneered the early days of prosthetics for double amputees.

You know, back in the late 90s if you were a double above the knee amputee, you were, we were told you were lucky if you were gonna walk.

You know, that was like if you could walk on your prosthet an hour or 30 minutes a day with a locker or a cane, then you, you got it pretty made, you know, and that was the mentality just because the technology was not, not available and running was a, like Michael in the beginning told my mom, there's no way Rudy can run.

There's no way.

And my mom was very persistent, as moms are.

And Michael realized, if Rudy wants to run, I'm gonna have to, we're gonna have to figure it out.

So, you know, we, a lot of trial of trying new things and we ended up coming to a solution where it's very untraditional.

I started learning how to run without knees.

So we think of running, we think with knees, we think you want to have a running gait that looks like someone with two legs.

And we, we said, no, that's not going to work for me.

So I started circumducting, swinging my legs out to the side without knees with my prosthetics.

And that ended up just being the way to go for me.

And I think that was, that was what was really a new, new thing in the industry for, for double amputees.

And now it's pretty common.

Yeah.

And prosthetics come to the point where you can wear them all day comfortably, not, not sports ones, but just your everyday legs.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I, I'm, I, I, I track all my information on my watch.

So I, I, I usually walk anywhere from three to five miles a day in my process, my walking legs.

And you know, my dog Jimmy loves to go for walks.

So, you know, I usually take him for three, three walks a day.

And then I'm at work all day, moving around, doing things, going places.

So I wear my legs probably, you know, 12, sometimes a little bit more hours a day.

And I feel, you know, obviously just like if you wear, if you're wearing your shoes and you know, after a long day of wearing shoes, you're feet going to be a little sore.

Well, my lower back is a little sore.

My, my residual limbs might be a little sore, but nothing that some sleep and some recovery, some stretching can't fix to get me ready for the next day.

So yeah, they're very comfortable.

And I actually, you know, my walking prosthetics are computerized, so they're, they're microprocessor knees and they provide me with energy return.

So I would say throughout my day with walking, I probably save about 20 to 30% energy just because the knees are providing me with assistance while I'm walking and standing, landing, up and down ramps and hills.

So they really are kind of enhancing quality of life at this point with technology, with bionics.

And you know, it's, it's an amazing time.

As someone with limb loss to, to, to kind of continue on in this.

World today, that's amazing.

A lot of, I think different fields of different disabilities.

It is a kind of a golden age era, it seems like right now.

Right, Eddie, are you wondering how he got involved in caf?

Yeah, I might.

Well, I guess, but the bionics just stopped my brain for a second.

I was like, hold on.

Especially for those of us that deal with a lot of chronic pain, like tied to our disabilities, right.

It's like, like for you with your shoulders or whatever, like bionic shoulders versus like shoulders that have been blown out from pushing for 40 years or whatever.

Right.

So I'm like, hey, I'm kind of envious of that bionicness that like returning things.

Whereas my back's like go lay down.

Darn.

Is quite amazing.

And you know, I think one thing we're seeing a lot more is just new types of adaptive equipment.

Whether it be different hand cycles with eases with, for off road, different types of sports chairs and racers, different types of mobility devices.

It's just as you said, the golden age right now.

So if you want to do something, whatever your disability, they have something out there for you.

A lot of it is doing a little bit of your own research to figure out what you need.

You know, it seems like there's almost like an arms race to whatever purpose.

But in actual, just everyday rigid chairs, there's so many people that are making them and different innovations that are coming forward.

Yeah, cheaper things.

Yeah, I mean we are benefiting from that.

But yes.

So you get your legs so you can live life.

But then how do you find caf?

Because I mean.

Yeah, so you know, I got my legs started kind of swimming on the swim team, kind of started competing a little bit and I said, you know, I want to, I want to do.

I don't know how it happened, but when I was about 8 years old I said I wanted to do a 1 mile fun run, the kids fun run.

Usually they have them attached to like local 5K.

So they have, but they have the kids fun run.

So I did, I did a fun run in Fontana, the Fontana days run.

And I Used to do these one mile fun runs with my walking legs and it used to take me over 24 minutes to finish because I had a power walk and I would, I would become, I would be the last guy to finish a race.

And that's kind of a scary place to be in when everybody's waiting for you, you know.

And I started doing these local, local fun runs with my walking legs.

And then I think it was Michael there in Loma Linda told us about a, there's a triathlon down in La Jolla, California called the Challenge, the San Diego Triathlon Challenge, and that there's people there that look like me that do different types of sports and there's a triathlon and maybe you can do that swim, you know, it's a 1.2 mile swim and you know, so the first year we went down, when I was eight years old, I went to go check it out and watch and meet everybody.

And I was just blown away by how many other people live in this world with different types of disabilities, some like me and some completely unique to, to them.

And I was blown away.

It kind of made me feel that, like I wasn't alone, you know, I, I kind of, I feel like I, I, I was probably spent majority of that first, you know, six, seven years of my life thinking I was probably the only kid with, with two prosthetic legs.

And you know, when you, when you feel like you're the only one sometimes, you know, when you have a dream, dream of doing something like running, you, you kind, you sometimes get doubts that that might not be possible because nobody else is doing it, you know.

So I think being around others, meeting Bob, meeting Jeffrey and, and meeting these, the founders of Caf and then other athletes there, Jim McLaren, I got to meet Jim and you know, just kind of like was like I felt like I was at home, you know, and, and so from that point on, we started to be more involved down in San Diego due to doing some more triathlons and events and really been plugged in ever since.

So 8 years old to now.

Yes.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So have you had the opportunity to see a lot of the world through your competition?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I've had the, the honor and the privilege to really travel, travel the world.

I think I've been just about every, anywhere except Australia.

So I guess I have to just stick around for another, another four years to get there.

But yeah, you know, in in sports and Paralympics.

And you know, I graduated high school and moved straight out to Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training center and kind of lived full time as an athlete.

And I gotta say, thinking back on it now, it feels like time just absolutely flew by because I don't know how.

You know, like not one thought about the future.

And then, you know, you wake up one day and it's like, it's a thing of the past.

And it's like, it's amazing how, how time flies when you're doing something you love to do.

And I, I tell people I was living live in the dream because all I had to worry about was eat, sleep and train.

And that was quite the good life.

So, yes, traveling, a lot of training as well and a lot of content competition.

So I wouldn't have it the other way.

What was the sport that you were competing in when you were young?

All in swimming.

So all of my international competitions were majority all in swimming.

I did do a few triathlons international, but more on the lines of like for fun or for cross training and then did a little bit of track and field as well and there.

But majority of it was all in the pool.

So.

Yeah, don't have to, don't have to bring too much except a pair of goggles, your, your swim cap, maybe your Speedos or your, your jammers, and you're good to go.

Away you go.

So I, I was wondering this just the other day.

So it's a kind of, you know, surreptitious that you're on.

But I was wondering, did they ever talk about any prosthetics for swimmers in the Paralympics?

I know they, they, they, they do have them.

Absolutely.

And a lot of, a lot of swimming prosthetics, really, they're kind of a, a home, home project kind of thing.

You know, there's, they really, they might have a foot that is designed for swimming where the foot, you can point the toes downwards as if you were kicking with two feet.

And then you could obviously put a flipper on that foot so you can get that leverage.

Yeah.

But for most, majority of swimmers, if you're going Competitive, like in a Paralympics or just an eight age group competition, normally you're not allowed to use any type of devices, so whatever you have is what you use.

And I gotta say, seeing some of the athletes at the Paralympic Games who are missing arms and, or missing legs, who swim at a incredibly fast speed for missing all four limbs is absolutely mind blowing.

And you know, I, I have a good friend who, who this is missing his all the way up to his shoulders and he does archery.

And I even got to the point where I was like, dude, how do you do it?

Like, what do you.

Like, how do you do that?

And then he looks at me and he's like, well, how do you do that?

And I'm like, you know, exactly, exactly.

I think Doug and I talk about that a lot, right?

Because it's like people assume because we're disabled, we're just like cool and in the know about every disability, right?

And then we meet.

There's not a direct.

We still have questions.

Yes.

We're not all friends.

We still are floored by things just like everybody else.

That isn't our reality.

You know what I mean?

Or like you have adapted things over your life and you don't realize that you've adapted because it is, is how you do it, right?

And then someone like sees you do it or kind of critiques that way and are like, what?

And then, yeah, it's just second nature, like breathing to us.

We just do it that way.

You know, people ask me, how is it weird to drive with hand controls?

And I'm like, I don't know any other way.

I don't know.

You know, it doesn't seem weird, normal.

It's, it's, it's quite, quite amazing.

When you're in the disability world, you know, doing things the way that we do it feels so normal.

And it takes somebody who's not in our world to point out how unique that is.

And so, you know, I think that's just something about disability that we are naturally adapting and we figure things to do, we figure ways to do things.

And I think that's, that takes a special mindset that, you know, is very unique to us people with disabilities.

And, you know, it's something that, you know, when I, when I was a kid growing up, I didn't consider, considered myself to be, to have a disability.

I used to think a disability was, is like almost like a Bad word.

Like, no, that means that, like, I can't do something.

And then, you know, you guys, I got a little bit older, I started to realize that, you know, disability.

Yeah, I have a disability, but doesn't mean I can't do everything the same as you.

And if I can't do it like you, I'm going to figure out a way that I can do it myself, you know, so it's just, it's a, it's a mindset that a lot of us have, and that's, that's, that's a pretty special mindset because, you know, not a lot of people without a disability struggle with that and.

Right.

And there, there are lessons that can be learned, you know, and I think that's, that's a pretty powerful thing.

Well, I think one of the lessons, you know, from your example that you're talking about here today works for people with a disability or without, you know, anything that you try, you're not, you're not going to be number one at the beginning of it.

Don't give up there, you know, learn more, train more, you know, all of that.

Absolutely.

It's good lessons learned, you know, that's why I love sports.

That's why, why, you know, connecting with caf is, is a natural kind of alignment because we, we at caf Also believe that, you know, through sport, you know, we can, can be in the game of life.

We can, we can, you know, whether you're recently injured or you're born with a disability like me, when you're able to find a sport, you know, any sport, you know, a lot, a lot.

Some people think, with disabilities, think that, oh, challenge athletes, that's not for me.

I'm not an athlete.

But we believe if you, if you move in your way, that's, that's being an athlete, you know, and, and so, you know, being an athlete and figuring out ways to do things and, you know, just understanding that when you have a disability and you can find a sport that works for you and you can be passionate about it and love doing it, that's, that's, that's a positive thing, you know, and that, that's living that active, healthy lifestyle and that, that should be for, for with a disability and without.

So I think that's very important.

And even if you're not going to Beijing or Los Angeles this coming year.

That's right.

You got the local 5K.

Yeah.

Play tennis with your friends, whatever it is.

That's it.

Go outside with your kids.

Absolutely.

That's what it's About.

So tell us more about what you're doing for CI Caf now.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, you know, I've been down here in San Diego for a little over four years now.

I work on the program team, so that means I attend a lot of local adaptive sporting events and share more about caf to our small community.

It's a small community, but there always seems to be new people who don't know about what we do.

So it's always a learning, it's always an education process for us.

I also get to put on a number of different sport clinics here in San Diego throughout the year.

We do surfing, swimming, adaptive crossfit, amputee, soccer.

We have a lot of different sports that we put on.

Paraclimbing, para kayaking.

We do a lot of clinics.

Just really introduce individual individuals with disabilities into new sports.

And if they try a new sport and they say that's not for me, great.

I'm glad you tried it.

Now, you know, let's find something that, that, that you want to do and what you like to do.

So I get the pleasure of doing that as well.

And really kind of creating a community down here in San Diego with families and kids and adults with disabilities and kind of get them connected and, you know, share resources and, you know, you know, meet, meet, meet and engage those new athletes.

Because, you know, unfortunately, the sad part is there's a lot of people acquiring disabilities on a daily basis.

And, you know, they're, they're in those rehab centers, they're in those hospitals.

Turtles.

And a lot of them kind of don't know what's next.

They don't.

No one's coming to them.

And besides their bed and telling them what type of chair they're gonna get, what type of leg they're gonna get, what type of sports are available and who to contact if you need help.

You know, a lot of that is, is not, not, not, you know, very in their face information.

So I think that's something that we strive to continue to, to push and evolve.

Nice thing.

Well, just a nice thing about San Diego, like you mentioned at the beginning, it's a beautiful city, you know, a destination for a lot of people.

So if you have, you're disabled or have a disabled child, you know, maybe plan a little vacation to go to San Diego and enjoy the area, but plan it around one of the events so you can, you know, expose your child or yourself to something like that.

Like this.

Absolutely.

A lot of beaches in San Diego County.

If you go to the main lifeguard tower, they Actually have beach chairs that you can utilize and use for the day.

And some of the different communities have different adaptive sports, ongoing programming.

We have wheelchair basketball down here.

We have a paraglimbing group that meets, we have a sled hockey group that meets almost bi weekly or bi weekly.

So, you know, that's one of the cool things to see is these organic, you know, adaptive sports groups growing and, and, and you know, yeah, if you're here in San Diego, reach out to cif.

We're more than happy to connect you, let you know what's coming up.

And if you need to borrow a, a racing chair, a hand cycle, a beach chair, we have a few here at cif.

I'm always loaning out.

So yeah, it's a, it's a small world.

Everybody knows everybody good.

No, that was awesome.

That was actually what my kind of segue was going to be.

So if people are listening to this and are like, wow, I never knew this was a thing.

How do they support caf?

How do they get involved?

How do you bring the opportunities other than listening to this?

Where can they figure it out?

Yeah, absolutely, you know, so the caf's mission is to provide adaptive sporting opportunities for people with physical disabilities.

And the biggest, biggest way we do that is through our grants program, which means we have a grant season.

So the grant application will open in September and it will close in November.

And you have about a two month window to go onto our website, create an account, submit an application for a grant.

Now a grant can be a number of different things.

It can be a piece of equipment, so you want a new running leg, you want a new hand cycle, you want to a new grit chair, you want any type of equipment.

We would provide a grant for if you need help with expenses for your gym membership, for your competition to help cover cost to go into a competition for adaptive swim lessons.

We would also, that would fall under our grants program as well.

So you know, in our 33 years of being here, we've given over 55,000 grants around the world and we've raised over $200 million.

So you know, we, we, we, we can't stress enough that you know, when you have a disability, oftentimes what happens is dealing with insurance companies can be not the funnest experience, as you guys well know.

And we found that a lot of, a lot of insurance companies will not provide these pieces of sport equipment.

Now there are some getting better and there is, you know, in certain states legislate legislation that is working with the state to make sure that some of this equipment is mandatory, provided, but there's still a big gap there where it's not being provided, it's not being approved by the insurance company.

So that's why we, we come in and we provide that those grants.

So I think that's, that's the big part.

If you want to follow more information, you can go to our website, challenge athletes.org we have a number, a number of newsletters.

You can sign up for our national newsletter or you can sign up for some of our regional newsletters like the SoCal San Diego LA region newsletter, where we post a lot of different events coming up and other opportunities with other individuals and organizations just to spread the word because, you know, when you, us adaptive athletes, disabled athletes, we're all on the same team and the more information we can get out there, the better it is for everybody.

Everybody.

Yes.

Yeah.

Join the community.

That's our mantra.

Keep it on with that.

You're not alone.

I love it.

You're.

Yeah, you're not alone.

There's more, more of us out there.

Come and join us.

So thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

And we're, time is flying by.

Right.

So it's going to be here before we know it.

LA28.

So we'll be looking for you and rooting on.

I appreciate that.

Thank you for having me.

Keep on walking, keep on rolling, and yeah, we'll see you out there.

All right.

Rudy Garcia Tolson, thank you.

Each week on Walk and Roll Live, we share honest and open stories of.

People living with a disability.

Yeah, you know, I mentioned earlier that, you know, I was bouncing back and forth between Kaiser and Kasa Kalina, you know, obviously.

Well, I won't say obviously, but what.

Had happened was I got spun around and as I mentioned, I broke my back and severed my spinal cord.

I didn't know that my legs weren't working other than the fact that the car next to me that hit me was on fire.

I knew that I had 21 gallons of gas in my tank.

Join us weekly for another powerful episode, Walk and Roll Live.

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Subscribe now.

From the Agyar Professional Training Studios, you're listening to Walk and Roll Live Disability Stories.

I, I love sitting with Rudy.

I love sitting with everybody we sit with but you.

As we know, it's, it's, it's.

I kind of show up on purpose to where I try not you like that.

Have vetted a lot of guests, know a lot about it.

Right.

So you kind of have an idea of what the story is going to.

A lot of them I just know, you know, because they're Exactly.

But the ones that I don't know, I try to get some information, but I don't look at it real closely because I like to not know and for sure.

So you know that I generally sit in that seat unless I find somebody.

And, and even when I find them, honestly, it's mostly like social.

So I don't know you.

I. I know of you.

I mean, Rudy, it was just so fun.

Like, I literally sometimes, I mean, if you know me, you know, I'm a hugger and I want to like, step through the zoom and be like, oh, I just want to hug you.

I mean, I guess people are safe from me because I'm stuck.

But wait till you see her.

Long story.

Yeah, exactly.

Very good.

Yeah.

He did a great job on behalf of Caf?

So and good to connect with him again.

Great.

Let's see.

Next week we have Becky Duran or Becky Koran and you know a little bit about her.

What can you give?

Just enough to pique their interest.

Okay.

I. Becky and I connected.

This is one of those six degrees of separation in the upcoming future, like 2ish weeks away.

I'm, I'm lucky enough to get to go to disability and in Dallas and she is part of the caregiver circle that they are, are doing.

And my, my parent company is as a sponsor kind of hosting and I got Volun told that I was going to do like our intro.

Well, she and I headed off and so I asked her to come and, and speak to us.

She is a little person and she has done a lot that is pretty darn cool with representation of disabled people and specifically little people in media.

And she has also gone through, you know, some tribulations in her purpose personal life that have kind of changed her trajectory and, and really made her, you know, intentional about how she represents the rest of her life and going forward.

So it was nice sit down with her.

Looking forward to that next week.

Trying to think if there's anything big coming up.

You know, there's that time of year, there's probably some adaptive.

There are so many things.

We cannot tell you everything.

Please go to our resource page.

Yes, yes.

And we'll put them up there.

Absolutely.

All right, let's head for the door.

Thank you for listening.

I'm your host, Doug Vincent.

That's Addie Rich from the Agar Professional Training Studio.

This has been Walk and Roll Live Disability Stories.

Life Limitless.

Walk and Roll.

Life's the best walk.