We spent last week at the beach near Atlantic Beach in North Carolina. At Fort Macon Park, they have a special chair for people like Ben who may need extra help moving in the sand and water. The chair is made by Landeez.
We were amazed by this chair. It did travel over the sand and in small amounts of water with ease. We bought an inexpensive strap to go around Ben's waist so he would not fall out. I thought that Ben could go farther in the water sitting in the chair, but it does eventually float...away if in too deep of water.
Ben got tired of sitting in it and wiggled his way under the strap. For the most part, it is a great invention and it made it easier for us to keep Ben safe on the beach. If he had been interested in a long walk on the beach, this would have worked great for him.
We live in Oregon and often go to the beach since we live about 90 minutes away from the ocean. Thank you for sharing this post and giving your opinion about the sand/beach wheelchairs that Ben got to use to be able to get out on the beach with your family. At one point in time one or two small Oregon coastal towns on the beach received donations of a few sand wheelchairs for people who could not otherwise go on the beach. I have tried for the last couple of years to find an Oregon beach town that still allows guests to use these chairs but have been told that the donated wheelchairs have broke and were not ever repaired. Sad, because there is such a need for these types of wonderful gizmos that allow a family to walk on the beach together and a child to get down close to the ocean instead of sitting in his wheelchair on the sidewalk parking lot just looking at the beach and the ocean from a distance. I really believe that if these coastal towns (that rent other kinds of beach/sand bikes) would also rent these sand/beach wheelchairs, there would be a market for them. One business owner on the Oregon coast who I was told had a sand wheelchair for patrons to use at no charge (who I recently called) told me that they don't have it anymore. They also said that I was the 10th person who had called that day about the sand wheelchair. Maybe it's time to write some letters and advocate...? Hmmmmm....I just may do that on behalf of Ben and Matthew and many, many other kids and people in this world.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thanks for sharing the great pictures of Ben at the beach. How fun.