I have a few quotes that I really like.
"Pain is the best teacher but no one wants to go to his class."
I like to push myself to my limits and try and push myself further than my limits
My condition is one in a million.
If it gets into my spine it could potentially have me in a wheelchair for the rest of my life
But iFly does make me feel free so I can do whatever I want
When I first get there and roll around people think “oh he's not going to do much, he's just gonna sit there”
and then I start diving into ramps and doing all these big tricks, getting air and stuff so I don't feel any different
I just feel the rush of what I'm doing.
Having lived with pain for the first three years of her life, I think that's given her so much endurance
So my name's Ava and I'm 10 years old and
I'm actually the youngest black belt in the Kyokushin World Federation.
When Ava was being born, they think that her hips might have been squashed for maybe eight hours
Every time my mum tried to push me out my hips would bang on the side
and it bashed them out of shape pretty much
Ava had a lot of trouble sleeping as a baby, the reason was probably because she'd been in constant pain
and when she did start walking it looked very different to how other kids walk.
I was hoping karate would improve her coordination and there was only one dojo who would take three year olds
I do a type of karate call Kyokushin, the most difficult and most brutal type of karate.
From Ava I leant that I can never write anyone off.
Before she arrived at the Dojo I would say I didn’t give her a chance
'Cause I couldn't walk properly, so obviously I was the worst in the class.
Because of her determination we pushed through
and then the last couple of years she’s doing full contact competitions
and not just doing full contact competitions, she’s winning those competitions.
When I would beat the boys they would start crying, they probably thought girls aren't very strong
and after a little while, they kind of knew I was going to beat them
So Ava pretty much just turned 10 when she did her black belt grading
Even allowing her to do it was really hard for me
It was nine and a half hours
I had to fight 20 black belt adults in a row and that was very difficult
I really don't know how I did it. There was just this feeling just saying 'you can keep going,
just do it for one minute longer' and then one minute later, I would just be doing the same thing.
If things come easy to someone, then they will never have that fighting spirit.
Now she gives hopes to anyone that anything and everything is possible if you put your mind to it.
You don't like seeing your children diagnosed with anything, then having to be medicated
It's Chronic Recurring Multifocal Osteomyelitis. CRMO, they call it for short.
Her body thinks there's infections in her bones but there's not
so it's fighting these infections that aren't there and eating away at her bones.
In your little girl...
Yeah, I guess it was a bit of a shock to them to know that their child was different in a way
And it was yeah, just a bit scary I guess.
CRMO does have a lot of pain in it. She does grit her teeth. She pushes her way through it.
I'm recommended not to do high impact sports so not much running or jumping.
Being told you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that, and then to turn around and find a sport .
that she could actually float in the air, basically, is amazing to watch
My name's Sarah Yates, I'm 13 years old and I'm an indoor sky diver
When I first tried iFly, it was amazing you just were in the air and the wind blowing in your face was really nice
It was just so fun and exhilarating.
Before I started flying I was really small and underweight and when I started this sport I got heaps of muscle back
and I was starting to be more like the other kids
It's been very therapeutic for Sarah because she's doing something that she can be good at
Not being left behind
There's still a couple of the tricks that before I do them, I'm like
‘oh okay I'm a little bit worried about this but here goes nothing.
and the coach said she's got potential, and next thing she's competing and she's going really well at it.
I went over to Seattle in December 2016 and I came fourth in that competition.
It was just an amazing feeling to know that I was as good as some of the adults
For someone who only started 12 months ago, she’s pushing herself
and trying to make the best out of whatever direction her life takes her to
There's a bit of a silver lining because if I didn't have this condition
I probably would never have gotten into the sport of iFly. My condition isn't holding me back at all
I'm in a wheelchair 'cause I have low muscle tone and hypermobility
which is a condition that affects me from the waist down. My legs turn 180 degrees backwards
As a teenager, I guess in school was the hardest part because of course there's going to be bullying involved
and there was a fair bit of that but as you get older you learn to cope with it.
and it still gets a bit annoying having stares and stuff but you just don't take notice anymore.
The limitations I noticed were more or less the social limitations, it wasn't so much physical
Constantly able-bodied people will say 'No, you can't do that. You're in a wheelchair' or
'Oh that's too dangerous.' And I reckon it should be more or less letting people discover their own limits
not put them in cotton wool and be like 'No, you can't do that'
My name's Timothy Lachlan. I'm 20 years old and I ride wheelchair motocross.
When I first went to the skate park I got a lot of stares from people
but I didn't really take notice 'cause I was just like ‘oh this is you know, a cool new environment’
What I love about WCMX the most is just the freedom it gives me
It gives me more confidence, getting around obstacles in day to day life
I'm the first Australian to successfully land a wheelchair backflip
and I did that at Monster Skate Park around about this time last year
I couldn’t believe it at first it was pretty crazy – I was in awe
It just shows you can get through anything with the power of will
With WCMX I just want to expand the sport here in Australia,
getting a bunch of kids in wheelchairs into the skate park and showing them what they can do.
] The way I look at it, a wheelchair is just another toy, it's like a bike or a skateboard.
Don't let your wheelchair define you. It doesn't have to be something that holds you down.
I definitely think that some people might put a mental limitation on their abilities
If another young kid had something wrong with them, then I would just say,
give it a go, try your best and just keep going.