SEIZING LIFE SUMMERFEST OFFERS DISABLED OUTDOOR CHALLENGES.

Byline: BILL BECHER

I'm never going to whine again about how hard a climb is or how difficult it is to get up to water ski or how long a bike ride is.

Not after spending a morning with a group of exceptional people who won't let physical disabilities get in the way of their adventures in the outdoors.

Louisa Pena, from Eagle Rock, was a spectator on a hunting trip 15 years ago when a shotgun was accidentally discharged, severely injuring her right leg. Surgeons at Stanford University Medical Center told her that amputation below the knee was her best option.

Pena, who was a professional dancer, made this difficult choice.

After her recovery and therapy, including learning to use a prosthetic leg, she went back to dancing. She's tried roller skating and ice skating, cross-country skiing, snorkeling and bicycling, too.

Pena works with kids as a teacher's aide and volunteer for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She said the children are curious and sympathetic about her disability. One asked her whether her leg would grow back.

Pena is attending SummerFest, a weeklong noncompetitive opportunity for people with disabilities from total blindness to paraplegia to try activities such as cycling, outrigger canoeing, sailing, windsurfing and water skiing. The event at Long Beach is organized by Disabled Sports USA, a nonprofit sports and recreation organization for the physically disabled. The organization has more than 80 chapters nationwide, serving 60,000 people annually.

Kirk Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA, lost a leg from a grenade while serving in an Army combat unit in Vietnam in 1969. His organization started out teaching disabled veterans to snow ski and now works with the U.S. Olympic Committee to sanction competitive sports for people with disabilities. But the focus is not simply on competition.

``We saw the need for a grass-roots recreation program for everyday people with disabilities,'' Bauer said.

SummerFest is the first summer sports festival the organization has staged. It has two goals: to expose handicapped individuals to outdoor sports and to train instructors to help others with the special adaptive gear and teaching needed for disabled people to safely enjoy these sports.

Pena is taking both the instructor and participant courses in water skiing.

She tried water skiing on a sit-down board the first day. Today she wants to try it on a single conventional ski. She's a little worried about getting up on one ski.

First she tries on some skis using her uninjured leg. Pena gets some dry- land practice on body positioning and the takeoff. Then it's time to try it for real.

She wades out from the shore at Long Beach's Marine Stadium with some help as she's left her artificial limb on dry land. She sits on the tow boat's swim step and puts the ski on. Then she grabs the bar and says, ``Hit it!''

The towboat driver mashes the throttle and the boat picks up speed. Pena is a bit stiff at first, but she makes it up and soon she's flying over the water for a long ride. Eventually the wake trips her, but she's game for another go. This one quickly ends in a face plant, but that doesn't deter her. The next attempt is successful and again Pena is skimming on top of the water.

``It was fun,'' said Pena, back on dry land.

``I'm glad I experienced it,'' she said as she put her artificial leg back on.

Pena's prosthesis was designed by Vardan Gazarian of Hanger Orthopedic Group, which also manufactures the devices. Each artificial limb has to be custom-built, using materials such as titanium and carbon-fiber composites. Gazarian said there is a thin line between function and too much weight. The ideal situation would be to have different limbs for different activities, but insurance plans only pay for one version. A basic artificial limb can cost $5,000. Hydraulic limbs with computer control can cost from $30,000 to $45,000.

That's what Dana Bowman has.

Bowman would be considered an overachiever even if he had all his limbs. Bowman was in the Army Special Forces and a member of the Army's Golden Knights parachute team when a sky-diving accident cost him both legs.

Despite having two artificial legs, he is a licensed airplane and helicopter instructor and a sky-diver, snow skier and water-skier, scuba diver and cyclist. A computer-controlled limb replaces the leg that was severed above the knee, a regular prosthesis is fitted to his other leg.

``I can plug my knee into the cigarette lighter in my car and recharge it,'' Bowman said. But he uses conventional limbs when scuba diving - his bionic leg isn't waterproof.

Designers have made prostheses with built-in crampons for a patient who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and an upper-extremity prosthesis with a device to grip a fishing rod for an angler. Bowman, who was scheduled to start the SummerFest with a sky-dive but was defeated by the June gloom overcast, has special shock-absorbing jump feet for parachuting.

But you don't have to be a gung-ho commando to be brave.

Pena, who has never tried it before, dons a harness and climbs on the artificial rock wall.

I'll give it a try, too. Without whining.

MORE INFORMATION

SummerFest continues today and Friday at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel in Long Beach. For more information about Disabled Sports USA visit www.dsusa.org. The Los Angeles chapter is called ``The Unrecables'' and offers Alpine skiing at Mammoth Mountain, whitewater rafting, camping and water skiing. Phone: [phone] or visit http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eunrecables/.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Louisa Pena of Eagle Rock lost her right leg below the knee during a hunting accident, but events such as the Disabled Sports USA SummerFest in Long Beach provides people with disabilities to try outdoor challenges such as water skiing.

(2) Louisa Pena of Eagle Rock tries climbing on an artificial rock wall at the Disabled Sports USA SummerFest in Long Beach.

Bill Becher/Special to the Daily News

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MORE INFORMATION (see text)