Pascale Honore has lived without the use of her legs for the last eighteen years, but that hasn’t stopped her from taking risks and trying new things.
After commenting that she wished she could join her sons surfing, a family friend offered an interesting solution: duct taping her to his back so she could ride the waves with him. And though others thought the idea was crazy, Pascale agreed–after, of course, the friend trained with a forty-five-pound backpack.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and seeing the sheer joy and exhilaration on her face, it’s clear it was well worth it!
*While I deeply admire her spirit and the ingenuity, I have to add: kids, don’t try this at home!
About Lori Deschene
Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She started the site after struggling with depression, bulimia, c-PTSD, and toxic shame so she could recycle her former pain into something useful and inspire others to do the same. You can find her books, including Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal and Tiny Buddha’s Worry Journal, here and learn more about her eCourse, Recreate Your Life Story, if you’re ready to transform your life and become the person you want to be.
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Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine.
As soon as I started to read this, I felt a moment of inspiration, courage, strength and happiness. Often people do hold back from exploring this world because of disabilities. They make it into a barrier. Of course I do understand that there are some who struggle to find hope and faith in themselves to do the things that make them happy and there are some who can’t. But this woman, she amazes me because there are times where I feel “lazy” not to do the things that I love, yet I have been blessed with a healthy body to walk for miles and miles (with breaks!) to really connect with this world. Even though the thought of surfing scares me ( I almost drowned when I was seven years old, it’s a childhood traumatic experience for me), I feel encouraged to do it! This I believe is a good post to suggest overcoming barriers created by fear. To the woman, congratulations to you! You have made many people proud, including me! Thank you for posting this, namaste.
You’re most welcome. I felt the same way when I first saw this video! I just love Pascale’s love for life and “can do” attitude. Even for those of us who have full mobility and/or health, it’s easy to focus on everything we think we can’t do. Especially as someone else with a fear of surfing (and everything related to the ocean–I can thank Jaws for a near paralyzing fear of sharks!) I’m inspired to get out of my comfort zone just a little more to create more moments of awe and excitement. 🙂
That’s strength and it’s believing in yourself, which is what a lot of people lack of. It’s just a matter of turning that energy into positivity rather than feeding the blocked energy and be negative. Oh, Jaws! What a great movie to traumatise people with a fear of shock. I used to love sharks and find them interesting but then I developed a fear of them and just the thought of them makes me cringe. I too am inspired, and this site is a great help! It removes you from that “I’m alone” label. It takes time to remove yourself from your comfort zone but you have to obviously do it slowly, and once you grow, you’ll feel such a relief.
I love this story, but giggled at the memory of discovering that what all those years I had thought was duck tape, was in actuality….duct tape.
Oops…thanks Beba!