Ed Chauner: WAS Instructor Extraordinaire

Ed Chauner is an all-star WAS instructor and a key member of the Snowbird community. Read on as Ed shares all about his involvement with WAS, Snowbird, and his other endeavors in the world of skiing and cycling!

I have been involved with the WAS cycling program for the last 6 years.  Since starting with WAS I have been with almost every kind of student with adaptive needs.  It is very rewarding for me to ride with all of these different students and figure out what makes them click and to help them achieve their goals.

Even before my involvement with WAS, cycling and skiing were a large part of my life.  I have raced road bikes since 1985 and mountain bikes since 1988, and I competed in two mountain bike XC world championships and one US Road Race National Championship.  From 1987-2011, I was the owner, operator, and promoter of the Intermountain Cup Mountain Bike Racing Series. I also started the first instructional Mountain Bike Clinics in the country out of Snowbird in 1990.  I also co-authored Mountain Bike Techniques, which is the first ever instructional book on mountain biking (at least that I know of!).  I started teaching skiing in 1978 and have been doing so at Snowbird since 1982, where 20 years later I also joined the Snowbird ski patrol/snow safety team. On top of my work with Snowbird, I started guiding for World Wide Trekking in 2011, and then added WAS to the mix in 2013. 

I love teaching people whether it is skiing or cycling.  WAS has provided me with a platform where I can literally change lives by teaching people how to ride.  I thrive on encouraging people to persevere and conquer challenges set in front of them.  To watch our participants smile and cheer and succeed brings me the ultimate job satisfaction and personal happiness.

One example of the incredible work I get to do with WAS that sticks out in my mind is cycling with a student, Nick, in Provo.  Nick showed up one day with his mom to see what WAS was all about.  Nick was basically non-verbal and could not walk unassisted and was mainly in a wheelchair.  We did get him onto a recumbent bike and somehow got his feet on the pedals.  That first day our main goal was to have him make one pedal stroke on his own.  He could make it about half-way through a stroke before his legs would reverse.  I finally walked next to him and as he was reaching the end of the pedal stroke I would push down on his leg not allowing it to reverse pedal.  He managed to get through the entire pedal stroke maybe four or five times and he rode maybe a few hundred feet.  He kept coming back each week.  The last time I rode with Nick was on the Murdock Bike Path and he did 3 miles under his own power!  His mom said that all he thinks about is coming back to ride each week.  

There are stories like this almost every week.  It is so much fun to have these experiences and I love being a part of the WAS family!!