23: Pilot & Veteran, to Paraplegic, to a Second Chance with Life // The Story of Jim Ryan

The last wave came, and I said, isabel, let's dive through this wave. Wave passes, we'll just go on the beach. And it's much safer to dive under the wave than try to let it hit you. So we dove, and sadly, the wave twisted me around and drove my head in the sand. When I hit, all I could think of is, boy, I'm going to have a headache tonight. So the wave passed, and now I'm floating below the surface, you know, I'm probably six inches, a foot or whatever, and I'll just swim to the surface and we'll be on our way. And nothing moved. I was instantly paralyzed. I would say, don't give up. Keep trying. Keep trying to find a way to make it work. I like to say you're going to get better, but that's a lie, because nobody knows what your situation and how you end up. Each spinal cord injury is different. There's no set rules onto what is right and wrong, and everybody will recover differently. There's not a religious book out there that says life is fair. It's not. Life is what it is. I tell people you need friends and family. You really do. And people. Well, I have lots of friends on Facebook. Well, no, you don't. They're not friends. They're just names on a list. The friends you have are the people around you and your people you work with and go to school. Well, I work with them all day. I don't want to hang out with them. Well, you don't have to hang out with all of them, but you have to know them. So.

Welcome to From Rock Bottom to Rockin It. I'm your host, Eric Gilbert Williams, and this is the podcast where we explore personal stories of people who hit absolute rock bottom, then got back up, wiped off the dust, kicked failure to the curb, and now they're rocking it like you'd never believe if you didn't hear it. Live right here, we cover subjects in business, sports, and life in general. If you like this podcast, please share it. These interviews are intended to inspire, to motivate, to give hope and vision. So please share this episode with someone who needs it. Use your Instagram Account, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn H. Hand signals. Trained pigeon sent smoke signals up in the air. Use Morse code, whatever you like. Just share the love and share this episode. Also, email me anytime. Podcastericilbertwilliams.com Send me questions you would like to have asked of future guests and I will incorporate them. Or just send me some suggestions on how to run a better podcast or Just say hello. I'd love to hear from you. That's podcastricilbertwilliams. I know you're gonna love today's interview, so let's get started. With us here today on from rock bottom to rockin it is Jim Ryan, a living example, in my opinion, of determination and perseverance. Jim was a Royal Canadian Air force pilot for 10 years and a commercial pilot for another 28, flying all sorts of jets, including the Boeing 747. And I love flying. I have some very specific questions for you when we get there. Now, while vacationing in Hawaii, Jim was swimming and struck by a rogue wave. And he's going to explain that in his own words. But just to give you a briefing, he was essentially unconscious in the water and paralyzed instantly across his whole body. Complete strangers came and were involved in rescuing him, bringing him out of the water. And his journey through recovery has been documented by a number of YouTube videos and through his website, myquadriplegic life. And that's life, not dot com. I do suggest you check out those YouTube videos, by the way. Some of them are pretty humorous and they're all very interesting. And Jim, welcome to From Rock bottom to rockin it. Your willpower and recovery to me are very inspiring and amazing. How are you today?

Well, it's my pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me. And considering everything that's happening around us with the COVID 19. I'm rolling through life. As I say, we're surviving, my wife, Isabelle and myself. It's a trying time, like for everyone, and in some ways a little bit more trying for us. But we're a team, Isabelle and I, and we're doing okay. Thanks.

Rolling through life, literally.

Yes.

I saw that title on a couple of your YouTube videos. I thought it was perfect.

Yes. Jim Ryan, Rolling through Life. That's my Facebook page as well. And I've been in the wheelchair for just over three years now. It took about eight months in rehab and hospital before I got in the chair. And I've done about 2,600 kilometers. So at 3 kilometers an hour, that's a lot of hours. That's all I'm going to say it is.

A lot of hours. I saw your paragliding video here. I decided to just browse a little bit and look like you had so much fun going up there. I mean, it must have been an extra big sale, I suppose, to carry the weight.

Is that right? Yes, they do have different sales. A tandem sale. It was the biggest. They had to be Honest. And we were right at the weight limit because I sit in a little buggy. It's like a big person stroller, as I call it. And my friend Greg, between the two of us, plus the buggy, we're at the maximum weight for the sail. So it's a glide, mostly slowly down, but an incredible feeling. The first time I felt like flying, I was flying since my accident. So really, I mean, I'm so honored and I feel so special to have friends like Greg who reach out and help me. I've been so fortunate that way. Yes.

I don't know Greg personally, but I feel like I know his name. And I did a bunch of hang glider. I have a hang glider actually out in Calgary. And I was trying to pin down and narrow down exactly where you launched from. It didn't look like Mount 7, but it looked like the Rockies. Was that right? Where was that?

Well, it's just outside of Harrison Hot Springs. Harrison Mills, to be exact. And it's called Mount Woodside. And the club there. Project. No, I got to try to remember the name of the club. And it'll come back to me as we go. But they have quite a large landing site in a field, and they'll roll you up in a pickup. And it was quite a bumpy road, so they had to load me in the backseat of a pickup, and that's another story. And got me in and got me up the hill. They had to drag me the last couple of hundred feet and hooked me up. And everybody was really excited. So it was really a lot of fun. I mean, once they figured out that this quadriplegic was going flying, everybody jumped in and helped. My wife Isabelle and my assistant Linda were going, are you sure you want to do this? And let's rock and let's roll. And away we went. Greg did a phenomenal job. Truly spectacular. That's all I'm going to say.

And I have to say there was a bit of a parallel. It reminded me of a little bit of those movies you probably saw. The Upside with Kevin Hart and Dess Interchables, where they go paragliding together. I'm assuming you've watched those movies. I kind of have to ask.

The. We've watched, yes. And the other. The American version I don't find as good. The French version was incredible. And Greg and I, before I was injured, we flew together a lot. And I said, well, you gotta take me flying. Oh, yeah, I'll take you. And, you know, the time never worked out. We just talked and then I was injured and I sort of said that, well, I guess flying's out of the question now. And he says, well, let me think about that. And suddenly he emails and says that we're all set to go. Are you ready? And I'm going. Do you really want to take your life in your hands and take me flying? He says, no, no, it's really safe. Don't worry about it. And away we went. So it was really a lot of fun. Really fortunate that to have that kind of experience. And yes, Les Untouchables. The Untouchables sort of pushed me to. I got to do this too. If he can do it, I can do it. Sort of.

Yeah, exactly. Part and parcel with the movie is to demonstrate that happiness can exist in all types of forms. And part of the motivation for me in this podcast is to share stories of these powerful recoveries and these powerful rock nut moments coming out of a rock bottom experience and hopefully to inspire other people. Just like the movie inspired you. And just like you're inspiring people all over. I think you're doing like three or four lectures a month at this point. Is that right? I mean, maybe not right now with.

All this, but yeah, exactly. Everything's canceled right now, sadly. But I was two, three and sometimes four, one a week, sometimes two. That's pretty tiring on me because by the time they get me up and into the car and drive wherever I have to psych up, as you know, you sort of get in the zone to do your talk and put a lot of effort into it. It's quite emotional, quite emotional. And we go through it and I get excellent feedback. I'm really, really happy that I've touched people's lives. A lot of it's medical people. I have quite a bit of experience in healthcare now. I couldn't spell hospital before my accident. I spent way too long in one. But yeah, that's been really rewarding for me and I hope it makes a difference in other people's lives.

Just wrapping up on this paragliding, I have this little short story for you and I got to ask. So my very first time doing a tandem hang gliding was off Mount 7 in B.C. and it was a friend of mine or an acquaintance of mine, Rob, and we had been training together a little bit. He was teaching me. So we're up there in the double harness, in the tandem harness, got the glider ready, we're about to run, and we're just talking. I mean, we were very open with each other and it turned out just before we launched. He said, oh, yeah, by the way, it's my first tandem.

Oh, great.

It's our first time.

We're both learning. Wonderful.

But to my understanding, Greg's reputation is really established. He's been doing this a long time. This wasn't his first run, I'm assuming.

No, it's incredible. He's done stuff. So we were flying one day and I said, what'd you do? He said, I went paragliding yesterday. Oh, where'd you go? Well, I took off in Whistler and flew about, I don't know, 50 or 60 kilometers to Squamish, BC. I said, really? Weren't you worried if he ran out of lift? He says, well, I just followed the highway. He said, and if I had a problem, I just land on the highway, stick out my thumb. Yeah, he got the beacon. He says, no, no, it was fine. I didn't have any, you know. And, yeah, he made it all the way to the Squamish airport, landed in the field, and they all come out and said, where'd you come from? From Whistler. He says, you're nuts. So. But drive me to the highway and I'll hit you right back. Yeah, just incredible stories. So, yeah, I love those guys. Very well established in the hang gliding world. Paragliding world. Yeah.

So in your own words, could you share with everyone listening here what happened? What's the story here?

So it was just over four years ago, March 30, 2016. Today's April 17, so we're recording this podcast. So just over four years ago, Isabelle and I were in Hawaii and Maui. People might know McKenna State park and big beach at the park there. And, you know, it is renowned for big waves, which is fine that we wouldn't go in the water if the waves were big and they weren't really big that day. And we were just there to enjoy the sun. And Isabelle said, let's go and cool off. So he went in the water, and we're just floating around, and we decided to come out of the water. You never turn your back on the ocean. So we're walking backwards and we're really close to the shore. 10 meters or 10 yards, and the last wave came, and I said, isabel, let's dive through this wave. Wave passes, we'll just go on the beach. And it's much safer to dive under the wave than try to let it hit you. So we dove, and sadly, the wave twisted me around and drove my head in the sand. When I hit, all I could think of is Boy, I'm going to have a headache tonight. So the wave passed, and now I'm floating below the surface. I'm probably six inches, a foot or whatever, and I'll just swim to the surface and we'll be on our way. And nothing moved. Yeah, I was instantly paralyzed. Now, as I say to people in aviation, as a pilot, when you have a problem on the airplane, you can't pull over and fix it. Call CAA or AAA and fix it. You have to work the problem and move forward through time and space, find a place to land so you never stop trying to solve the problem. So I'm under the water trying to solve the problem. I could see the surface right above me, and I trying to move, and nothing's moving. Then the air started coming out of my lungs. I could feel it. It came out the left side of my mouth. The bubbles. Yeah, I remember the feeling. Then the water started going in my lungs, and I remember that feeling. And all I could think of as, and this is sort of grim, is at least I'm not burning to death, because that's not something I want. Well, death isn't a good thing anyways. So anyways, I'm underwater. The air's coming out, the water's going in, trying to work the problem. The last thing I remember, Isabel grabbed me and scream, help. And I died. While America and Americans are great. And everyone on the beach jumped that day. And some helped Isabel get me out of the water, started CPR. Some called 911, and some ran and got the lifeguards. And I think the guys that ran and got the lifeguards probably saved my life because the lifeguards got to me before the 911 call came through. So that really saved a lot of time. We went back about a year later.

In terms of cpr, that's what you mean, right?

Yeah. Cpr.

Yeah. Getting air in your lungs. Okay.

Yeah, exactly. The lifeguards got to me, and all they saw was a dead body. And they thought, well, we'll go through this. The odds of survival are very, very low. And we went back and talked to them later, and apparently I was the first person in 12 years they revived on that. Oh, wow. I was the lucky one. So they're working away at me, and, you know, they think they're going through the motions, and suddenly they think, I think he's coming back. They said, say something. We think he's coming back. And Isabel, being the total romantic, says, you haven't fulfilled the contract. You still owe me 30 years of marriage. And they looked at her. What? And I came back. I was trying to breathe on my own, which I couldn't, but I was awake and they were talking to me. Apparently. I don't remember any of this. Yeah.

Blinking to answer is what you mean.

Yes. No, one or two, whatever. And they put me in the ambulance and hauled me to the hospital. And as far as I'm concerned, I woke up a day or two later. I don't have any concept of time or anything. And I have some vague memories of being in the hospital in Maui. It took four or five days to arrange the medevac flight to get me home, and then flew to Vancouver and then four months in Vancouver General, most of it on a ventilator. Everyone talks about being on the vent and I still have. I call it my bullet hole in my throat because went direct into my esophagus and not through my vent. And four to five months, almost 100% on the vent. And I was one of the lucky ones and got enough breathing that capacity back to get off the ventilator. Another four months hospital, five months in rehab at the GF Strong Rehabilitation center in Vancouver. And then they sent me home. And here I am, rolling through life. I made it. I'm the exception.

You are the exception. First one in 12 years. That's incredible. And you're recounting this story with logic and sequentially, just like you said, you're working through problems in the aircraft. Most people would, I mean, for me anyways, I'd probably be lost in the emotional of it. So it's amazing how you've been able to detach and work with this problem solving mentality. That's a gift and a skill combined.

Again, as I say, I'm too stupid to be afraid. I'm serious. An issue comes in front of me and I try to solve it. And some are unsolvable, which is fine. And the ones that are, we work through it. Sometimes it takes me years. And then I go, why did I think of that before? It all sort of makes sense. But, you know, again, I just slowly work through issues. What else do I do in my life? I try to make my life, my wife's life, our kids, our friends and family just slowly work through stuff and keep going at it one at a time.

A friend of mine, a friend in the family, has a daughter and her daughter doesn't have the use of her legs. And so there was every time they would come over to visit, and this is back when I was really young, so it was more like our parents visiting. But anyways, every time she would come over to visit, I would be exposed to and I would learn and see what it's like to be a part of the team spirit, part of the family of someone helping out with someone who has a disability or doesn't have mobility in their legs. I got to see some of the humor behind it, which is kind of funny. Some of the, obviously the stresses and challenges, the house, renovations, to make it all work together and all of the. There are a number of limitations and also silver linings as well. And when I was looking today at some statistics, it looks to me like in the United States and Canada combined, there's something around 15,000 injuries every year that end up in some sort of loss of limb to some degree. And I'm like, geez, that's a lot of injuries. A lot of people, over a million people right now have some sort of major loss of use of a limb. Yeah, there's people listening right now to this and watching this right now who might be a bit little, a little short on that hope or trying to figure out how to deal with or cope with what is the next step and how do I get from here to there and how do I get a sense of humor on life just like Jim has. You do so many talks now all across. And what do you say to people when they ask you these types of questions, like what do I do? Or how'd you get there? You know what I mean?

Statistically, one in five Canadians, and I'm sure it's Americans, have some sort of disability, whether it's physical like mine, hearing, speech, sight, you know, colorblind is a real problem. People don't talk about it. As I tell my jokes to the senior people, some people wear hearing aids, and some of you should be wearing hearing aids. And they start to chuckle. I can tell because they're the ones that are going, what did he say? And eyeglasses. I mean, canes and walkers. And it's not just old people, seniors, it's all kinds of people. I talk to people, you know, we have things that happen in our lives that we cannot change. And we don't have to like them, we don't have to accept them, we don't have to understand them, we don't have to forgive them. But we cannot go backwards. We must move forwards and find a way to not only endure but. But prevail. As they say. A lot of people have had hidden injuries that we don't see. Post traumatic stress Things that happen that are terrible and they don't want to talk about it. And I don't blame them. But you can't change the past. You can only move forward through time and space and work the problem. And it's tough, but we have no choice. So I just keep moving forward. And again, I'm too stupid to know that I'm injured and I shouldn't be doing things. So I just keep working the problem, moving through time and space, try to do it with a bit of a smile and jokes about my injury. It's a lot of fun in a lot of ways, especially young people. I did a talk to 80 plus grade five students at one of the local schools. I thought it was going to be a class of 24, but suddenly it was four classes. A bit fun, but I started off and trying to make it. I wasn't talking to them, I was talking with them. So how are you guys doing? Who's in what class? Okay, now I want you to shout out what your favorite thing of school is. And it cannot be lunch, recess, leaving school, or gym. Oh, man, I don't like anything as you do. And so we had a great conversation. And then they want to ask questions. They're not afraid, right? Even though I'm in a wheelchair. And of course, as a child, all you want to know is how do you go to the bathroom? That's first and foremost in their mind. So I explained gently my issues with peeing and pooping. And I think they understand and I think they appreciate it, that that's part of life. And then you want to know how my chair works with my head and my phone. Know the boys love the technology, so it's. It's a lot of fun. And then they're not afraid of me, right? They're not afraid of the next person in the wheelchair, which I think is a real step. Before I was injured, and I tell this because it's true, when I saw someone in a wheelchair, you looked away because you didn't want to be accused of staring, right? Well, now I'm the guy in the wheelchair and I want to look at me and say hello, Ask me how I'm doing. Before I was injured, Isabelle and I would go for a walk and I'd say hello to everybody. And Isabelle said, do you know them? So, no, I'm just being polite, saying, hi, how are you? Well, now I'm in a wheelchair and I say, hi, how are you? And they almost fall over. What, he talks? No, talk to me. And once they get going. We have really good conversations, and I'm pretty open about, you know, people want to know about my injury and what happened and how it happened, that, you know, how I get through and why am I out here? Why am I locked up in my room? Look, I live just like you. I'm just in a chair. I always say one of my biggest difficulties is realizing and accepting I'm a quadriplegic, because even though I'm in a wheelchair, why shouldn't I have the same rights and enjoyments of everybody else? We love going to shows, Canadians. We go to hockey games all the time. You know, movies. And seating in movie theaters for wheelchair sucks, but that's life. And we go to all kinds of stuff, so it's great. I refuse to give up. And people see me, and once they start talking to me, they realize I'm just a guy in a chair and everybody else are just people in wheelchairs. You know, say hello, don't be afraid. Don't think you're staring at us. Think you're treating us like everybody else. Because we are like everybody else. We just have a visible disability as opposed to invisible disabilities. So, yeah, just. We're all just real people. We just live in wheelchairs, la. Whatever, roll through life. So, you know, even talking to people in wheelchairs, a lot of them were afraid and intimidated to go out, which I guess I sort of understand. But, I mean, I always felt I was a little bit off the wall and strange. Anyways, so now I'm in a wheelchair and I'm off the wall and strange. So people know a little bit earlier that I'm a little bit strange. But I show up everywhere and it's a lot of fun. And, you know, Isabelle is extremely supportive. She thinks we should go to. So I've been very, very lucky. And like I said, I'm too stupid to know different. So I just keep going. I hope I'm not rambling along too much.

No, no, it's great. I mean, I'm thinking in my mind about how humans are. This is a bit of my own theory, but I feel like us humans, we have this. What's the word for it, I guess, this issue dealing with differences. And maybe this is a social media thing where on Facebook we only post our best, best, happiest photos. And this is how I am all the time. We don't talk about the things that aren't happy or that are different. And if we talk about the subject of racism, it's just about being different or any minority group that is not being treated fairly. We're talking about differences and there's something about humans here where we see differences as bad or something to be avoided. It's worth thinking about why that is from a philosophical point perspective, and I'm going to give that some thought. A couple of years ago, I had a couple injuries. A disc in my back had slipped out and so walking was very difficult or not even possible. And then I also, at the time, I didn't know what was wrong, but there was something wrong with my right foot. I went on a long, long hike, like 36 kilometers, and I went way beyond my abilities in terms of speed and the altitude. So I was in crutches. I'm in these crutches going through Canadian winter and you can tell me all about Canadian winter and in the chair. But I'm struggling in my mind. I was down on life. I was like, oh, I'm in these crutches. I don't know what's wrong with my foot. My back's out, I'm not walking properly.

Da, da, da, da.

And then I'm in the car and I'm driving and I'm at a red light and guess what? Well, in front of me crosses this lady in crutches and she's not inside of a car, she's in crutches on the ice crossing the street and she has no leg. I'm complaining about my foot that's hurting and she doesn't even have one right. It put perspective to me on what's worth focusing on. And as soon as we come back from this short little break, Jim, I want to ask you, who was your inspiration, if there was one? And who did you look to to have that bright future in your mind, to see that what is achievable and what's possible and to help you get through that. That when we come back from the short little break. Hey everyone. Eric Here on From Rock Bottom to Rockin it. On today's episode, I decided to support an organization called called ourplacesociety.com this is a place out in the Greater Victoria area, B.C. canada and it's a community service provider for the poor, disadvantaged and homeless in greater Victoria area. From its Pandora Avenue location, it runs a variety of programs that are transformative in helping people, specifically in doing meal deliveries, housing, health and wellness, education and practical care. They actually serve 1200 nutritious meals and 1000 snacks every single day. It's not free to do that. If you can check out the website and donate now that'd be amazing. If you know anyone in the greater Victoria area that might need some help, I encourage you to check out the website. That's ourplacesociety.com. check out the website. It's easy to navigate and there's lots of really good resources. So thanks again. And now back to the interview. Okay, we're back now. Jim, thank you so much for joining us. Tell me, who was your inspiration when you were in the hospital or even when you were through your recovery? What were you looking up to and seeing?

That's a really good question, and I really should think about that a bit more. But I'll say two things. One of my inspirations, I think, was my mother. Believe it or not, she passed away about six years ago. So before I was injured, we had six kids. I have five brothers and sisters, so there's six kids. And my father went blind with glaucoma. So she had to run the family and work. She was a nurse for. I'll say she worked with Florence Nightingale, but Flo got all the credit. She had been a nurse for years, and then she was teaching nursing at one of the universities in Toronto. So she would work all day and come home and run the family at night. Had to make the money, you know, and six kids, not much money floating around. And, you know, how does she do it? She says, well, I wake up in the morning and I stand up and I put one foot in front of the other and I get through the day. And at the end of the day, I go to bed. The next morning I do it again and I keep doing it until life gets better. So it sounds trite, but now I'm in a wheelchair. And each revolution I go through, every day I get up and they put me in the chair and I roll one revolution at a time and I get through life and I go to bed. The next day I start again and eventually it will get better. And so even though I was injured, I couldn't stop. You have to keep moving. We have four children and we do our utmost to support them and make them move forward through life. So, anyways, that's been a big part of how I am and what I am. And when I was in the hospital, one thing happened that really changed my life in the wheelchair. And it's a bit of a funny story. The husband of one of the women Isabel worked with knew my story quite, you know, obviously, and was really quite moved and wanted to help. So he contacted the Rick Hanson foundation, now for the people in America. Rick Hanson lives in a wheelchair. He's a paraplegic. He lost the use of his legs when he was 16 years old. He fell out of the back of a pickup truck. He was sitting on the edge of the box and fell out, broke his back. And part of his goal was he decided to roll his wheelchair around the world. Now, that's quite an accomplishment, going to Asia, Africa, all this. But he did it. And in Canada, he's very famous. So my friend Steve contacted the Rick Hansen foundation, asked if Rick could come and visit me. Well, lo and behold, a month later, Isabel's running into the hospital room, says, you got to get up and get cleaned up. Rick Hansen's coming to visit. I go, what? Yeah, he's really coming. So we got me all cleaned up, and I looked good, and Rick Hansen rolled into the room, and I was on the vent, the ventilator still. But they would put in a speaking valve so I could speak, so I would have air going over my vocal cords so I could speak. So Rick rolls in, and we're having this conversation, and I say to Rick, I'm living in a wheelchair, and I need something to do. You have any suggestions? He says, well, why don't you be an ambassador for the Rick Hanson Foundation? Well, what's that? Will you go and speak to schools and clubs and tell your story and tell about accessibility for all? So. Well, that sounds good. Why don't you sign me up? So I get out of the hospital on January 13th of 2017, and a friend of mine, another friend, she runs a very successful business, fitness business here and Chilliwack called Ascend Fitness, and she had her 10th anniversary gala, and she said, would you like to speak up my gala? And I said, I'd be honored to. I thought I'd be one of, like, four or five. Says, no, no, you're the only speaker. You got to speak for 15 or 20 minutes. And I'm going, holy smokes. I'm a man in a wheelchair here. So I taped the 10 words to my phone, and off I went. And from that day forward, between Rick Hanson and the foundation, doing talks to various service groups and church groups and schools and whoever wants to hear my story. I do a lot of talking at the universities to students going into the health professions, nursing therapists, caregivers, kinesiologists. So, yeah, they like to hear my story and talk about my experiences and some of the patients around me and some of the staff around me, good and bad, I just lay it on the line. Here's what I saw and here's what you're probably going to get. It's really well received because I don't think the schools talk about the patients, the clients, as much as perhaps they should talk about technique and you know, how to do all this. But what are you going to face when you get out there? I mean, people going blind. So anyways, a long story short. Meeting Rick really changed my life. And Rick and I become friends and we do communicate back and forth. So that's really fun. We've been fishing together, sturgeon fishing, and we visit once or twice a year, so it's really good here. He's obviously very busy, so that he fits me in is really fun.

And speaking of your story and experiences, out of curiosity, going backwards, you were with the Air Force for a bit and what were you flying back then and what was that like?

I always wanted to fly since I was four.

Me too, by the way. So I definitely share that with you and yeah, and anyone that had heard my story before, like I had this moment where I was living in a drug house, I'd ran away from home and my lawyer at the time was yelling and he was saying that I would never fly and I'd never be a pilot. And I proved him wrong because flying was such a big part of my passion and inspiration at the time. So I could go on forever. But I just want to hear from your words, what was that like? And I just totally interrupted you. My apologies.

No, no, I've always wanted to fly as long as I can remember. My mother always says the story. We were living in Ottawa. We went to the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa. And she says, I was so mesmerized I got lost at age 4. I'd wandered off and they found me crying in the corner because I couldn't find anybody. That's all I wanted to do. So obviously six kids and not much money. I joined the Air Force and I did my education at Royal Military College, which is the equivalent of something like West Point or USAFA Annapolis. And then I flew in the military for six years. So I flew the Aurora aircraft. The American equivalent is a P3 Orion. And we did anti submarine patrols and northern patrols along the borders. That was back in the 80s, during the era of Ronald Reagan and the evil empire of Russia. So we were really quite busy. There was a lot of submarines, nuclear submarines, going back and forth with all their missiles. So we would track them and keep the world safe. So really busy. And then after a few years of that, I went into training, training new pilots in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. And I did that for a few years. That was very rewarding to bring young pilots through and teach them to fly. But the military wasn't for me. So I left after 10 years and I was in the airlines for 28 years. And when I was injured, I was a captain at WestJet Airlines, which is the second largest airline here in Canada. And yeah, I was there, well, 15 years before I was injured. I'm technically still on the employment record, but obviously I'll never go back. So, yeah, it's all I wanted to do and it's all I've really done. And I've flown everything from like, you know, the Cessna 152 all the way to the Boeing 747. So two passengers to 483 passengers. And around the world I've been very, very fortunate. I've probably been to 50 countries and yeah, very, very fortunate. Really a lot of fun and very rewarding career.

I'm from Kitchener, Ontario originally and there's a airport in Breslaw, the Kitchener Waterloo airport is in Breslau. And I was training on the Cessnas and then also the Katanas, which were beautiful because the wings are below pilot so you get to blow the cockpit so you get that better view. And my favorite experience though was out in Las Vegas area where my friend and I jumped into these aircraft with the pilot behind us and we had the controls and they were the extra 330 LC stunt crafts. And they're equipped with a laser and a targeting system on each craft. So we would chase each other, right? And I'd be chasing a 7G barrel roll and everything's going black. And then I shoot them and I hit them with the laser and smoke pops out the back. And it was so much fun to me. That's what I think about when I think about aircraft and dog fighting. But for you it was serious. Obviously it's not all fun and games at all. When you're up there, what would you say was your favorite memory or your favorite moment when you were doing that kind of flying is something like stick out in your mind.

Well, flying a large aircraft, we're not doing aerobatics and shooting at each other. It's a lot of long range cruising out to the areas where the submarines would be. But one night we were out and there was three Soviet, well, Russia now, Soviet submarines. We got all three one night. So that was amazing. That really sticks out. So how was your evening? We found three subs. So we're Pretty happy with ourselves. That was pretty cool. But flying that in Moose Jaw, we had a fully aerobatic airplane. It's the same airplane the Canadian Snowbirds, the demonstration team fly so a 7G airplane. And we would take two up and my friend Jim, his name was Jim as well, we would chase each other through the skies. You know, these are pretty fast jets, 400 knots and around clouds and, you know, 4, 5, 6 G for extended period. You come out of the airplane drenched in sweat because you're straining so hard trying to keep, like you said, keep your breathing and your eyes forward so you could see. Because he would gray out. He didn't want to block out. And we'd come back, we were laughing away. Those were really good memories. And then doing some trips, just two of us across the country and into the U.S. those are really rewarding. We had some pretty fun, pretty crazy times.

Coincidentally, my friend that I went up through the dog fighting in these stunt crafts. His name was Jim as well. He actually won. He shot me more than I shot him. So he technically won. But in order to win, he had to put himself through the extreme conditions you're talking about here. And he ended up puked all over his plane, everywhere. And we had to land about 20 minutes early because you just can't stay up there anymore. So anyways, I love that and I love that you're able to get up there with the paragliding as well and keep that dream alive. We're going to take another short break and once we come back, I have some questions for you. While I want to ask you. If you were to go backwards in time and talk to yourself, say somewhere in the first couple months after the accident here, what kind of advice would you give yourself and to other people who are maybe right in the middle of this type of a traumatic experience that when we come back from this short little break, it's that time again on From a rock bottom to Rockin it for me to talk about a charitable organization that I really want to support. And obviously it's gonna be connected with today's guest, Jim Ryan. And also remember to check out his website. You can check out his Facebook group Rolling through life. Just go on Facebook and type in his name or do a Google search for Jim Ryan Rolling through life. You can also find a link to his Facebook group and his website on the show notes to this episode. So if you're on my website listening to this episode, just scroll to the bottom, you'll see the show notes and you'll see A direct link so you can reach out to Ryan, you can learn more about his story. Check him out on YouTube as well. There's a ton of really cool and fun, uplifting YouTube videos that Jim's doing and that he's continuing to do moving forward. Now, Jim mentions in the interview a charitable organization that's organized by a guy named Rick Hanson. Rick Hanson is another absolutely incredible human who's done amazing things both in life and for others. There's a foundation called the Rick Hansen foundation, specifically helping quadriplegics with coping and living as real humans and living as normal a life as can be. And Jim asked me to mention this to you guys. I went to the Rick Hansen foundation website right now and I clicked that little yellow Donate now button on the top right corner of the screen and I did a little donation because I believe in leading by example. And I wanted to encourage you guys to consider making a little donation of your own. Remember, this is a podcast and a channel that's philanthropically motivated. I pay for this because I want to. I think this is great to help other people and to help you and people that you know, come out of your rock bottom moments to rock it as well. Remember also to share this episode with anyone that needs to hear it. It means a lot to me, it means a lot to the guests, but most importantly, it means the world to the person that you shared it with. So thank you for joining in. Share the episode. Check out the Rick Hansen foundation and the show notes to learn more about Jim. Now back to the interview. Okay, Jim, we are back. Thank you again for joining us. I really appreciate you sharing your story and having the courage to share your story. You might have noticed, by the way, I'm in a garage. And that's because we're recording during the middle of the COVID lockdown and in the house, because everyone's home now. It's just too loud. And I have a nice quality microphone. It literally picks up everything. And I can't get to my office. It's locked out. I don't feel like hiding in my car to get some silence. So I could have got a green screen. But what's the point? This whole show is about being raw and honest and vulnerable and just authentic. And so, hey, we're in the garage. Tell me though, if you were to go backwards in time and talk to yourself when this accident just occurred, let's say somewhere in the first three months, what kind of advice would you give to your past self now that you have triumphed and found Your way through this.

You ask tough questions.

You're welcome. I think about these tough questions. I think, what tough question can I give to Jim today? But really, I'm just asking for everyone.

Who'S listening, I would say, don't give up. Keep trying. Keep trying to find a way to make it work. I like to say you're going to get better, but that's a lie because nobody knows what your situation and how you end up. Each spinal cord injury is different. There's no set rules what is right and wrong, and everybody will recover differently. I'm the extreme. I'm full broken. Well, it's not broken. It's another story. But my spinal cord only works to the C4 vertebrae. You have 30 vertebrae in your back, and I lost 26 of them. So I can wiggle my shoulders, move my head, and my mind works and my. Sadly, as my wife says, my mouth works. But what I tell myself, don't give up. Keep trying. You will make this work to the best of your ability. You have to keep moving forward. I know it hurts. It's overwhelming if you think about it too much, but move forward. Don't try to understand what happened or why or why me or what am I going to do? Move forward. You can't go back. You can only go forward. There's always another problem, and you just keep working to the next problem. Don't give up. Keep trying. I don't know if that's the right answer, but life sucks and then you die. Well, I've died and, you know, life doesn't really suck. After you die, you go, hey, I've got bonus time here. You know, it's like hitting the bonus button.

I love that perspective.

That's.

I'm going to remember that probably for the rest of my life. That was very well said.

Yeah, life sucks, then you die. Well, I've tried that. So I'm going to go back to life. And yeah, life is difficult. Don't kid yourself. And it isn't fair. You know, there's not a religious book out there that says life is fair. It's not. Life is what it is. You do what you can to move forward and don't give up.

I have this theory about choice versus circumstance, and I debate about this in a friendly way with a number of my friends. And the friendly argument is usually like this. Usually someone says circumstances too, is stronger than choice. And it doesn't matter how powerful a person's choice is, what's happening around them, or what happened to them in the Past or in the present. That's the most important factor. That's the biggest, most impactful factor. And for me, I always argue on the other side, again in a friendly way, that choice is actually stronger than circumstance. And choice can't overpower some circumstantial experiences. And it can't change the past, but it creates the future. And that's, to me, what's more important. What do you think on that subject?

I do agree. I think by making choices, you change your circumstance and you might not always get to the right circumstance, but then you make another choice and you change your circumstance. I really think, no, you can't control everything in your life. I mean, look at me. I can't control this. But I have to make the choice, as you would say, to move forward. I could choose to sit in the corner and wait to die. Painful. I couldn't do that. I would have given up years ago, but I made the choice. And every day we make the choice to move forward, Work the problem, roll through life and get off to the next thing. I mean, life isn't fair. What do I say? I'm a prime example. Life isn't fair.

And here you are with a smile on your face, and I saw you playing video games. It was Star wars game you were playing because you have a special mouse adapter for your computer that connects to your lips, right?

Yeah.

And I think if you suck in, it's a click. And if you blow out, it's another click. Is that how that works?

Yeah, it's right in front of me. If I roll down? No, I don't think you can see it. I've raised my chair a bit so I could face the camera so it's below me, but it's right in front of me. It actually has four straws, and I could blow one soft or hard or sip soft and hard. So each straw has four choices. And then I could do combinations of straws. Some people can do three straws. I can't do that. And then it moves around like a joystick. And I have a button. So, yeah, I'm pretty good. I should do a new video. I'm pretty good at slashing and killing storm troopers and monsters, so it's a lot of fun. I mean, I never played video games before. I was always busy outside doing something else. Now I don't really have a choice. So I play video games. I play with my sons. It's a lot of fun. I do car racing and I have a flight simulator. I fly airplanes. Just because I enjoy it. It's funny. I like flying the smaller airplanes better than the bigger airplanes. The flight sim and then pass the time. What I've really found with this COVID 19 crisis is that a lot of people are home. And I play a lot of online chess in backgammon and cribbage and bridge. I was in a bridge club before I was injured, and now we play online. It's great. There's five or six of us every week, and one or two people observe and then we switch out every four hands. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's very social. And I mean, it's not F2F face to face, but we do our best. So that's been a lot of fun and a lot more FaceTime and Skype and what messenger and talking to people around the world. So for me, that's really good. And I tell people, you need friends and family. You really do. And people. Well, I have lots of friends on Facebook. Well, no, you don't. They're not friends. They're just names on a list. The friends you have are the people around you and your people you work with and go to school. Well, I work with them all day. I don't want to hang out with them. Well, you don't have to hang out with all of them, but, you know, you have to know them. So again, Isabel and I were very, I guess, outgoing, but we knew all our neighbors personally, which in this day and age, people don't. But, you know, we made the effort. So we just had new neighbors move in a few houses down just during the crises here. The husband was sitting on the front step and I rolled up, said, hello, my name's Jim and we live. This house is down. This is Isabelle, and welcome to the neighborhood. You know, yesterday they. I was out front and they walked over with his wife and we had a really good chat. Now again, we're making the effort. I make the effort to know everybody. And I still have my friends from grade three. And do you have your friends from grade three? Yeah. Well, don't you. Don't you remember who they are? Yeah. Well, give them a call. They'd love to hear from you. So when I was injured, because of all my friends and family, we've had tremendous support. They helped renovate my house and helped me get my van and my wheelchair. I have a pretty skookum wheelchair, as I say. That's why I can do 3,000 kilometers and tremendous support. You know, we can't go to their houses because they're not wheelchair accessible. So they come to our house and they'll bring dinner. We'll all sit together and have a great time. I tell young people especially, get off your phone. Go somewhere, you know, go for coffee, go for a walk, go for a hike, you know, have dinner together and meet F2F face to face. Because these people you might need, well, you will need in your life because it's awfully lonely looking at a screen. Turn them off, go out and do things. There's so much to do. There's a club for everybody, for everything. You know, just go online and find a club and go and meet people. So I always wanted to have a garden railway, a big train in my backyard. The kids had finally grown up. We got rid of the trampoline and the swings and all that, and we started to build a garden to put my railway in. Then this happened. Well, we hired a landscape. My friends come and help me run my railway. So, you know, I have my garden railway and there's a club for it. There's a club for garden railway. There's a club for everything. Go and meet people. Try a new sport, try a new game. Learn to play something other than that crazy Texas hold'. Em. Hoka. I don't get that at all. But there's so much to do. Go out and be with people. Service clubs were really big in the 60s, 70s, and probably the 80s. You know, Rotary and Kiwanis and Lions Club. Well, that's really goofy. Well, no, it's not. Go and meet people. Get to know people. Have a responsibility that you have to get together Thursday nights and work on a project, not watch whatever's on tv. Put the Netflix away.

I think it's great advice. It's powerful, it's simple and it's very impactful. And on that note of getting out and meeting people, we're going to wrap up here and I want to make sure people know how to find you if they want to reach out and contact you. Is there a place that you would direct them? LinkedIn profile or website?

So, as you mentioned at the beginning, my website is myquadriplegic life. So one word. Myquadriplegic and then.life and not.com. and my email is on there. Infoyquadriplegic life. And feel free to contact me. Another quick funny story. I don't know how much time we have.

Oh, how about it? Yeah, let's hear it.

Well, I was injured in Hawaii and Isabel was getting phone calls left and right and she was tired of telling the same story over and over. So our son Daniel put up a little web page, a Facebook page, saying, isabelle and I will post on this Facebook so you can keep up what's happening.

Right. I saw that.

Yeah. Well, we thought we'd get 50, all the family and friends, maybe 100 people while we're 3,300 and counting people. So Jim Ryan, rolling through life. That's all one word. That's my Facebook page and you can contact me through there. I post quite regularly. Try it once a week. I haven't done anything this week because it's sort of been a quiet week. But this might get mentioned. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Yeah. And you know, people get through me. And I'm very honest. It's not a brag book. I talk about depression because I do struggle with it. I mean, today I look good, but we've had our days. We're just overwhelmed by it all, the depression. The black dog comes to visit. As we say, we really struggle. I'm very honest about it. I don't have anything to hide. You get the good and the bad.

All of it, the whole package. There's no need to cut it out. I mean, you're an amazing person and you have an amazing story and anyone listening, remember to check out his website and I'm going to put some links on the show notes to this episode so you can find his YouTube channel, his website, his Facebook group. So just check out my website and click on the link. Go directly to his. Or just if you do remember it and you have that kind of memory. I know I don't. Then just go visit his Facebook group or the website directly and reach out. Connect with people. Just like Jim was saying, reach out and talk to people. On that note, we're going to wrap up here. Jim, do you have any last words that you wanted to say to anyone listening before we wrap up today's episode?

Work the problem. Keep moving forward. Don't stop trying.

One, two, three. Hope you guys have a rocking it day. Thanks for joining. Remember to subscribe to this share this episode with people who need to hear it. That's how we grow. That's how the message gets out there and that's how people learn to find their voice and share their problems so we can work through them and heal you guys. Will talk to you later. Bye for now. And that's it, my friends, for this episode. We will see you next time. Please send me an email, say hello, give me some feedback. Let me know what you think. Give me some tips and suggestions. I'd love to hear from you. Also, please share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, doesn't matter. Just get it out there. I really appreciate it. And we'll see you next time on From Rock Box Bottom to Rocking it. Have a rocking it.