My name is Adam Hall I am 22 years old, born 9 October 1987. I was born with a disability called Spina Bifida. I am able to walk whereas in most cases Spina Bifida leaves people in a wheelchair.

I discovered snow sports at the age of six. The mum of a Spina Bifida friend of mine talked me into giving skiing ago. I really loved sport and participated in many sports at school, including cricket, so I was keen to give skiing a go.

I loved it straight away! But I didn’t have the independence or skill to be very good at that age. After three years I was introduced to snowboarding by another friend. So at the grand old age of nine I found the freedom and independence I had been looking for. Most of all the speed!!

Since that time I have spent all my winters travelling backward and forward to Wanaka from my home, my parents’ dairy farm at Outram on the Taireri Plains outside Dunedin. It was not until 2004 – 05 winter I changed back to skiing after all those years of snowboarding. It was a tough decision but Disabled Snowboarding is a new sport currently not in the Paralympics programme so I stick with skiing in order to compete.

However I am a snowboarder at heart and along with my dreams and goals of being paralympian another big dream and goal for me is to see snowboarding become a paralympic sport.

Together I have had these ambitions for the last 13 years.

To be competitive in Disabled Ski Racing it’s important for me to train and race at home in NZ and in the Northern Hemisphere. I began to concentrate on that in 2002 when training in Canada on my snowboard, trying to promote Disabled Snowboarding also.

It was a proud day on 4th of June 2005 when I was named in the New Zealand Disabled Ski Team. And on 24th of September I was named on the New Zealand Paralympic Ski Team to compete in the 2006 Games at Torino, Italy.

It had been my ultimate dream, to represent New Zealand at the Paralympics. It was just an amazing thrill for a 10-year dream come true and to see all the hard work pay off. There’s more, plenty more, to follow.

From the Torino Paralympics I have been living back-to-back winters and racing on the World Cup circuit alongside the very best athletes and coaches in the world.

Already in these years of travelling, training and racing I have meet lots of interesting and dedicated people from all over the world.

I am a carded athlete with the New Zealand Academy of Sport, South Island and benefit from coaching, sport science, and sports medicine expertise through the Academy’s carded providers.

In mid-2008 I was privileged to be accepted into the Pinnacle programme, the NZ sports mentor organisation, backed by Hyundai NZ, which provides young athletes with a range of professional and personal skills to help them reach world-best status. I am the first snow sports athlete in Pinnacle, and the first with a disability.

Other Pinnacle athletes are sailor Andrew Murdoch, wake boarder Andrea Fountain, swimmer Moss Burmester, distance runner Kate McIlroy, triathlete Debbie Tanner and rower Storm Uru.

In 2008 and 2009 I was named NZ Snowsports Disabled Skier of the Year as well as the ultimate accolade, NZ Snowsports Athlete of the Year both in 2008 and 2009.