ECONOMICS AND TRADE | Achieving growth through open markets
07 May 2008
Californian Helps People with Disabilities Enjoy Outdoor Sports
Bi-ski invention lifts spirits, outlook on life
Washington -- Specialized snow-ski equipment, aimed at helping quadriplegics and others with severe disabilities enjoy outdoor activities, provides quality-of-life benefits far beyond surmounting challenging ski slopes.
Mike Miltner, who invented the bi-ski (a device with two skis) in the mid-1980s, told America.gov that his adaptation allows those with multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and spina bifida to ski down a mountain as quickly as an able-bodied skier, and sometimes even more quickly.
Skiing helps the physically disabled, who might be afraid to take up the sport, realize “there’s a whole lot more out there” that they can do, Miltner said. He derives personal, psychic rewards from knowing his invention sometimes helps people overcome emotional scars as well as a physical disability. He said he sees a “light turn on [in] little kids with Down syndrome when they start making moves to ski independently on a hill.”
At the time of his 1980s invention, Miltner had been a ski instructor for the able-bodied and was feeling “burned out” after teaching for more than a decade. Adapting skiing for the physically disabled rejuvenated his interest.
After buying snowboard models that had not sold well -- the boards had a platform above skis -- from a bankrupt German company, Miltner started Ski-Star Technologies. The company modified the snowboards and began selling bi-skis. Miltner closed the business a few years ago to start another outdoor-related firm -- Tahoe Whitewater Tours, which offers rafting and kayaking adventures in a mountainous region of California.
Miltner remains committed to helping the physically disabled get their lives on track through sports. For example, he puts a seating system on boats that allows him to take quadriplegics and paraplegics on rafting trips.
During winters, Miltner still teaches people with disabilities to ski. “It’s unbelievable when you see a grown man start crying because he never thought he’d be able to go skiing on a hill with his family because he’s a quadriplegic,” Miltner said. Recently, he has taught wounded soldiers from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan to ski through Disabled Sports USA, a nonprofit group established by Vietnam veterans.
THE FINANCIAL REWARDS OF ADAPTIVE SKIING
Miltner conceived the bi-ski not to sell or manufacture the equipment for profit, but because he was seeing too many people suffer injuries in downhill skiing. He was bothered that some novices did not want to return to the slopes if they found their first experience daunting.
No student he taught using the bi-ski had an unsuccessful lesson with the equipment, Miltner said. “Everybody who got in that ski had a much better experience” than with other skis.
Miltner might have sought a patent for his invention, but chose not to. The U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) instructs the Congress to “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to ... inventors the exclusive right to their ... discoveries.”
According to a Washington patent attorney, an inventor can get a patent on a modification to a device when the U.S. Patent Office finds that the modification is not “obvious” and that it truly makes something useful in a new way. Miltner could have patented the invention -- or sought a trademark to protect the brand name -- if he wanted to exclude potential competitors from benefiting from his idea.
But Miltner doesn’t worry about competitors. “I figured if someone came up with something better that cost less [than the bi-ski], more power to them,” he said.
In fact, two other companies -- Enabling Technologies in Denver and Mountain Man in Bozeman, Montana -- now make similar skis. Enabling Technologies looked into a patent a decade ago, but nothing came of it. To complete the patent process, an inventor can expect to pay roughly $20,000 in government fees and legal bills. Some entrepreneurs do not have the money available or are too busy with day-to-day business to pursue a patent.
The high cost of manufacturing bi-skis -- due to time involved and specialized equipment needed -- keeps serious competition at bay. The price to consumers for the bi-ski is around $3,500, according to Miltner. “I wish that bi-skis cost less,” he said. He stopped making them when he ran out of the German-made snowboards to retrofit.
HOW IT WORKS
Bi-skiing involves the skier sitting in a device attached to an undercarriage, which is mounted on two uniquely designed skis. The bi-ski includes a foot-tray platform to protect a skier’s lower legs and feet and a tether to help the skier control direction and speed. It has an emergency evacuation system that allows the skier to be removed from the device in case of a chairlift malfunction.
Miltner is exploring building a bi-ski “self-loader” to allow the physically disabled to get on and off a chairlift without help from others. He may follow his own advice to young entrepreneurs: “If you got an idea you like, don’t let people say you can’t do it. I say go with your dream, full steam ahead.”
The Disabled Sports USA Web site offers information about activities for the physically disabled.
