Life in a Chair
Mad Max Bumper Cars (Quad Rugby)
Quad rugby, also called wheelchair rugby, is a full-contact team sport for players with impairments in all four limbs, played in reinforced manual chairs.
You played quad rugby. What's actually brutal about that game, and what do people in the stands miss?
The people in the stands are there for the game. They get to watch the smash and bash. Guys flip over and land on their heads. Then somebody runs out and picks you back up.
They basically grab you by the arms, and since the chair's strapped to you, the whole chair comes up with you and gets back underneath you. Boom, you're back up and rolling.
What does it feel like out there?
Loud. A lot of loud smashes. You feel like you're f***ing Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in a chair. It's one of the coolest feelings. You're just f***ing driving full speed ahead, and everybody's playing bumper cars. Mad Max bumper cars.
And yeah, hands get smashed in between. Things get broken.
Any game stand out?
I'm actually on TV for one of them. Inked, the A&E tattoo reality show with the shop in Vegas. The team set up a game against their artists as a PR thing.
I was the new guy, and I knew they weren't going to put a new guy on camera. So I thought, this is my chance, let's go. Right before they cut to commercial, I rolled across the camera screaming. Made the episode.
And the tattoo artists?
We strapped them into chairs. They were actually kind of pussies, honestly. Whiny. "My hands, my hands, that's my money." But we strapped them in and kicked their ass.
