Blind Sports Nova Scotia helps people with vision loss go for a ride

Blind Sports Nova Scotia is looking to help people with vision loss experience the joy of cycling — on a bicycle built for two.

The organization's tandem bike club is holding an orientation session later this month to promote the activity, both for those with vision loss and for community members who want to help guide them.

"We just want to put your butt on our bikes and help you get outside and get active," said Jennie Bovard, who co-ordinates the tandem bike club.

Bovard told CBC's Information Morning that the front seat of the bike is for sighted people. The back seat is for those with vision loss.

"So for the folks on the back — the stokers — their job is to really communicate well with the pilot and take instructions well from them," she said. 

"The pilot is someone who is a confident, competent, experienced cyclist and their duties are to brake and shift and let the stoker know what's going on."

Bovard, who has vision loss, said the club has been around for six or seven years and has a roster of up to 15 volunteers each season.

The group attracts people with vision loss from all kinds of different experience levels, including those who have never been on a bike.

"They've been blind their whole lives and they never really considered it until we said, 'Hey, why don't you come give it a try and see what it's like,'" said Bovard. 

"And then we get them totally hooked and then sometimes they go and buy their own bike, which is just amazing." 

'There's a huge level of trust'

Bovard's husband, Yves Wermelinger, the group's bike technician, said the most important part is making sure the two people are pedaling in unison.

"Having a second person on a bicycle, you need to have a little bit of an equilibrium co-operation, otherwise it can get tough," he said.

"There's a huge level of trust that needs to be built between the two of you. And if not trust, at least communication."

By getting community members involved, Bovard said Blind Sports Nova Scotia also aims to raise awareness for the different levels of vision loss.

"Vision loss comes in a huge spectrum. Even people with the same type of vision loss may not see the same thing," she said. 

"And there is a conception still that blindness means just darkness, and that's not normally the case."

The tandem bike club orientation will take place on June 22 between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. at the Alta Gymnastics parking lot on Barnstead Lane.

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