Supacat prepares Mick Brennan's sit-ski
Above: Supacat’s Jamie Clarke hands over the refurbished rig to Mick Brennan at Heathrow as he leaves the UK for pre-event training.
Mick Brennan is a member of the Combined Services Disabled Ski Team (CSDST), which Supacat sponsors with technical and financial support to the athletes.
The designers of the `Jackal` off road patrol vehicle lent their expertise to design and custom build Mick Brennan’s sit-ski rig’s state of the art suspension system, which can be fine-tuned to all conditions. The Dunkeswell, Devon, based company has supported the CSDST Team over the last five years and focussed on helping the performance athletes’ chances of selection to represent their country.
Mick lost both legs 10 years ago in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq while serving with the Royal Signals. He got onto skis for the first time in 2008 as part of his rehabilitation, and it was announced last week that Mick has been successful in his quest to represent ParalympicsGB in Alpine Skiing at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.
Mick Brennan said: “I feel as though I am one of the family in Dunkeswell. For the last five years I have been climbing the world rankings in an attempt to get to the highest level in disability skiing. The road has been long and difficult and the advances I have made along the way can be directly attributed to a number of factors; social, financial, physical and equipment are the key areas. A special mention must be made to the team that have helped to design certain aspects of equipment that I use. There are many areas but the main equipment change that made the greatest difference is the suspension system, without this I would be nowhere.
"The guys have helped to develop a bespoke suspension system that is envied around the disability skiing circuit and has forced other teams into bettering their own equipment. I guess, indirectly, the help I have received has influenced future safety and performance areas across the disability skiing world.”
Jamie Clarke, Supacat’s head of communications & marketing said: “All of us at Supacat congratulate Mick on his selection. Our engineers have spent a lot of time with him, both on and off snow, and the relationship has become a personal one for many within the company, who have all met him when he has visited our facility for technical support. We’re so pleased that he’s qualified which, for all sorts of reasons, has been a huge challenge for Mick. We are exceedingly proud to be associated with such an inspirational guy and we will be following his progress closely.”
