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Welcome to Disability Talks,

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a podcast produced by Abilities in

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Motion. I'm your host Ed Granger

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. Join us to encounter unique perspectives

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on accessibility and independence, and

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to hear stories from everyday people living

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their most independent everyday lives where

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essential conversations find their place.

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Let's talk.

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When I first encountered today's guest, he

0:26

was about to launch himself down a mountain in the

0:28

metal finals of the snowboard cross event

0:30

at the 2022 Paralympic Games in Beijing

0:32

. And this was in March. So

0:34

the announcer introduces Mike from St . Cloud, Minnesota,

0:37

the defending champion, and the graphic tells

0:39

us that Mike is 40 years old and that the three

0:41

men he will be racing against for the Olympic medal are

0:43

33, 26, and 24

0:46

years old. So the, the

0:48

race starts and halfway down the course, Mike's in fourth

0:50

place, and then all of a sudden he makes an

0:52

incredible inside move on one turn that

0:55

sends him forward into second place, which is where

0:57

he finishes behind the favorite Tyler

1:00

Turner of Canada, who the commentator

1:02

tells us partway down the course is racing

1:04

on prosthetic feet that Mike has designed.

1:07

That's when I discovered that Mike Schultz is

1:09

the kind of person who has always found a way to win,

1:11

even while finishing second. So

1:14

speaking as a genuine fan, it is my honor

1:16

to welcome Mike Schultz to the podcast. Mike,

1:18

welcome.

1:19

Hey, how, how are we all doing?

1:21

So, Mike, can you just take us back, you

1:23

know, that moment at the top of the hill when you're about

1:25

to sort of launch yourself, you're getting ready, you slap

1:28

yourself in the head, you know, to sort of wake up there.

1:30

And , uh, you know, in many ways this was the,

1:32

the culmination of a really remarkable

1:34

journey, which of , of course, we're gonna delve into. So

1:37

for you, did that feel like kind of a crossroads

1:39

or a place your life had been pointing, you know, for

1:41

a long time? Or are you just so focused on

1:43

the race in front of you in that moment that you're not sort of

1:46

doing that kind of reflection?

1:47

I , yeah, I mean, leading

1:49

up into the,

1:52

the gold medal final or the big final

1:54

for Board Cross, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm

1:56

focused in the moment a hundred percent. But

1:58

there is that , uh, that time

2:00

between the qualifying and

2:03

the big, the big final when I'm

2:05

there is some reflection there thinking

2:07

about, wow, what, what an incredible

2:09

ride. Here I am at my

2:11

second Paralympics, you know, surrounded

2:14

by athletes from around the world, many

2:16

of 'em using my equipment that I built in

2:18

my shop. And no matter

2:20

how this race finishes, it's

2:23

still gonna be an amazing day. And then

2:25

that fades out into , alright , focus

2:27

on my lines. Let's, let's pull outta this gate

2:29

and go for the win <laugh>.

2:31

So when you're, when you're , uh, partway down the course

2:33

and you're in fourth place, what are you sort of focused

2:36

on then, and what , how does your decision making process

2:38

as just a super competitive racer,

2:40

you know, how does that kick in there?

2:42

Yeah, coming out of the, the first

2:45

turn, I, I got , uh,

2:47

a little bit wide and ended up,

2:49

you know, exiting the, the

2:51

first turn, going down the second straightaway

2:54

in fourth place. Everybody's ahead of me and

2:56

I'm like, oh man, I, I

2:58

gotta do, do some, I gotta do something, something

3:01

here. Definitely gotta find my line.

3:03

And, you know, I kind of get almost

3:05

, uh, tunnel vision at that point in time

3:08

to where I'm just like so

3:10

focused on finding that opening to

3:13

make a move. Cuz you know, our, our races

3:15

are about a, you know, a minute,

3:18

minute, 20 seconds long. I can't remember

3:20

exactly what that race was, but it's,

3:22

it's a very short amount of time to make a lot happen.

3:24

And , uh, I saw an opening and

3:27

I'm like, all right , it's 50/50 if

3:29

I'm gonna make it out of this turn or not, because

3:31

it was getting pretty, pretty thin on my

3:34

way into turn two. But , uh, you

3:36

know, I found my line held, held

3:38

my edge, and was able to make a

3:40

couple passes and exit in the second

3:42

place and, and , uh, follow

3:44

it there all the way to the finish line.

3:47

Yeah, it looked like one of those turns where there

3:49

, you know, three guys went in and probably only two were

3:51

coming out, and fortunately you were one of them. Yeah,

3:53

Absolutely. Yeah, it's like, all right , be ready

3:55

for anything, be stacked over my snowboard and

3:58

just hold my line. If

4:00

I bump somebody or somebody bumps

4:02

me, I , you know, mentally I need to be prepared

4:04

for that so I can react. So it's just like,

4:06

hold strong <laugh>.

4:08

So at the end, you're, you're, you're down at the bottom of

4:11

the hill and you've got the silver medal, obviously you're

4:13

related and you're on the camera. And after, you know, while you're celebrating

4:15

and you're on the camera, you pointed toward the

4:17

lower limb prosthesis that you

4:20

had designed and built. And unlike the other three

4:22

athletes with you, yours was not covered by

4:24

your, your pants leg. And I believe all

4:26

four of you were using one or more

4:28

of your prosthetic devices, knees,

4:30

feet. And, and that story of that mechanical

4:33

equipment that you designed and built is so closely

4:35

intertwined with your story as both an

4:37

athlete and a person. Can you take our listeners back to

4:39

kind of how that story of

4:42

that prosthesis started and became a

4:44

part of your story?

4:46

Yeah, so that, that, yeah, that goes

4:48

a ways back and it's actually, you

4:50

know, the prosthetic equipment is the

4:52

reason I got into snowboard racing. So,

4:55

you know, backing it up, I was injured in

4:58

2008 while racing snow

5:00

cross , which is , uh, snowmobiles

5:02

over basically a motocross type course,

5:05

you know, bumps and jumps and , uh, you

5:07

know, between eight and 12

5:10

riders on course at a time, you

5:12

know, just jockeying for track position

5:14

and intense racing. And I ended

5:16

up having , uh, an incident during

5:19

a competition on the national tour in

5:21

northern Michigan. I was thrown

5:23

from my machine and landed feet first, and

5:26

on impact, I ended up hyperextending

5:29

my left leg 180 degrees in

5:32

the wrong direction, which caused a

5:34

compound fracture and severed

5:36

one of the main arteries and the

5:39

main nerve that supplies my lower

5:41

limb. And , um, I was

5:43

, uh, extremely lucky to make it through

5:46

it. fast forwarding

5:48

through some of the gory stuff, but , um,

5:50

yeah, I got to the hospital and, you

5:52

know, the doctors did everything they could to try and

5:54

save it and regain circulation

5:56

and nerve function, but,

5:58

you know, pretty quickly within the second

6:00

and third day realized that,

6:03

you know, they, they just couldn't, they couldn't

6:05

get it back together. My kidneys started shutting

6:07

down and my overall health was deteriorating

6:10

, uh, very rapidly. So

6:12

in that moment, they , uh, talked

6:14

with me and my wife Sarah , and

6:17

the rest of my family, and just kind of explained

6:19

it that in order for me

6:21

to move forward, we're gonna have to

6:23

amputate your leg just above the knee. And

6:26

, um, yeah. Wow. To

6:28

to hear that word amputation

6:30

as a professional athlete was , uh, was

6:32

a gut punch for sure. And, you know, at

6:34

that point I was focused on

6:37

survival, but very quickly after it

6:39

hit me like, my life is gonna change.

6:41

I'm not gonna be able to do the things that

6:44

I love most anymore, or, you

6:46

know, or, so I thought at that moment in time. I spent

6:49

14 days in the hospital and recovered

6:52

fairly quickly health-wise , uh, because I

6:54

was in, in really good physical condition

6:56

at that moment in time, you know, during my

6:58

professional career, got up on

7:00

my, my everyday walking prosthesis

7:03

about five and a half weeks after the

7:05

amputation, and I'm

7:07

like, okay, I got this walking, figured

7:09

out what's next? I wanna get back to the fun stuff.

7:12

And , uh, you know, I did a whole bunch of research

7:14

on prosthetic equipment that

7:16

was available for sports, and

7:18

it was very limited, and especially for

7:20

like, motocross and snowmobile riding.

7:23

And so that's when the wheels started turning.

7:25

I mean, this is just , uh, you know, a couple months

7:27

after, you know, getting outta the hospital

7:30

and I took this as well,

7:33

there's lots of room for improvement. I

7:35

need something to put my time and

7:37

effort and focus in on. And I,

7:39

I think I, I can build something. I

7:41

think I can build something better than is available,

7:43

you know, utilizing my past experiences,

7:46

working in the shop on racing equipment

7:48

and suspension com components,

7:50

and, you know, just welding and

7:52

fabricating. I'm like, yep , I'm gonna, I'm

7:54

gonna design my own.

7:56

Going back even a little bit farther, you grew

7:58

up as a motor sports person and, and those mechanical

8:00

skills were, you know, were something you

8:02

grew up learning and doing. Um, you were , uh,

8:05

you grew up on a farm, you know, you were doing bmx

8:07

, uh, you rode three wheelers, four wheelers.

8:09

You even , um, created your own go-karts

8:11

and, and you had a motocross track of your

8:14

own to learn on. So that motorsports

8:16

piece and the mechanical stuff was pretty

8:18

deeply ingrained by that point.

8:20

Yeah, absolutely. I, you know, as far

8:22

back as I can remember, I was always the

8:24

type of person that would always try and

8:26

figure out how something worked and

8:29

then try and make it better, faster, stronger,

8:32

and , uh, yeah. So, you know, through

8:34

my entire teenage years and

8:36

adult life, I, I'm

8:39

always trying to, to

8:41

build and create and make things better

8:43

and faster. And so it's just been

8:45

a whole lifetime of experience of solving

8:48

problems, so to speak, in the mechanical

8:50

sense.

8:51

And if I remember correctly, reading your amazing

8:54

book, which obviously I , I highly

8:56

recommend Driven to Ride , uh, which you

8:58

can talk more about later, there's a , a section

9:00

in there where you write that your mom actually

9:02

predicted when you had made that difficult

9:04

decision that amputation was the route to

9:06

go. She predicted that you would design

9:08

a high tech prosthesis that would be better than what

9:11

was already out there. What does it make you feel to

9:13

like, look back on that and look where , what,

9:15

what ultimately happened?

9:17

Yeah, that was, that was a pretty cool moment.

9:20

You know, that discussion or

9:22

that, that specific comment definitely

9:24

followed through. And my

9:26

mom knows that I'm a go-getter and I'm

9:28

a , a problem solver. So , um, she

9:30

could definitely see that in me, you know, my

9:33

entire life. So this would just be

9:35

another problem to solve.

9:37

And I, I think when you were sort of in the

9:39

recovery phase, you write about getting back on your

9:41

race snowmobile just to go and collect the mail,

9:43

and that's sort of giving you, just riding up and down

9:46

the driveway kind of a sense of , uh, regaining,

9:48

you know, some of your independence. Can you talk a little

9:50

bit about what that moment meant to you?

9:53

Yeah, so many people with

9:55

disabilities, like the first or most

9:57

important thing is , uh,

9:59

you know, to try and become independent,

10:02

being able to move and do

10:04

the things that you want. And so as soon

10:06

as I was physically able

10:09

to, it's like, I gotta get out of this house, I

10:11

gotta move around. And , uh, yeah,

10:13

of course my motivation was I had to go

10:15

down and get the mail and I wasn't gonna crutch through

10:17

the snow. So, you know, I go to

10:20

my, my garage and line

10:22

up my snowmobile to go out the door and

10:24

end up getting stuck on a patch of ice

10:26

right out the door. And <laugh> find

10:28

myself in a tough spot real quick. And

10:31

uh, you know, instead of getting ma I got

10:33

mad there for, you know, a few minutes and

10:36

then I'm like, dude, what are you

10:38

doing? And then the mood lightened

10:40

up, I'm like, I'm gonna go ride my snowmobile.

10:43

And uh, you know, I worked on getting it

10:45

moved out off the ice patch

10:47

and, you know, probably fell down a couple times as

10:49

I'm trying to, you know, yank this 500

10:51

pound snowmobile around. But as

10:54

soon as I got going, riding that

10:56

smile came instantly and

10:59

realized that, okay, maybe I don't need to

11:01

be flying through the air doing 80 miles

11:03

an hour on it, but I

11:05

need to be on it. This is what I love to do and

11:08

I enjoy the challenge of it all. So

11:10

that was kind of a , I don't know if

11:12

you call it a turning point, but it was a big moment

11:14

in realization that , uh, yeah,

11:17

maybe I don't have to race, but I wanna ride

11:19

and I will be able to ride. I

11:21

just have to figure out the right tools

11:23

to help me do so.

11:25

And you mentioned that, you know, the, the first prosthesis

11:27

that you had that you realized wasn't gonna get you ultimately

11:30

where you wanted to go. I mean, it sounds like at the

11:32

beginning the goal was just to be upright again.

11:34

And then as you're sort of further along in your

11:36

recovery, that starts not to be enough

11:38

for you anymore. Like when did you decide

11:40

that that's not enough, I want more and I'm

11:42

gonna figure out a way to make it happen?

11:45

<laugh> Well, yeah,

11:48

stuff happened so fast the months

11:50

following, so after my amputation

11:52

, I got, got physically able to

11:54

be up and moving. Um, I went back to

11:56

work for my race team as

11:58

a riding coach and eventually,

12:01

you know, I ended up getting on one of their snowmobiles

12:03

and taking some laps around the practice

12:06

course and I'm like, wow,

12:08

this is so much fun. And it isn't about

12:10

how fast I'm going, it's about the

12:13

challenge that I'm pursuing. And

12:16

I, I, I, as soon as I got my,

12:18

my prosthesis, I started riding, I

12:20

was actually riding a little bit before I had my

12:22

prosthesis, the original one, and then

12:24

I got my new leg, my walking leg, and

12:27

it just kind of flopped around all over the place cuz

12:29

there was no like resistance

12:32

there to keep it from flexing.

12:34

So when I'd be flying through the air, it

12:36

would be bouncing around, coming off the running board.

12:38

And yeah, so it was in March,

12:41

it the, you know, just three months basically

12:43

after my injury happened where I'm

12:45

like, I need something better. And about

12:48

that time I found out about the

12:50

Summer X Games was hosting

12:53

Adaptive Supercross, which is a

12:55

motocross race for amputees

12:57

and paraplegics. And once I heard of

12:59

that, then it was all over. It

13:01

was like, I am part of this, I need to

13:04

be part of this, what do I have to

13:06

do? Because that, that race was in July

13:08

and so I had a short amount of time to

13:11

try and figure it all out and learn how to ride

13:13

again, end up , uh, you know, it's

13:15

my left side that I'm amputee on.

13:18

So that's my shifting side. So I had

13:20

to figure out the electric shift

13:22

system since I couldn't move my ankle

13:24

to shift the bike, the transmission. So

13:26

there's a lot of steps to the process to

13:28

get back on my motocross bike that spring. It

13:30

was the shifter, it was the foot peg and

13:33

the prosthesis. And so I fully

13:36

went mad scientist in my shop and

13:38

I'm like, this is, this is something

13:40

I wanna work on. And at that, at

13:43

that point in time, it was just for me

13:45

to get back into action. And then over

13:48

the course of the following summer, you

13:50

know, the summer of 2009, I

13:52

started to meet up with a lot of other amputees

13:54

while I was pursuing this adaptive X

13:57

Games and, and they're all using their

14:00

everyday equipment for the most part. And , uh,

14:02

so then at that point the wheels started turning

14:04

, I'm like, well, maybe, maybe I should think bigger, but

14:07

first I gotta get figured out for my myself.

14:11

So you used , um, mountain bike shock, I think,

14:14

and got the idea for that. And obviously

14:16

that hadn't occurred to anybody before, but

14:19

to hear you're drawing on sort of all your, your previous

14:21

experience with, with machines and mechanical things,

14:23

how did that idea come to you?

14:26

Well, so basically I, I look

14:28

at things as simple as possible, you know, to

14:30

start with. And basically I am trying

14:32

to create a suspension component for

14:34

my body. Our legs and

14:37

our quadricep muscles, they act as shock absorbers.

14:39

You know, when we go over rough terrain or

14:41

we jump up and down, they're basically shock

14:43

absorbers. And so I'm

14:46

very familiar with suspension components on

14:48

my bikes and snowmobiles, and I knew that I

14:50

wanted to use, use this fox mountain bike shock

14:53

as the shock absorber component.

14:56

And so I figured out the

14:58

range of motion I needed for my knee joint,

15:00

which is about 130 degrees. And

15:02

I wanted to build it around, this is

15:04

about seven and a half inch long mountain

15:07

bike shock with two inches stroke

15:09

travel. And the , the

15:11

difficult part was creating a linkage

15:13

system that would make it feel

15:15

natural. So I spent about five,

15:18

six weeks on the drawing board and then another

15:20

week in the shop to build the first prototype.

15:23

And when I got it all put together, you

15:25

know , the excitement was building so much

15:27

over that week in the shop and to

15:30

finally put the last nuts and bolts and components

15:32

together, I was like a little kid, you know, just

15:34

giggling and my hands are shaking and

15:37

ended up , uh, putting it on my

15:39

socket and then walked over

15:41

to my motocross bike and took it for a ride for

15:44

that first time with this new leg. And

15:46

it was just the most incredible feeling

15:48

ever. It was like, oh man, this

15:50

thing is so awesome. I'm, you know, riding down the

15:53

trail next to my property over

15:55

this whoop section. It's all rough and rutted

15:57

out and I'm able to stand up balance

16:00

side to side and just,

16:02

just twist the throttle and just have

16:05

an amazing time. And I knew at that time

16:07

it's like, X Games , here we come, I'm

16:09

going <laugh> .

16:10

That's amazing. I mean , you know , so the , the

16:12

old actual competitive fires coming back. So first it's

16:15

, it's one step at a time. So it's, I wanna

16:17

be able to, you know, have this experience again, now

16:19

you kind of want to go win stuff and you're trying

16:21

to find a way to, to do that because that co

16:23

that competitive fire is still in there. And

16:26

now it's sort of , uh, it's sort of driving what's

16:28

following. So I guess you had a

16:30

, an experience it sounds like, where your , your

16:33

moto knee that you developed and you know, you have this company

16:35

BioDapt and this is kind of the, the

16:37

seminal part of that , um, that

16:39

emerging. But you figured you need a , a better

16:41

foot design. So tell us about that part

16:44

of the process.

16:46

Yeah, originally for the first year, I

16:48

just used one of my everyday carbon

16:51

fiber feet . And so

16:53

that summer I ended up qualifying to

16:55

go to the summer X Games. And

16:58

seven months after my

17:00

injury happened, I'm racing on this most incredible

17:02

supercross course that I've ever ridden

17:05

on. And I ended up finishing second

17:07

place with a silver medal. And

17:09

during that race I came up short on a

17:11

big 90 foot jump and the

17:14

foot broke the carbon fiber in

17:16

it just, just snapped on impact. And

17:19

so I , um, I had some issues the last

17:21

couple laps with my foot sliding

17:23

off the foot peg and I'm like, oh, hold

17:26

together, hold together and, and was able to finish

17:28

with , with the silver. And then I'm like, man

17:31

, I gotta figure out the next step here, which is the

17:33

foot , uh, foot to hold up to

17:35

the impacts. And then later on that year,

17:37

got back on my snowmobile again and needed

17:39

an ankle system that would flex while

17:42

I'm standing up and sitting down on the running

17:44

board. And so I started the Versa foot

17:47

project. It would've been in the, the

17:49

fall, late fall of 2009,

17:51

I believe it was. And so, so

17:53

yeah, that was the start of, you know,

17:55

the complete system, the moto knee in Versa foot

17:58

. And then , uh, the following spring

18:00

started my company BioDapt, which was

18:02

July, 2010. And, you know, all,

18:04

all along I , I've got this competitive fire.

18:07

I mean, when I was injured, you

18:09

know, I was at the peak of my career. I,

18:12

I , uh, I had a bit of a rough season

18:14

leading into that, but I, I knew

18:16

there was, there was more to come. I knew, I

18:18

knew if I had the right setup and the right

18:20

team and the right equipment and the right mindset, I,

18:23

I definitely the best was

18:25

yet to come and then got injured. So I

18:27

was still very much in the game when

18:29

my injury happened and , uh, I,

18:32

you know, I'm, I'm a competitor through and

18:34

through and this was an

18:36

opportunity for me to continue with

18:39

being a competitor, but also have

18:41

the other side of it that would be

18:43

a little more longer term with creating a business

18:45

with the intent of creating the highest

18:47

performance, lower limb prosthetic

18:49

equipment for action sports. So

18:51

I was like, this whole new world just

18:54

opened up within the last year, year and

18:56

a half after my accident.

18:58

So it seems like you have trouble , uh, winning

19:00

a race without some kind of drama going on,

19:02

or, or having something that you, that

19:04

like sets you off on a new problem solving course. So

19:06

first you have your, you know, your second

19:09

place on your, you know, this new

19:11

design that you've created and you realize the foot's

19:13

not quite working and then you get to the Summer X Games and

19:15

it , that brings its own share of drama. So take us

19:17

through kind of that 2010 Summer X

19:20

Games and, and the what happened there?

19:22

Yeah, like you said, drama <laugh>,

19:24

always drama happening . Uh

19:26

, so yeah, going into to my

19:28

second year Summer X Games, like

19:31

I was, you know, the first year I was like, excited

19:33

to be there. The second year in

19:36

2010 I'm like, I want

19:38

the gold. I I want to go for gold

19:40

this year. And so my training program

19:42

was amped up. I knew what to expect

19:45

and I had my versa foot . And

19:47

um, I had the second generation moto

19:50

knee prototype at that point yet. And

19:52

, uh, yeah, it was, it was

19:54

another incredibly difficult

19:56

course, huge jumps. And

19:58

during , um, so we get into

20:01

the final and about, oh

20:03

, I think I was about two thirds or three quarters

20:05

of the way , no, it was the last lap. It was going into

20:08

the last lap. I came up

20:10

short on this big 80 foot finish

20:12

line jump and I

20:14

bent one of the components in the knee

20:16

from the impact. And so my

20:18

knee wouldn't extend all the way. It was

20:20

flexed at 90 degrees. And so, like,

20:22

if you know anything about motocross, the

20:25

riders are standing up the majority of the time, you

20:28

know, other than in the corners <laugh>

20:30

. And so I had to go a whole

20:32

nother lap around this course with,

20:35

with one leg basically, cuz the other one

20:37

was, was compressed. And, and I couldn't

20:39

put any weight on it, so I'm like limping

20:41

it through literally the last lap.

20:44

I had a good lead when I started it, but

20:46

by the end, by the end I came across

20:48

the finish line. The second place guy was,

20:50

was only like two bike lengths behind

20:53

me. It was , uh, <laugh>, it was a

20:55

nail biter . I was , uh,

20:57

I was pretty pumped to be able to finish the,

20:59

you know, across the finish line with the gold

21:01

medal. It was, I was a huge moment.

21:03

So I think your first X Games that

21:06

you were referring to was , uh, the one in Carson, California

21:08

when you got to Silver, then you go to , uh, to

21:10

the Knicks and you , you finally get that gold medal, but

21:13

there's already sort of percolating, it sounds like some

21:15

idea that maybe this thing that

21:17

you've designed can be , uh, adapted to other

21:19

sports and benefit other athletes. How did that

21:22

sort of all come about?

21:23

Yeah, so the company started

21:25

in 2010, and when

21:27

I realized I wanted to offer to

21:29

other amputees, like I didn't want it to be so

21:32

niche that would only work for motocross

21:34

or snowmobile racing. So I kind of looked at the

21:36

sports that had similar movements,

21:39

you know, physical movements in 'em , like mountain biking

21:41

and wakeboarding, snowboarding,

21:44

skiing. I'm like, okay, so

21:46

how do I develop this to be versatile?

21:48

So that was, you know, right from the beginning, that

21:50

was the thought process was versatility.

21:53

And the the cool part is

21:56

it kind of forced me to learn

21:58

and get into other sports specifically

22:01

so I could test it out. And

22:03

, uh, you know, the biggest the biggest

22:05

storyline with that was , uh,

22:07

me learning how to snowboard. And

22:10

in 2010, 2011,

22:12

I think it was January, 2011, I

22:15

met a veteran, he's a above knee

22:17

amputee, and he really wanted one

22:19

of my knees for snowboarding. And so he is

22:21

like, Hey, how , how's it work for snowboarding? And I'm

22:23

like, well, I've done some wakeboarding. I

22:26

haven't snowboarded at all , um,

22:28

since I was like a young kid, but

22:31

uh, you know, let me, let me go test it out and

22:33

I'll get back to you and let you know. So following

22:35

that X Games , that was Winter X

22:37

Games , um, where he saw me riding and

22:40

I met him. And so went home and learned how to

22:42

snowboard and, you know, I took some

22:44

hard falls , let me tell you to

22:46

be honest. I was like, wow, this

22:48

is , uh, this is not easy. But

22:51

, uh, over the, you know, the following few

22:53

weeks learned enough to understand

22:55

that yeah, this for a person who

22:57

already knows how to snowboard Yeah, absolutely.

23:00

It , it's gonna work really well. So that kind

23:02

of opened the door for me to work with

23:04

our veterans through Walter Reed and

23:07

Brook Arm Medical Center. And

23:09

, um, and you know, they, those

23:11

facilities at that time, so we're looking at

23:13

2011, 1213,

23:15

they really showed a high interest in

23:17

buying my equipment for our injured

23:19

vets, which , uh, you know, for me it was,

23:22

it was very rewarding to be

23:24

able to create something that's , uh, helping

23:26

out our, our injured veterans.

23:28

So you had your, your first two sales,

23:30

I think your first two moto knees , um,

23:33

and made your first profit. So now this

23:35

thing is starting to actually maybe make some money for you

23:37

. So, you know, at this point are you thinking about

23:39

this business and, and building the business? Is

23:41

that where your focus is at that point?

23:43

Well, you think it should have been, huh? <laugh>

23:46

but it was a , you know, I , yes,

23:48

I was very much focused on the

23:50

business side of it, but at the same

23:52

time I was getting all this momentum with adaptive

23:55

sports , uh, with the X Games , hosting

23:57

summer and winter adaptive

23:59

events. Um, in the summertime I

24:01

was doing some , uh, wakeboard competitions

24:04

with another program. So I was

24:06

like, you know, I thought my competitive days

24:08

were gonna be done and I'd have to get a real

24:10

job and, you know, things were gonna slow down

24:12

and be boring. But it just amped

24:14

up over those, those few years. And

24:17

, uh, the , the coolest part is, you

24:19

know, both the, the BioDapt business and

24:21

my athletic career were

24:23

so closely intertwined. So each

24:26

one helped the other. And, you know, I was

24:28

just smiling because I could continue to do

24:30

everything that I love to do. I am , you

24:32

know, making, starting to make a little bit

24:34

of money with my business and I'm, you

24:36

know, making a really good positive impact

24:39

on a lot of others. So, you know, I'm,

24:41

I'm looking at it like this is truly a

24:43

win-win situation, something really

24:45

great that I was able to create out

24:47

of a horrible life-changing event.

24:49

So talk a little bit about how you built those

24:51

snowboard skills, because you didn't start

24:53

out with those . You , you said you'd snowboarded a

24:56

few times, but what was that process like to

24:58

to kind of go from being a novice to being basically

25:00

a world-class snowboarder?

25:02

Yeah, that was , uh, unexpected,

25:05

<laugh> unexpected. I

25:07

got talked into , uh, to doing a

25:10

couple adaptive border

25:12

cross races with , uh, organization

25:14

that I met out of Colorado , uh,

25:17

adaptive Action Sports, who's run by

25:19

Dan Gale and Amy Purdy. And I

25:21

be , I became really good friends with them and they

25:24

, uh, were really into the board sports

25:26

and they talked me into come out out

25:28

and riding with their, with their group and

25:30

then eventually competing at one of the national

25:33

events in Copper Mountain. And

25:35

, uh, right about this time we're looking at like

25:37

2013, 2014, the

25:40

Paralympics opened the door

25:43

for Paralympics snowboarding and,

25:45

and , uh, adaptive action sports was a

25:47

, a large player in trying to push that

25:49

and make it happen. So I was very much aware

25:52

of what the future was gonna be with adaptive

25:54

snowboarding, and I'm like, I should,

25:56

you know, I should check this out and,

25:58

you know, if nothing else I know I'll

26:00

be working with a lot of the athletes that

26:03

, uh, will be competing. So I was keeping track

26:05

of it, but never figured I would be

26:07

a Paralympian at that point in time. Cause

26:09

it was just one class for men, one class

26:11

for women, and all the top athletes

26:14

were bologna amputees. And I just,

26:16

you know, physically I can't do

26:18

the same movements as they can. So I

26:20

was like, wow , I would never be

26:22

a top contender. And

26:24

I'm here in Minnesota, flatland

26:26

U usa , so I don't have the, the

26:28

tools or the environment to, you

26:30

know, really train for it. But , uh,

26:33

they ended up talking me into going to another

26:35

border cross event after the inaugural

26:38

paralympic snowboarding event in Sochi, Russia.

26:40

And , uh, so a lot of the top athletes

26:42

from the US team were there. Keith

26:45

Gable , Evan Strong , uh,

26:47

Amy Purdy and a couple

26:49

others. And, you know, I, I raced in

26:51

some of 'em and I did, well, I , you know, I was far

26:54

off their pace, but I wasn't too, too

26:56

far out. And the US team coach

26:58

was there during the competition

27:00

and noticed me riding , and he

27:02

, uh, reached out to me later that summer

27:04

and said, Hey, Mike, what do you think about,

27:06

you know, taking this to the Paralympics

27:09

in, in 2018 ? And

27:11

I'm like, ah , I , you know, I'm a motorsports

27:14

guy. Everything that I do revolves

27:16

around bikes and snowmobiles and handle bars

27:18

. I don't know , I don't know if I could make that

27:20

shift, but later they

27:23

told me that they added more classes in

27:26

the snowboard, paralympic snowboarding, and,

27:28

you know, this would put me in a good position if

27:31

I wanted to pursue it, you know , it would take

27:33

a while . But , uh, they thought I had the,

27:35

the drive and the skills to be able to

27:37

learn it. And , um, I thought about it

27:39

for a while with my wife Sarah , and it's

27:41

like, it would be a total shift in our priority.

27:44

You know, I've travel around the US all the

27:46

time, but , uh, you know, traveling internationally

27:48

is, is a lot different. And originally

27:51

I was, I was gonna pass on it, but

27:53

, uh, then I

27:55

started thinking about what it

27:57

would mean to represent team u

27:59

s A at the games and be

28:02

able to call myself a Paralympian. And

28:04

then we're like, we can't pass up

28:06

this opportunity. We gotta see where it can take us.

28:08

So, so I called him back, I'm like, I'm

28:10

in. He's like, all right , pack your bags. We're

28:13

going to Europe in two weeks. <laugh>.

28:14

Wow.

28:15

I'm like, okay , okay

28:17

, <laugh> .

28:19

So you're always looking for an opportunity,

28:21

a fork in the road, and sometimes they come up on you

28:23

fast and , and you just have to decide whether you're

28:25

gonna grab 'em or not. And , and I know that

28:28

, uh, you talk in your book about your relationship

28:30

with your wife Sarah, and you know her support of you

28:32

throughout everything we've really talked about. And

28:35

, and somewhere you, along this line,

28:37

I think 2013, there's another addition

28:39

to the picture, your daughter, who I believe you

28:41

referred to as a game changer when she arrived. So talk

28:44

a little bit about how that family dynamic is shifting

28:46

through this whole process.

28:47

Yeah, my, my wife Sarah has

28:49

been by my side man . We're , we're, we're high

28:52

school sweethearts. Uh, so we've been together

28:54

through everything, through the

28:56

highs and lows, and so we have a really

28:58

strong bond together. And there

29:00

was , uh, some heavy conversations

29:02

when I decided to start getting back

29:05

into, to racing and competing

29:07

after my amputation. You know, I almost,

29:09

I almost lost my life due to

29:11

it. But we both absolutely love

29:13

the lifestyle of training

29:15

and competing and traveling

29:18

the world with like-minded

29:20

individuals. It's , uh, not

29:22

many people get to experience what that

29:24

really means. And we didn't wanna

29:26

give it up. We didn't wanna walk away. So,

29:29

you know, we decided that we're gonna take

29:31

it slow and , uh,

29:33

methodical, calculated risks.

29:36

So <laugh> , we would do risk assessments

29:38

before a lot of these big decisions and

29:40

you know, what the positives and negatives

29:43

were about it. And, you know, she, it's been

29:45

so good to have her by my side, not only because

29:47

she's a good supportive person, but she's

29:49

a nurse and I find myself injured occasionally.

29:51

So she's a really good person to have by my

29:54

side, <laugh>, she's patched me back

29:56

together more than, more than a few times. We

29:59

got married in '07, which was the year before

30:02

I got injured. And then by 2013,

30:04

we're like, we should , you know, we should

30:07

really think about the family side and what

30:09

we're , we're , you know, what we're gonna, you know, are we

30:11

gonna have kids? Well, yes, we are. So

30:13

now's the time to do it. So then Lauren

30:16

was born in 2013, and yeah

30:18

, that was a game changer for sure. It

30:21

, uh, all my, our free

30:23

time was all, all soaked up , uh,

30:25

very quickly. So, but it was, you

30:27

know, there's nothing better than

30:29

than bringing a life into this world and,

30:32

and seeing them grow and being

30:34

able to teach them the things that, you know,

30:36

and, and just see, just, you

30:38

know, they're like little sponges and everything

30:41

that happens around 'em, they're like just soaking

30:43

it up and , uh, it's really fun

30:45

to be a parent. And, you know, obviously

30:47

it's very challenging. Probably the biggest

30:49

challenge in some cases , uh, compared

30:52

to anything I've been through, especially now she's

30:54

getting older, you know, she's eight years old right now, and she's

30:57

her own little person and, you

30:59

know, she has her own little ideas and

31:01

thought process and Yep

31:03

. Your parents out there, you know exactly what I'm talking

31:05

about <laugh>.

31:07

So, is, is she someone who also likes to

31:10

go fast? Does she get that from you or is she , uh,

31:12

is she different?

31:13

Well, she's, she has, it's

31:15

so cool because I mean, she has a lot of

31:17

my traits and a lot of her mom's traits where , where

31:20

Sarah, she's a little more conservative and

31:22

methodical about , uh, you

31:24

know, what she does. And she's not

31:26

a big sender, if you know what I mean. Lauren's

31:29

kind of halfway between. She, she

31:31

has incredible work ethic, like , uh,

31:34

right now she's really heavy into gymnastics

31:36

and she takes it incredibly serious.

31:39

So we definitely have a little athlete in

31:42

our, in our family . So.

31:44

So you kind of alluded to, you know, you're

31:46

, you're here, you are, you're , you're doing this touring the world

31:48

, uh, thing that you've decided, yep

31:50

, we're gonna go for this , uh, we want to be at

31:52

the Paralympics. Uh, and you talked about sort of

31:54

the community that travels together, and I, I know

31:57

that community theme kind of runs through your

31:59

story and your book, because you talk about the

32:01

fact that, you know, the professional snowmobile world

32:03

that you are part of is, is a small world and

32:06

it's a very close knit community, and that support is

32:08

important. And those people were there to support you after

32:10

your accident. How, how important is that, that

32:12

sort of sense of community, a component in

32:15

your sports journey , uh, especially

32:17

given that you're competing against these same people and

32:19

yet it you're a community at the same time?

32:21

Yeah, that, I think that's one

32:23

of the unique things about the snowboard

32:25

world compared to a lot of the other

32:27

sports compe , you know, competitive sports

32:30

worlds. The camaraderie in

32:32

snowboarding group specifically is

32:34

really tight. And yes, we're definitely

32:37

out there to, to beat everybody

32:39

else that's in front of us, but when

32:41

the, when the goggles come off, we're

32:44

all really good friends and we all talk

32:46

to each other, no matter what team we're

32:48

on, what part of the world we're

32:50

from, you know, we're all excited to

32:52

be there, being able to follow our

32:54

dreams. And most of us, you

32:56

know, we're, we're injured or had

32:58

something taken away from us. So we appreciate

33:02

that we can continue doing this kind

33:04

of stuff. And, you know, the snowboard

33:06

mentality is, is just like, you

33:08

know, just go send it and have some fun. You

33:10

know, on the other side of that is extremely

33:12

competitive, but there's always, it

33:15

seems like there's so many really good positive

33:17

attitudes with the group that we're, we're

33:19

traveling with. And that's one of the things that, that

33:21

keeps me coming back is , uh, I

33:24

don't wanna be done traveling with all these rad

33:26

dudes and, and women. It's, it's so much fun.

33:30

That concludes part one of our discussion

33:32

with Monster Mike Schultz. Stay tuned

33:34

to our social channels for information about part two.

33:51

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of

33:53

Disability Talks. Want to be a

33:56

part of the ongoing conversation? Visit our

33:57

website at abilitiesinmotion.org

34:00

or connect with us on social media.