A Backpack, a Chair and a Beard

At the age of ten, Eamon Wood first became aware of the vastness of the world beyond the green valleys and blue mountains of his native New Zealand.

At twenty-two, he made a promise to himself: he was going to shake off the last vestiges of boyhood and become accountable for his own destiny. He was going to freefall into the wild.

A paraplegic since the age of four, Eamon found ways to give his wheelchair wings. He became the number one seed in the Kiwi men’s wheelchair tennis rankings, and r...