Author: EDGA
Posted on: 29th Jan 2021
“Because I have two children I can’t say, that’s it, and think of suicide, or whatever. That was never an option for me… I had to go forward. I was 34 and it’s too young to die.”
People who make things out of wood are artisans first, but many are engineers, artists, and some are even game changers for the modern world.
One day a German carpenter had the creative foresight to envisage a wheelchair-based powered machine, which would become the ‘ParaGolfer’, and he built his early models out of wood. His ingenuity would transform the lives of a great many people who were previously not able to stand, walk or swing a club easily, instead enabling them to thrive out on the golf course, offering them the learning of a new skill, competition, exercise, the enjoyment of nature and the chance to make new friends.
The carpenter was Christian Nachtwey, who at 34 years-old owned a successful carpentry and house building company in Bodensee, Germany. When he had his big golfing idea back in 1997, he was running a business with 30 employees, including his three sisters and father. This epiphany arrived while looking at a manual wheelchair which worked in a standing position. Could such a thing be adapted and powered to help a golfer make a good swing and move around the golf course, he wondered?
