Motorized beach wheelchairs

[gulfbeachshagger]

You will have to travel to Gulf Shores, AL to get "Beach Power". I promise you, it will be worth the trip. Please cut & paste into your address bar:

www.beachpowerrentals.com

[Al]

Now that looks like fun. Are there any plans to sell them? They would be good for us that live rural and have large lawns or dirt roads.

AL.

[mare]

Now, Al- wouldn't your wife consider that to be right up there with the riding lawnmower?

[Al]

Maybe, but she lets me take my chair out on the grass but it's a pretty rough ride.

AL.

[ZenArcher]

http://www.tankchair.com/img/img2.jpg

This is what you want and they are for sale :twisted: TankChair

[Al]

Now that is cool. Wonder if the ALS Society would fund that?

AL.

[kelly]

My hubby would love that gadget!

[K-Town]

Are you Kidding?!? This is crazy...like pimp my wheelchair ride!

[gulfbeachshagger]

No, not kidding! Can you get to the beach with your own power? If you can't , but still have the desire, BeachPowerRentals can get you there. If you ever make it to Sweet Home Alabama, give us a call. :-?

[JAKE]

This is awesome. I had just made the comment to my wife today about maybe going to Gulf Shores, but I didn't think I would be able to with my scooter and the small tires. Thank you so much for posting this info.

[Al]

We do what we can to help as many as we can. It seemed like a good idea to me.


AL.

[Lorie]

Beachpower lives is Gulfshores Al, and has ALS. He invented this chair. I seen it on the news about a week ago. Pretty good in my opinion! Just got to get the Vent and Suction equipment attached for Tim!

By the way, Gulfshores is Beautiful!

Lorie

[susanL.52]

This is such a great idea. I really love it. This seems to be great fun for the people. For me personally the beach is always a very relaxing and calm place. I always enjoy staying there and it makes me happy that now it is also possible for people who are suffering ALS to stay there.

[pamnandy]

Are there *truly* accessible accomodations nearby in Gulf Shores? Meaning, roll in showers, spaces under beds for hoyers etc. How cool of a vacation that could be.

[gulfbeachshagger]

Pam & Andy:

Thanks for your interest. Are there any other requirements? We already know about the condos with wide doors, wide elevators, ramps and a smooth transition from the boardwalk/pier to the beach. We are researching the drive in shower & hoyer lift accessibility at the present time and will report our findings soon.

Beach Power

[pamnandy]

Yep, a hospital bed. Sometimes there's a medical equipment place that is willing to rent them out. Hospice would pay for it for us. Back in the "day" (last year) we used a beach house in Stone Harbor, NJ. It was a great setup, as the family who owned it had a daughter with ALS. Once she passed, they kept it accessible for us. Unfortunately, they aren't renting it out anymore. We miss the beach. Wish we could've had something like your chairs there. I'm not so optimistic about travelling to Alabama, but perhaps someone who is closer might be interested in the prospect of a vacation.

[gulfbeachshagger]

Pam, Andy and other interested members:

We are sorry that it has taken so long to get back to you. Our little beach wheelchair business has really taken off and is flying! However, we have not forgotten about you. While delivering and picking up our beach wheelchairs, my wife Mary has been looking for hotel rooms and/or condos that have drive-up showers. We now have a list of these places.

Please remember that we have only been in business since April of this year. Nevertheless, we have purchased a Hoyer lift and are trying to buy an electric hospital bed at a reasonable price. We actually have a few leads on a hospital bed. We fully expect to be able to meet all of your requests in the not too distant future.

Please don't hesitate to call or e-mail us if you would like to discuss any of this information. We promise to post updates of our equipment on the forum when it happens. We now have nine fully functional motorized beach wheelchairs and plan to have a total of 20 by the end of this year. We are enclosing part of the Alabama ALS newsletter for the summer of 2009 for your consideration.

[SandraD]

Hello--

I thought the PALS on this forum might want to know about an exciting new development at Virginia Beach, Virginia. A major developer whose son, once a well-known surfer in the area, has ALS and the dad is leading a drive to create a handicapped-accessible park with beach wheelchairs, special shade pavilions, a wheelchair-accessible playground, and other amenities at Virginia Beach that will make the oceanfront more accessible to people with disabilities. It is slated to open next spring.

here is the story:

For disabled, park means a new day at the Beach | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com (http://hamptonroads.com/2009/08/disabled-park-means-new-day-beach)

[mare]

Just wondering if the Beach Power wheelchairs are available at the Jersey shore?

Or, does anyone from this area know of something similar that is available for the south Jersey shore area (Ocean City). The real estate agent said he has seen "beach wheelchairs" but couldn't give any reference or info on where to get them.
(I am not looking for one I have to push!)

[LauraW]

I would be interested in this also. I will try to do some research. If anyone has any info please share, Thanks.

[gulfbeachshagger]

Hello Laura and Mare
Thanks for your interest in Beach Power Rentals and our fantastic
motorized beach wheelchairs. I am sorry to inform you that, as far as we know, we are the only business in the United States renting motorized beach wheelchairs.

We have been inundated with telephone calls and e-mails from people just like yourselves. It seems that after looking at our website, a lot of folks assume that we are a national company. So, they want to know if we have offices in California, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, etc.

When we inform those with interest in our product a lot of them have been asking us to sell them at chair. We are really in the rental business, not the manufacturing and selling of wheelchairs.

Just recently, we have been working on a motorized beach wheelchair kit that will enable a person to convert a used power chair to a motorized beach wheelchair. We have almost finished this project. We are trying to make it as adaptable as possible so that it will fit quite a few chairs and not just a select few.

When and if this kit comes to fruition, with the blessings of the ALS forums, we will announce it on this site.

In the meantime, if you can't wait to experience a motorized beach wheelchair, come to Gulf Shores Alabama, where the beaches are sugar white, the condos inexpensive, people are friendly and BPR will take good care of you.

www.BeachPowerRentals.com (http://www.BeachPowerRentals.com)

[tajmom]

Mare, we rented a beach wheelchair in Rehoboth but it was the kind you have to push. BTW I never heard back from my SIL about her realtor. I'll remind her.

[mare]

Jennifer-

Thanks, but we did find something (in Ocean City, NJ) & rented it for 2 weeks this summer. Isn't it difficult to push a w/c in the sand, even with those big tires? (Jim is 190lbs.!)

Laura-
Jim is going to call around to shops that rent bikes and other beach stuff, and see if he can get a lead that way. I'll let you know what we find out. Might not reach people 'til later (like Memorial Day weekend), but we don't go until the last week of June.

[tajmom]

Mare -- I was the pushee, but Chris didn't seem to have too much trouble...he actually piled the beach chairs, towels and other gear in the back of the chair in addition to me, and I'm not thin. It's not great over bumps but it was OK on the sand.

I'm glad you found a place. I think we found our chair rental place via the Rehoboth tourism site, so you might try similar for OC for leads.

[LauraW]

Thank You!!!

[shannon1966]

I modified a Ranger powerchair; got the Rolleeze wheels, the forks, and a footrest made for my husband. The first day that my husband tried it on the beach, he got so excited to be on the sand that he drove it into the surf. Fried the computer and it died in the surf! Had to get bystanders to help pull it, and him, out of the ocean.

I guess that I could have just waited for high tide...