Legs or blades

An interesting story about the different jobs you come across and the people they influence 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, and welcome to Rideshare Rhetoric. I'm Clarkey.

SPEAKER_04 0:03

And I'm Margaret.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

And I'm here with another wonderful story from the Rideshare World. And it's one of those stories that I love in the fact that I get to meet people who have roles or jobs that I've never ever thought about and gone, wow.

SPEAKER_04 0:19

Yeah, that's true. That's true. There's so many.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:22

So who piqued your interest then?

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Oh, this South African dude. So we pull up at a a medical centre. Well, I pull up at a medical centre. There's like doctors and physios and dentists and twenty those.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Because it's a medical centre.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah, and it's got all of it. It's not just it's not an oncology or anything like that. Anyway, with this South African guy. Typical front rower from the rugby? From the spring box, yeah. Yeah. Big strong low neck. Walks out.

SPEAKER_04 0:51

God, I hope you don't see him again.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Walks out, jumps in the car. And I said, Hey, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

And he goes, Yeah, I'm good. In his South African accent, I won't even attempt it. And I said, What have you been up? What have you been up to?

SPEAKER_02 1:06

And he went, I've just made seven legs. What the fuck? Seven legs?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

What do you mean, seven legs? He went, Well, I've been working on them for the last couple of days. I've just finished seven legs.

SPEAKER_04 1:25

Seven legs.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

I said, like in prosthetic legs. He goes, yeah. I said, we don't make prosthetic legs in this town.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

It was really weird. Like you think you go to a city or where there's lots of people. I can't imagine there's seven people walking around without legs.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

Well, they're not walking.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Hopping around without legs. Have I told you the joke about Bob? No. It's politically incorrect. Anyway.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

So he made them up here.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Yeah, manufactures them here.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

They're all custom made, obviously, because you have different different length stumps.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

I said, how did you get into making how do you how do you physically like I'm a year 11 student and I go, okay, I'm gonna make prosthetic limbs for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Well, you probably don't do that. So what what was his story around that?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Well, he wanted to be a doctor. He said he wasn't smart enough. He couldn't couldn't get in. So he did a cross-engineering degree with a medical influence.

SPEAKER_04 2:34

That's really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

And so he's been doing prosthetic limbs for years and years and years. So he's retired, basically retired here. Yeah, it's his career.

SPEAKER_04 2:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

But he's retired to Australia or come to Australia for a better life. But he spent most of his time in South Africa. And so I went, oh, the only guy I can think of with prosthetic limbs that I'm aware of. I don't know anybody. I probably do know a couple of people. Um anyway.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

I said, Do you know Oscar? Oscar? Am I supposed to know Oscar?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Well, he said, Yes, I do. So he knew exactly who I was talking about. So I was talking about Oscar Prestorius, the guy that that became famous for being as fast as an able-bodied person on with with prosthetics. He had blades. Yeah. Made him look like a kangaroo and he bounced down the track.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

And not Yeah, they were the ones that kind of did really look like he was yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

That's how Oscar's historius became quite famous. They made a movie out of him because he accidentally shot his model girlfriend because he was one of the highest profile people in in South Africa at the time.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

And this story just got really weird.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Yeah. Well, it's I think the story goes something like he was going up with this model, like with the supermodel. Not too many supermodels in South Africa, I believe, but she was one. And they were the perfect couple, and they're back in their unit, and he thought somebody had broken into the unit, and she was in the bathroom with the door closed, and he somehow just happened to have a gun sitting on the table beside him, gets a gun, shoots through the door, and kills her in the bathroom. He goes to jail over it.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

It's a horrible story.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Anyway, so everybody knows, well, most people know about Oscar Pizarias.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

Everybody older knows about Oscar.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

So I'm asking this guy, do you know Oscar? And he goes, Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, You weren't involved in building the blades. And he goes, actually I was. I I used to live five kilometres from where he lived.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

Really?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yeah, and he used to use he wasn't the person who designed it, but he helped build the blades for Oscar Pristorius. So it was it was quite incredible that this guy is now living in this little town building legs, and I said, Wow. So each of those limbs, whether arms or legs or whatever else you you build, are all custom made. And he's going, Yeah, they have to be because like Well, they can be now. Well the stump, the stump of your leg might only be a foot long.

SPEAKER_04 5:15

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Two feet long.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

I said, So if I lose both my legs, you can make me six foot eight.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

You did ask that, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 5:27

I did. And he said, Yeah, I can. I said, fantastic. If that ever happens to me, I'm coming to see you. I've always wanted to be six foot eight, maybe six five. I'll have a think about that.

SPEAKER_04 5:39

Um, but it was a you do have short legs and a long body.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

That's another story.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

That's not fair. I've got nothing to say after that.

SPEAKER_04 6:00

I've rendered him speechless.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Anyway, he was he was a really interesting person to talk to.

SPEAKER_04 6:08

Did you talk to him more about the rest of his career?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

No, no, I was more interested in Oscar.

SPEAKER_04 6:16

Yeah, that is a really different career.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah, it it's it's one of those people you'd love to have to a dinner party. Because you could talk to him all night about all sorts of things.

SPEAKER_04 6:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

But when you've got him in a ride chair environment, you've got him for five or ten minutes.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

Yeah, but you ask them whatever you want to in that time.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

As quickly as I can. Yeah. And yeah, it was it blows my mind, though, those people that do really interesting things.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

Well, it's such a yeah, it is, it's probably not something that you aspire to, as you said, when you were younger. It's not a a career choice that you think about so much. Maybe, maybe a bit more so now.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

I don't know. When you look at things like the Paralympics, uh you know, they've got a lot more recognition, and I think we I think it's more visible than it used to be. I don't think it's by any means where it needs to be, but it is more visible.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

I want to know, and I never ever I should have asked him this, I'm just thinking about it now. Why they chose Oscar to put the blades on to run fast. Because most people lose their legs, they they use it just to walk around, to be to look normal in society. Otherwise, they're sitting in wheelchairs competing in Paralympics.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

But maybe he had two sets and he had one for running, because there would have been testing and trialling all sorts of things.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

No, exactly. So like a kangaroo.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

So they would have been testing things for what makes him faster.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

But but what inspires somebody who's lost their legs to run faster than an able-bodied person?

SPEAKER_04 7:46

Well, a sense of competitiveness, number one. Like if you're competitive, you're competitive.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yeah, almost yeah, that's I'm gonna have to do a bit of research on that.

SPEAKER_04 7:58

Oh gritty.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Yeah, anyway, he was quite an inspiring guy. And he was very motivated by it. It was it was a a job that he loved. And that's always uplifting. It's always it is when you meet people who love what they do.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

Even rideshare drivers who love what they do.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Anyway, that was the prosthetic limb guy who had an interesting interaction with a very famous person. So until next time, this is rideshare rhetoric saying goodbye, Margaret and Clarkey.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

And like, share, or subscribe.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

That's what I was about to say. And you should. So until next time, bye.