After designing and fabricating a metal frame that he mounted on a wakeboard so he could ride the wake despite his lower-half disability, Murray has fashioned a similar contraption for a snowboard.

In fact, this summer he perfected his adapted wakeboard prototype by adding a mountain bike shock to help absorb the impact when riding. But before he got a chance to try it out on the lake, the summer was essentially over.

Instead, he mounted the frame with a bucket seat from an old sledge hockey sled to a snowboard he picked up at a ski swap at Horseshoe Valley.

“I wanted to get back on the snow hill,” said Murray during an interview at home in Gravenhurst. “I stopped skiing when I started playing sledge hockey.”

At first he screwed the seating frame to plywood that was attached to the snowboard, but found it to be too heavy for riding and towing up the ski hill.

Then he added adjustable rails to the snowboard to bolt to the frame directly and borrowed a pair of snowboard bindings to hold his feet.

Murray said it isn’t new for paraplegics to enjoy downhill skiing as sit-skis are available, but at a price. As a child he would ski standing up using a full body brace.

“Monoskis are worth $5,000 and they’re hard to find used,” said Murray. “When I picked up the snowboard, I thought I would see what I could do with it.”

Murray has been able to hit the slopes a few times and was planning to go out again Tuesday night with his sister Kevan.

When gliding on flat ground, he uses shortened ski poles to propel him forward. The hardest part has been riding the ski lift.

“It takes a bit of coordination and a lot more practice,” Murray said.

Murray has also adapted a pair of cross-country skis using his first adapted wakeboard frame.

“It’s more work than pushing my sled in sledge hockey,” he explained.

Both winter activities have allowed him to cross-train during the winter for the sledge season while studying Laurentian University courses at Georgian College as he pursues a bachelor of arts.

He is currently living in Barrie with one of his sledge teammates and hits the ice regularly with a few players.

Murray is marking his 10th year with the national sledge hockey team after sailing through tryouts in Petawawa on Labour Day weekend.

As the team has seen a significant turnover in players and with seven rookies and a new coaching staff, 2011 is a rebuilding year, Murray said.

At a Toronto training camp in October, the Canadian Paralympic team won three close games against the United States. All three matches went to a shootout.

During the tourney, Murray suffered his first significant injury when he separated his shoulder in a hit against the boards.

It took him three months to recover, noticeably longer than usual because he is constantly using his arms to manoeuvre his wheelchair.

With therapy and determination, Murray was able to return to the ice for a two-game exhibition series against Japan and another game against the U.S. in Rochester, New York.

“I had to avoid contact with my right shoulder and really had to adjust my game,” said Murray. “Normally I’m a very physical player who makes big hits, so it was a chance for me to practice my finesse.”

A training camp was held in Winnipeg in January in preparation for a Four Nations tournament in Japan in March and the World Sledge Hockey Challenge in April in London, Ontario.

In both tournaments, Canada will face off against Japan, the U.S. and Norway.