Paralympics snowboarding competitor and Santa Clarita Valley resident Mike Shea is headed to Korea, but will first talk about his journey with Northlake Hills Elementary School.

Shea has had the opportunity to speak at different school events in the past and found pleasure in doing so, sharing his story of perseverance after losing his leg in a boating accident.

“It is fun to go talk to young students and share my life story with them and motivate them,” he said. “I hope that my story will help them down the road. If they ever run into a life changing situation, hopefully my story will resonate in them and they can know there is a way to overcome any obstacle they come across.”

The Castaic resident leaves this Saturday to PyeongChang to compete in the Winter Paralympic Games.

“This is a part of who I am now. My accident has really shaped me to the person I am today,” said Shea. “It’s put me in a position where I’ve been able to accomplish so much.”

“I didn’t think that that (accident) happened to me for any particular reason, it’s just part of life,” he said. “We’re dealt cards sometimes and really how we deal with things is dependant on how we’re going to be able to get through those things.”

Shea was born in Van Nuys and moved to Castaic shortly after he was born. Shea grew up in Castaic and graduated from Valencia High School.

“Growing up, I had a good childhood with support from my family and friends,” said Shea.

The Castaic resident was involved in playing drums, riding dirt bikes in motocross, snowboarding and living life to its fullest.

In September 2002 when Shea was 19 years old, he was enjoying a fun filled summer day wakeboarding on Castaic Lake when tragedy struck.

“We decided to go to the other side of the lake to find better water,” said Shea. “While we were going to the other side of the lake, I was sitting on the side of the boat, and we must have hit a crosswake, which caused me to fall off the boat. When I fell, a ski rope got tangled around my neck and arm, but I was able to get the rope off of my neck and arm.”

Related: Santa Clarita Valley Resident Mike Shea Returns To The Paralympics For Second Time

Even though the wakeboarder was able to free his neck and arm, the rope quickly wrapped around Shea’s ankle and he heard a loud noise.

“After hearing what I heard, I yelled for help and that is when my friends realized that I fell off the boat,” said Shea. “Once I got on to the swim step of the boat, I noticed red bloody water for about 100 yards behind the boat. After seeing that I looked down and saw my left leg below my knee was completely severed.”

Shea’s friends were able to wrap a towel around his leg to help stop the bleeding, and raced their injured friend to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital.

“I sat in the emergency room for eight hours while the doctors were trying to find a surgeon,” said Shea. “Once they (found) one, I was airlifted to USC hospital. The next thing I remember was waking up the next day in the ICU and they had amputated my left leg below my knee.”

After the accident, Shea ended up getting addicted to alcohol and painkillers, which lasted for four years.

Shea didn’t know of any disabled athletes and was trying to figure out what he could do to get back on his snowboard.

Due to technology, the snowboarder was able to get a prosthetic leg that allowed Shea to get back on the slopes three months after his accident.

“With only a few months left to the snow season, I wanted to go back to Mountain High to try snowboarding,” said Shea. “It was a great accomplishment for me to get back on the board. But there was a lot of frustration, because I found a lot of things hard to do.”

While Shea was finding ways to get back on his snowboard and get back to where he used to be, he got a puppy. Shea built his puppy a doghouse and immediately fell in love with woodworking.

One day Shea received a call from a friend he had met who worked for the National Sport Center for the Disabled in Winter Park, Colorado.

“He told me a snowboarding team was being added to the paralympics and wanted to know if I would be interested in competing,” said Shea. “I fell so deep into woodworking and loved it, but I also wanted to pursue snowboarding.”

After contemplating with himself whether to continue to woodwork or to snowboard, Shea decided to sell all of his woodworking equipment at a garage sale for next to nothing, and moved to Winter Park.

“I went to Winter Park and trained for four years, and was able to go compete in the 2014 paralympics in Sochi, Russia,” he said.

Shea came in second place and brought home the silver medal, and is going to Korea in 2018 to try to win the gold.

Since the 2014 Paralympics, the Paralympian has continued snowboarding and has returned back to woodworking in his off time.

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