Chris Koch is a farm boy turned world traveller, and a motivational speaker.
New to Kelowna, Chris Koch joined KelownaNow’s Sara Gouda in a sit-down interview where he discusses growing up on a farm, trying prosthetics, travelling the world, working with his child amputee program If I Can and becoming a motivational speaker.
Koch says he started If I Can 12 years ago as a way to spread positivity and inspire people.
“If a man without arms and legs can snowboard, surf, work on the farm, travel the world, e-foil anybody is capable of doing anything.”
He explains that it is more of a mental aspect: “It has nothing to do with physical ability, has nothing to do with limbs, but everything to do with that six inches of space between the ears.”
Although he was born different, Koch said life growing up was pretty easy.
He attended regular school, played the same sports with his friends and helped out on his grandfather’s farm.
“I was never treated any differently, I was just Chris. I wasn’t that boy who was missing arms and legs,” says Koch.
Koch says he has travelled to 28 countries so far and visited six of the seven continents.
Since COVID-19, he says he has missed the ability to travel, explaining that it's been a “tough adjustment”.
“With my own mental health, two of the things I love doing the most are travelling and spending time with friends and family and you weren’t really allowed to do either of those two for a while.”
One of the charities he discusses is the War Amputations of Canada.
“The War Amputations of Canada was an organization that started just after the first world war as a support group for soldiers coming back who had lost limbs, or a limb.”
Koch explains that he used to wear prosthetics as a kid but did not like them "at all."
“They were heavy, they were cumbersome, they were awkward and I could do everything with what I have," he says.
He wore artificial legs around 10 years ago, he adds, when he accidentally stumbled across the longboard in Florida, which he now uses as his primary mobility aid.
“The pros and cons to all of them, the longboard comes out way ahead, that’s what I’ve been rocking ever since.”
Koch says he uses a lot of humour in his presentations and in life as an ice breaker, noting his mindset started from day one.
“When my grandma heard I was born missing arms and legs, her reaction was to say that my dad never finished anything he started.”
He says he is now working on a documentary called “Make Life Happen.”
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