Episode 367: Julian Nahachewsky
After a 16 hour drive, Julian took in his first competition at District 82, made new friends, and spent some time on Pinball Profile. We discuss making pinball accessible to everyone, the growth of...
Highlights
- Julian has been a paraplegic for 14 years (since age 19) and is now 33 years old
- Julian sustained a T12 complete spinal cord injury from a snowboarding fall at Panorama of 30-35 feet
- Saskatoon has approximately 50 active pinball players split between a main league and a female-only league
- Julian was the first paraplegic in Saskatchewan to complete a triathlon
- Julian practices criminal defense law
- Julian owns five pinball machines at home (Tales from the Crypt, Jungle Princess, Halloween, Rob Zombie, Pirates of the Caribbean)
- This was Julian's first ever international pinball competition
- Julian drove 16 hours to District 82 after his flight was cancelled
Notable quotes
“pinball is for everyone wheelchair it doesn't matter when you're playing pinball in my opinion and it's just great excellent competition”
“the most difficult part is being in a chair. It's not necessarily playing. It's trying to fix them. I own five machines at my house, and I am completely reliant on friends to fix them.”
“You'll make a mint because it's not just for people in wheelchairs. It's for young children, shorter people, whoever. Think of their eye level. Make shorter legs.”
“Asher... you know he's going to beat you, But you go up to a game and you go, geez, I've never played this before. And he'll say, oh, do you want to know what you have to do?”
“I think they would [get hooked]. So about the amount of players who are playing in Saskatchewan, about in Saskatoon, there's about maybe 25 in our league, and then there's 25 in a different female-only league.”
“I would love that [Friday 13th]. Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A Chucky. I have a feeling one of those will come in the next few years.”
Entities
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Spooky Pinball· company
- District 82· event
- Pintastic· event
- YAGPIN· event
- Pinball Profile· organization
- Pokies Pinball League· organization
- Saskatoon· organization
- Asher Lefkoff· person
- Jeff Teolis· person
- Jim Balcido· person
- Julian Nahachewsky· person
- Lyman Sheets· person
- Halloween (pinball)· product
- Oktoberfest· product
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