{"id":16275,"date":"2018-05-23T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=16275"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:25:06","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:25:06","slug":"one-second-situations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2018\/05\/one-second-situations.html","title":{"rendered":"One-Second Situations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Kommer is a tinkerer. The way things go together appeals to him. \u201cMy grandfather was an engineer,” said Chris. “Dad is a tool and die maker.\u201d So parts and pieces grab his attention like Lego bricks to a child. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m drawn to motorsports as a whole; the engineering involved and how technical it really is.\u201d<\/p>\n

His whole life, Chris has found himself riding quads and motorcycles, water skiing, competing in sports and driving behind the wheel of fast cars. In an odd, unintended kind of way, he was destined to do what he does these days.<\/p>\n

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When we were talking, he was hiding out in his man cave, the shop at his home where he\u2019s got all the tools a tinkerer wants. \u201cCars, motorcycles…anything with an engine, there\u2019s a subculture. When I get boat parts, there\u2019s an old guy in Wisconsin who hand writes notes and schematics on how to wire things together. I love that!\u201d Like I said, he\u2019s a tinkerer, and that is how he got to his current spot in life. When Chris was nine, he was in a boating accident and lost his leg as a result. \u201cLife is about one-second situations,\u201d he tells me, \u201cIt\u2019s not about dwelling on those situations, it\u2019s what you are going to do about it to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s good at moving forward!<\/p>\n

His family bought him a wheelchair from a small company in Texas, but he was in his late teens: \u201cI\u2019m a destructive being,” he said with a big laugh. “I have a high standard for what equipment should be. Long story short, we did a lot of improvements to that chair so it would hold up to what I was putting it through. When I had the chance to meet the guy from the company I told him, ‘look, your chair is good, but see what I did to make it better. Not bad for a 17-year-old kid, huh?’\u201d And from there, that relationship grew. These days, he\u2019s the CFO of Per4Max Wheelchairs, and they make world-class products for Wheelchair Athletes…and Chris has gone on to be a top-level wheelchair basketball player, competing all across the globe.<\/p>\n

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As a die-hard car guy, Chris talks about his wheelchairs the same way any of us discuss motorsports: \u201cWe have a really good team with 12 full-time guys, 3 full-time fabricators, a machinist, final assembly, a seamstress. We\u2019re still a real small company, but we\u2019re shipping our products globally and we\u2019re the leading manufacturer in wheelchair basketball.\u201d In fact, at the Paralympic games in Rio, the US Men’s and Women\u2019s teams took gold and nearly all of those athletes were in Per4Max chairs.<\/p>\n

Chris says, \u201cWhen I go into a gym, I know I have a mechanical advantage over my opponents and I love that! If we\u2019re talking about racing, I like to know that I\u2019m the fastest! We talk about what tires are quickest, even what upholstery is going to react best for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comparisons continue between vehicles and chairs: \u201cSomeone might want a custom-colored hub and rim on their wheelchair. Carbon fiber. Laser-etched logos. We let them put their personal stamp on it, it\u2019s huge, like how people do custom motorcycles. We work with all the different branches of military; for SOCOM, we did metallic grey with white wheels to match their unit. Marines, we did matte ruby red wheels and white spokes…it becomes their uniform.”<\/p>\n

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Remember that boating accident that took his leg? Would you believe, a decade later, he found that actual boat and now owns it! \u201cThat\u2019s what keeps me on my wrench game nowadays!” he said. “I could upgrade it, but there\u2019s a nostalgia factor here in keeping it 100% original.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As Chris said, \u201cLife is about one-second situations,\u201d and he\u2019s clearly made the most out of each one of them that\u2019s presented itself.  Here\u2019s hoping his story motivates you as well.<\/p>\n

Chris and Per4Max exemplify what it means to #LiveForward<\/a>. If you\u2019d like details on Per4Max Wheelchairs, check them out at www.Per4Max.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Kommer is a tinkerer. The way things go together appeals to him. \u201cMy grandfather was an engineer,” said Chris. “Dad is a tool and die maker.\u201d So parts and pieces grab his attention like Lego bricks to a child. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m drawn to motorsports as a whole; the engineering involved and how technical it really is.\u201d His whole life, Chris has found himself riding quads and motorcycles, water skiing, competing in sports and driving behind the wheel of fast cars. In an odd, unintended kind of way, he was destined to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":16362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[2227],"class_list":["post-16275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs","tag-mods"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/thumbnail-2.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16275"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43949,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16275\/revisions\/43949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}