To see Rich Julian carve the waves off Waikiki, you'd wonder if anyone really needs legs to surf.

The 34-year-old from Hawai'i Kai surfs on his custom board at least three times a week, swell or not. He's more active than most people, despite his disability: he's been a paraplegic since 1986.

"I never dreamed I'd be surfing again," said Julian, getting ready to paddle out to a break off Kaimana Beach. "I'm living my dream."

Julian uses a custom surfboard designed for disabled rippers. Called waveskis, these boards are outfitted with seats, leg straps and fins. Julian sits on the board and uses a kayak paddle to propel himself forward, steer and ride waves.

The biggest wave he's taken off on, so far, had a 10-foot face.

"It doesn't have to be a huge day for me to enjoy it," said Julian, who will introduce the adaptive surfboard at the Tools for Life Expo 2006, taking place today and tomorrow at the Hawai'i Convention Center. "Just getting out there, being in the water, salt in my hair — all those small things about surfing is what makes all the difference in the world. That's what really important to me."

OUT THERE

About 51 million Americans have some level of disability, according to the Census Bureau. That represents 18 percent of the nation's population.

Just under 11 million Americans older than 6 need personal assistance with one or more daily activities. About 3 million people older than 15 use wheelchairs.

And thousands of them find ways to remain active, from playing basketball to riding motorcycles.

"I'm just really thrilled that we're at a point in the development of products that everybody's going to participate (in sports) in some point in their lives," said Barbara Fischlowitz-Leong, executive director of the Assistive Technology Resource Centers of Hawaii, one of the organizations sponsoring today's expo. "It levels the playing field. People are not judged. It's not 'You can't play tennis' or 'You can't play golf.' Now it's 'Do you want to play?' "

Tools for Life will showcase the latest in assistive technology products and services for people of all ages and disabilities.

The previous expo, held in 2004, drew about 2,000 people over two days. Event organizers expect 3,500 this year.

One of the event's focal points is wheelchair sports, featuring tennis games, an adapted volleyball demonstration and a celebrity basketball challenge.

"For an individual with a disability, who may think 'I can't do this,' to see someone who has made a conscious decision to participate in sports, that's huge," said Fischlowitz-Leong, who has a visual disability that prevented her from playing certain sports as a child. "You're participating with everybody else. You're not isolated and sitting on the sidelines and watching everybody else play. It was tough as a kid, but to see kids with disabilities now participate in sports, it's wonderful."

HERE 'FOR A PURPOSE'

Julian grew up surfing O'ahu's south shore. He caught his first wave on a longboard at Canoes in Waikiki at age 5, beginning a lifelong passion for the ocean.

But that dramatically changed 20 years ago.

At about 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 17, 1986, Julian, then 14, was heading to a friend's house along Kalaniana'ole Highway with his sister, Dawn Marie, 16, and girlfriend, Elizabeth Thompson, 15.

As they stopped to talk to a woman, a Jeep Wagoneer veered from the highway and plowed into the three teenagers.

The driver, who was later determined to be drunk, fled the scene. (He turned himself in three days after the accident.)

The two girls died instantly.

Julian suffered multiple fractures to his legs and a mouthful of broken teeth.

But the real problem stemmed from a ruptured aorta, which caused internal bleeding. Blood was pooling in his body cavity instead of flowing to his extremities.

His parents had to make a horrible choice: Let doctors redirect the blood flow to his legs, rendering him brain dead, or to his brain, making him unable to walk.

His parents chose the latter.

"I'm so glad they chose that," Julian said with a smile.

It wasn't easy for the once-active teenager to adjust to life with legs that no longer worked, let alone come to grips with the death of his sister and girlfriend.

"I was upset with them because they left me behind," Julian said. "But I knew in my heart that I was left here for a purpose. There was a reason I survived."

A month after the accident, he started his freshman year at Kalani High School in a wheelchair, figuring there was no way he would ever surf again.

"I thought that life was gone for me," he said. "That was a such a big part of my identity, and I had lost that."

Still, Julian was undaunted. He quickly picked up other sports, such as basketball and tennis. He starting playing tennis professionally in high school.

Then, about five years ago, Julian was at a tennis tournament in San Diego and saw a flier promoting a new waveski designed by Steve Boehne of Infinity Surfboard for paraplegics and amputees. He drove two hours to San Onofre to try it out.

The first ride "was awesome," said Julian, who immediately brought home a 9-foot-6 board. "I was getting up and riding a wave for the first time again ... Once I knew I could sit up and ride and could cut back and bottom-turn, that was it. It was a rebirth."

The experience has changed his life — and attitude about his disabilities.

In March he helped start AccesSurf Hawaii Inc., a nonprofit focused on making beaches more accessible to people with disabilities. His goal is to get more people into the water and show them it's possible.

"I want to let them know they can surf again. They can get in the water again," Julian said.

It's his way of spreading the stoke.

"It's been a dream come true," he said. "I never thought I'd surf again, and here I am, surfing. It's just amazing."

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.